Author Unkown
There was once a man who didn’t believe in God, and he didn’t hesitate to
let others know how he felt about religion. His wife, however, did believe,
and she also raised their children to have faith in God and Jesus, despite
his disparaging comments.
One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a Christmas
Eve service in the farm community in which they lived. She asked him to
come, but he refused.
“That story is nonsense!” he said. “Why would God lower Himself to come to
Earth as a man? That’s ridiculous!” So she and the children left, and he
stayed home.
A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard.
As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He
sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud
thump. Something had hit the window. Then another thump. He looked out, but
couldn’t see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he
ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window.
In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they
had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm
and couldn’t go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or
shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low
circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window,
it seemed.
The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be
a great place for them to stay, he thought. It’s warm and safe; surely they
could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn
and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice
the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly
and didn’t seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them.
The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and
they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread,
broke it up, and made a breadcrumb trail leading to the barn. They still
didn’t catch on.
Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them
toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every
direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into
the barn where they would be warm and safe. “Why don’t they follow me?!” he
exclaimed. “Can’t they see this is the only place where they can survive the
storm?” He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn’t follow
a human. “If only I were a goose, then I could save them,” he said out loud.
Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and
carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese.
He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the
barn–and one by one the other geese followed it to safety.
He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes
earlier replayed in his mind: “If only I were a goose, then I could save
them!” Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. “Why
would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous!”
Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the
geese–blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son to become like us so He could
show us the way and save us. That was the meaning of the birth of Christ, he
realized. As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet
and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ came
as a man.
Years of doubt and disbelief vanished like the passing storm. He fell to his
knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer: “Thank You, God, for coming
in human form to get me out of the storm!”
Author unknown
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own
way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
”As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that
understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does
good, no, not one.” (Rom 3:10-12)
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:14)
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw (drag in the Greek) all
mankind unto Myself. This He spoke concerning what manner of death He should
die.” (John 12:32, 33)
Christ Crucified with glory
What Don’t You Understand About “Love Your Enemies?” Jesus
“You, ministers, politicians, military leaders, businessmen who piously invoke my name when justifying your wars, your ‘crimes against humanity,’ what part of my command do you not understand when I said, ‘You have heard it was said, “You shall love your neighbor but hate you enemy (Moses and Judaism).” But I say to you:
“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven…”
What don’t you understand? Or are you blind and hard of hearing again?” Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world.
Tags: Christ crucified, Christian hypocrisy, Christian love, Love, love your enemies
The Love of God Song
By Frederick M. Lehman
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Christian songs of grace, Frederick M. Lehman, grace, love of God song
The Greatness of Salvation
By William Mealand
God, Who Sought until He found, Who loved until He won!
“A time is coming when Christ, the Beloved Himself, stands before His Father Who is Love, with the entire universe in train. What a thrilling reception, what a glorious presentation that will be! The great end for which the God of expectation waited, in perfect assurance, and for which Christ gave Himself. How fully will such a conclusion accord with the delight of His will!
There was a time when such greatness of salvation was more widely believed. But the imposed beliefs of the dark ages spoiled all this. Christendom was held as with iron bands in the grip of priest-ridden assent. And although their teaching is kept in the background, it is still there, giving that fatal bias which so clouds the perception of grace. Thus, we find resort to the limiting of Scripture by Scripture, to the seeing of finality when God’s purpose is in continuance, and the ignoring of those passages which so blessedly bring out the fullness and triumph of saving grace. But how happy should they be who, brought to a present belief, enjoy to the full the prospect of future salvation for all, even the reconciliation of the universe.
Stage upon stage, the Victor of Golgotha will move on His momentous and victorious way. Then will He show that `the Father has delivered all into His hands’ John 13:3. And in those capable hands, the world, even though it be by tumult, will be led to peace. What a perfect expression God’s grace finds in such a scene! What a realization of the truth attendant on so great a salvation! How rapturous a vision, too, of the One Who carried it to such a conclusion, Who sought until He found, Who loved until He won!”
