We had chickens which laid brown eggs, green eggs, blue eggs and white eggs. Turkey eggs were a bit larger and were white with brown speckles. Duck eggs were even larger. The largest eggs were by far the goose eggs.

Every morning we would check their nests and while we were doing so there were always a few that would sing out. On some days we would have lots of eggs and on others all the birds seemed to go on strike.
Some of the eggs were VERY small. There were times when I felt like getting a goose egg and showing it to the chickens and saying, “Now take a good look at this and try harder.” But even if I had, it wouldn’t have made much difference.

Each type of bird laid a characteristic egg and no amount of encouragement would make them lay a different egg.

As Christians, you might also say we each have our own eggs. We also have our own characteristic contributions to the family of God:

Some people are easily eggcitable. Others tend toward eggsaggeration. Some are eggstroverted. Some are gifted in eggsplanations of God’s word while others have a gift of eggsaltation. Some set great eggsamples. Some seem eggsellent at almost everything they do. Some are gifted with eggcitement, or eggsortation, or eggsperience in many different areas. Some cover the eggspenses of ministry. And like at home, there are a few who sing out as well… most often to the music of “Lord I Eggstol you.”

Of course there are always a few rotten eggs. Those who have unrealistic eggspectations, eggsclude others, and eggsploit people. There are those who are always making eggcuses and always focusing on eggsternal things.

Jesus said you can tell a tree by its fruit. But you can also tell a bird by its eggs.

Just remember you don’t have to be an eggspert to eggsercise your gifts in the church.

© Ken Sapp
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Many years ago there was a Catholic monk who needed olive oil, so he planted an olive tree sapling. After he finished planting it, he prayed, “Lord, my tree needs rain so it’s tender roots may drink and grow. Send gentle showers.” And the Lord sent gentle showers. Then the monk prayed, “Lord, my tree needs sun. Please send it sun.” And the sun shone gilding the once dripping clouds. “Now send frost dear Lord to strengthen it’s branches,” cried the monk. And soon the little tree was covered in sparkling frost, but by that evening it had died.

Then the monk sought out a brother monk in his cell and told him of the strange experience. After hearing the story, the other monk said, “I too have planted a little tree. See how it is thriving! But I entrust my tree to it’s God. He who made it knows better than a man like me what it needs. I gave God no constraints or conditions, except to pray, “Lord, send what it needs – be it sunshine, wind, rain or frost. You made it and You know what it needs.”

Let us not pray for what we want, but let us pray for what God wants for us. And remember that we are to come to Him as a child and that God answers all prayers, but sometimes the answer is “No” because He knows better what we need!

See how the lilies of the field grow. (Matt 6:28)

There was this magician of some repute who was hired to do his act aboard a cruise ship. He had been there for several years and since the crowd was in continual change he did the same act over and over.

One day the Captain bought a parrot and over the months brought the parrot with him to see the nightly magic show.

Being a smart parrot the bird learned all the tricks as to where the cards, flower, etc were hidden by the magician in his act. Because the bird would say, “the card is up his left sleeve, the flower is under the pot, he hid the money under his shoe, etc.” the magician was FORCED to continually learn new tricks which was getting harder and harder by the day.

To put it mildly he HATED THAT PARROT, but since it was the Captains he didn’t want to weigh the bird down and deep six it overboard.

Late one night the engine room exploded and the ship sank within minutes. Miraculously, the magician found himself clinging to a timber, floating in the water at 0200 dark in the morning. He was the only one left alive.

But to his chagrin, resting on his shoulder was the annoying Parrot.

They glared at each other and said nothing. This went on for three days and neither said a word, just glared.

On the Fourth Day the Parrot finally broke the silence and said, “OK! I give up – what did you do with the ship!”

Sometimes we look at God as a magician, with all kinds of tricks up His sleeve. We think we have come to completely understand Him. But Isaiah 55:8 says “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. So next time trouble comes your way… don’t blame God. It was Satan who afflicted Job, not God. But God allowed it so that Job might prove his mettle. It is through the fires of life that we are purified. If your ship is sinking, maybe God is allowing you an opportunity to rest on his shoulder.

One morning I wasted nearly an hour watching a tiny ant carry a huge feather across my back terrace. Several times it was confronted by obstacles in its path and after a momentary pause it would make the necessary detour.

At one point the ant had to negotiate a crack in the concrete about 10mm wide. After brief contemplation the ant laid the feather over the crack, walked across it and picked up the feather on the other side then continued on its way.

I was fascinated by the ingenuity of this ant, one of God’s smallest creatures. It served to reinforce the miracle of creation. Here was a minute insect, lacking in size yet equipped with a brain to reason, explore, discover and overcome. But this ant, like the two-legged co-residents of this planet, also shares human failings.

After some time the ant finally reached its destination – a flower bed at the end of the terrace and a small hole that was the entrance to its underground home. And it was here that the ant finally met its match.

How could that large feather possibly fit down that small hole? Of course it couldn’t. So the ant, after all this trouble and exercising great ingenuity, overcoming problems all along the way, just abandoned the feather and went home.

The ant had not thought the problem through before it began its epic journey and in the end the feather was nothing more than a burden.

Isn’t life like that! We worry about our family, we worry about money or the lack of it, we worry about work, about where we live, about all sorts of things. These are all burdens – the things we pick up along life’s path and lug them around the obstacles and over the crevasses that life will bring, only to find that at the destination they are useless and we can’t take them with us.

Yes, indeed there’s so much to learn from the ANT.
Proverbs 6:6-8.

