God and the Geese

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 and religious holidays. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments. One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to service in the farm community in which they lived. They were to talk about Jesus' birth. 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. 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 bread crumb 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 become like us so He could show us the way and save us.

As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with 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!"

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Through Jesus, God has got us out of the storm of sin and death.
We want to believe that many will get out of that storm too this Christmas.

This Xmas i hope u, my fren get to know the one who is a close fren of mine

Xmas is beckonin...

Hopefully this December is different with God totally blowing our minds with total amazement abt Him. That's really the whole point of Christmas, isnt it ? It's nt really abt the shopping, cards, gifts & dinners...

And I'd been thinking about all these all this while.. But it didn't really sink in, it didn't really hit me until a few days ago about how amazing the Biblical account of Christ's birth really is. Do we really fully understand the enormity of the meaning of His birth? Every year we see scenes of the forlorn baby in the stable, the 3 wise men, jospeh and mary and that donkey and we sing songs about Christ's birth, we casually remind each other that "Jesus is the reason for the season," but do we really comprehendo how potentially huge this really is?


Think bigger than just the scene of a baby being born in a stable.
Think bigger than just angels announcing His birth.
Think bigger than just the Magi bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.

This is what it boils down to:
God has invaded this world to rescue us from enemy territory and to bring us into His Kingdom to be with Him forever. (Colossians 1:13-14) This is the ultimate love story--from God to us!

What makes the point of God's love for us even more amazing is that He actually chose to love us.

Who are we that He should care about us?
Who are we that we should find favor in His eyes?

It doesn't make sense at all that He should send His Son to pay the incomprehensible price for our sin.
It doesn't make sense that Jesus would be willing to endure the agony of the cross for us.
It doesn't make sense that God would share His glory with us.
It doesn't make sense that He would offer to make us just like Himself and offer us the opportunity to be with Him forever. But He did. And He does.

Make God's love story to us our very own Christmas present this year.


A prayer we should all be embracin...

Reflect on His love.
Be amazed by it.
Immerse ourself in it.
And spread it recklessly.
Make God's love our present every day until next Christmas.
Make His love the present that we give others every day as well.
And spend time with the ones we love.

PSP

PSP
Originally uploaded by jesuafreak.

Wat i want for Xmas this year... seems like no one will buy for me lor... *sniff* *sniff*

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The highly anticipated and truly integrated portable entertainment system, PlayStation Portable (PSP™) is now available in Singapore. Set to revolutionize gaming and portable entertainment in Singapore, PSP™ provides consumers with a comprehensive and quality entertainment experience. PSP™ allows for the viewing of movies and video images, digital photo display and supports digital music playback in both MP3 and ATRAC3plus formats. It also comes with 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless LAN, enabling users to connect to the Internet and play online via a wireless network. Up to 16 PSP™ systems (also depending on software capacity) in the vicinity can also be connected to each other directly, allowing for wireless head-to-head competition