In the gospel of John in the 15th chapter and the 13th verse it says there is no greater gift than the laying down of ones life for another.
There are many ways to die other than physically stop breathing cross over to the other side type of dying. It does not require some monumental feat or even placing yourself in danger.

There is a scene in the section of the trilogy the Lord of the Rings called The Two Towers. In this scene the King’s niece has made a stew. It was made with love, but the princess can not cook and the stew tasted terrible. She has just given Aragorn a bowl full in love and Aragorn has just put the first spoon full into his mouth. Now he could have spat it out and cast the remainder away and destroyed heart of the giver,but instead he swallowed the mouthful and told her it was good and in doing so saved a life.

We to have those special moments where a life hangs in the balance. Where we can be right and destroy that which God has been laboring on or we can, as it is said in Romans 15:1, bear with the scruples of those who are weak, not for our sake, but for theirs, that we might encourage them and strengthen them.

The other day Anawim received a donation of food and in the box was a lot of yogurt cups. This fragile soul had picked one to give to me. It was a Lemon/pineapple blend. A flavor my taste buds cringe at. But the gift was selected in love with the expectation of seeing me consume her gift. Just like Aragorn a soul hung in the balance.

And so with much bravado, and thanking her for her thoughtfulness I pealed of the lid and licked the top of the yogurt and took the spoon she offered and ate the yogurt. The joy on her face and the love in her eyes was well worth the nasty words my taste buds were screaming at my brain. An to insure that there would not be a repeat performance of this flavor I told her this was good but that my absolute favoritest was blueberry. She assured me that if the opportunity arises again that she would do her best to get two blueberries so we could share them together. For the rest of the day she was walking in happiness and when ever our eyes met she would wave and the joy never faded.

I am sure we have all heard the adage a big fish in a small pond. I met one yesterday and he has a small following, who think he is some kind of super spiritual leader. They are the most dangerous. They are name droppers, because they think the one whom they are speaking will be impressed. Today I met another who is a devotee to the one I met yesterday and he also is a name dropper. An with each name they drop they have forged some deep binding relationship with them.

So it did not hurt my feelings one bit to take the wind out of their sails when I revealed that I not only know each of the names dropped but have had a multi decade relationship with them and that I knew with out a doubt that they don’t profess any of what you say they profess and so you must first stop telling people that they are a member of your group and 2nd ask for forgiveness for being a false teacher/ witness.

Well, of course I was challenged, but I pulled out my cell phone and said I have all of them in my phone which shall we call first?

The man turned and strode away some 100 feet and then turned an yelled some colorful metaphors in my direction along with some hand gestures, and then turned and began walking briskly until I called out He stopped and turned and at the same time a Max train sped by about a foot from him…….

Ephesians,chapter 6, says, Our enemy isn’t flesh and blood but principalities and powers of darkness, and the chief goal of these principalities and powers are to torment and frustrate us and kill the ones they are manifesting through when they are done using them. We often think that the enemy works through just non believers but in truth our enemy is the Father of Lies and if he can deceive one or two inside and place them in seats of power the destruction is much greater.