-Author Unknown

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life -your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God wants you to do it the best thing you can do for Him. Romans 12v1 (The Message)

Last Sunday, Pastor exalted us to rise up like Aaron and Hur who stepped up to serve (Exodus 17v12-13). I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week because this Saturday, I’m up to play the synth again. It’ll be my first time that I’ll be serving as a musician since I stepped down from the music ministry in January this year.

After service on Sunday, it brought to my memory Romans 12. I’ve been reading the NIV version so often that when I decided to check out another version – The Message, it impacted me so greatly that I had to do something about it. Now you know why I write.

Paul the great apostle in Romans puts a challenge to us to worship God beyond singing praises. He challenges us worship God through our life.

A Pre-Decision
In the second verse of Romans 12, Paul writes fix your attention on God. He didn’t write this because he thought it was good advise but it is a reminder from his last experience in Philippi.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were thrown in jail and severely beaten because they delivered a slave girl from her ability to tell the future. Her owner was so mad that he had them arrested and thrown into jail. The Bible records that Paul and Silas were singing a robust hymn to God. I’m just wowed because I don’t know if I could still sing robustly if I had been severely beaten and thrown into a cell that was probably dark, cold and smelly.

Have you wondered how these two men could do that?

Observation – Don’t wait for the direst circumstance to arrive in your life before you make a decision to worship God.

We have this saying “God is good, all the time.” I don’t think we can say that if we don’t make a commitment to worship God.

A Pre-Requisite
In Romans 12v1, it reads “Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (NASB)

He’s made it so easy for us to worship Him because He included a pre-requisite. We can worship God and live our lives in HIS call because He’s pardoned us when He sent Christ to die for our sins on the cross.

So what does service got to do with worship? It has everything to do with worship. Even those who worship idols offer a sacrifice. Be it in paper money, food or by piercing themselves. The difference with us is that our sacrifice is no longer in animals but it is with our lives – the physical expression of what we are capable to do.

Often times, we don’t live up to God’s call for us because we spend too much time living it down. We forget that our faith is not based on key performance indexes (KPIs). We tend to live our Christian faith, most of the time, like we’re running on a performance treadmill. God doesn’t care about KPIs.

I could go on but I’m ending this week’s thought with a quote from a pastor because it says it all – “Don’t let what’s WRONG about you (or your circumstance) stop you from worshipping what’s RIGHT about God.”

And that is the reason why, my friends, we can enter God’s presence blameless anytime and every time declaring that “God is Good, All the TIME.”

by Charissa Ee
Firsts & Lasts, What Happened to the In Betweens?

A couple of weeks ago, my best friend Audra posted a photo of her daughter Lyn in her first dress. I was oohhing and ahhhing because it was such a sweet photo. But it got me thinking a bit about the firsts in my life.

We celebrate all the firsts in our lives. First smile, first steps, first time on potty, first birthday, first words, first day at school, first boyfriend, first kiss, first job, first car, first credit card, first child, first, first, first.

That wasn’t the end, when I was watching the Emmys on re-telecast last night, they honored ALL the men and women who have passed on. This got me thinking again. We celebrate the first and the lasts of our lives. What happened to the in between?

We have this saying, it doesn’t matter how you get to your destination as long as you get there. Can I suggest to you differently? Maybe it does matter whether take the scenic road or the Autobahn. I think it didn’t make a difference in my grandparents’ day but I think it does now for us because we’re so obsessed in getting there first. Not only are we obsessed about getting to our destinations first but we want to be there in the fastest time possible.

The bible is full of stories of men and women who have taken the scenic routes of their lives. Most often, we think about the pain that comes with a detour. We don’t think of how beautiful it can be.

Getting to our destination is not God’s top priority. The process of getting us there is equally if not more important than our destination. That’s because when we go through the right processes, when we finally get to our destinations, we’ll be the person God has intended for us to be.

Just like a lump of clay that first has to be pounded and slapped around before it can be thrown onto the wheel. When it gets on the wheel, it is molded. After that it’s left to dry and then fired in a kiln. When the first round of firing is done, colours can be painted onto it. After which it is put back into into the kiln for another two times before we see the final product.

Often times we admire these works of ceramics but we have no idea what great pains it took an artist to create a beautiful work of ceramic with its intense colours. God is like an artist that creates us for a purpose. Most ceramics are molded into plates, vases, cups etc. They are of purpose and we enjoy the use of them. Likewise God creates us in the same manner and He enjoys using us for His pleasure.

I was recently reading up on Moses and now I’ve moved onto Nehemiah. Both had their days in their scenic routes of their lives. But I like Nehemiah’s attitude.

Nehemiah’s my man these days. He has an attitude worth imitating. From Nehemiah 2v2, we read that the King could tell that Nehemiah was visibly sad. It was SO obvious that he asked Nehemiah what he wanted.

I don’t think the King would have bothered if Nehemiah had been throwing temper tantrums or been a complainer during his years of service. He was the best cup bearer he could be. If there was such a thing in Nehemiah’s time as best service award, he would have gotten it.

We’re all currently in our in between years now. Can I suggest to you to live out your life like God depends on it?

When we live our lives with such an attitude – life’s the best, our scenic routes suddenly take a different turn. We stop to smell the roses, enjoy a nap under the oak tree and sink our feet into the first spring grass.

You know what, I’m so enjoying my scenic drive these days that I’m taking as many “snap shots” of my drive. Do that and you’ll be amazed at the roads Christ is taking you.

What a drive!