What’s Up With This Picture? V

James 3:16 warns us that “where envying and strife is, there is confusion and EVERY EVIL WORK.” As individuals, as a Body, and in our families, we mustn’t underestimate the destructive power of Envy and resentment.

The sorcerous-looking orb that the girl in our picture is touching is called a Van de Graaff generator. It’s an electrostatic device that produces electrical discharges at extremely high voltages. As the girl touches the generator, her body becomes charged along with it – resulting in this interesting spectre.

You see, by touching the generator, each strand of her hair becomes electrically charged; and since like charges REPEL, all the hair strands are repelling each other.

The problem is, the farther each strand tries to stay away from its neighbour, the closer it gets to the strand on the other side (which also does not want to have anything to with it). The result of this is this Medusa-like image.

If someone had told this girl that her hair could stand up on their own like living snakes, she’d probably not believe; but that’s because she’s underestimating the power of self-repulsion or self-loathing.

The Bible tells us that though Believers are many, we are all one body in Christ, (Rom 12:5; 1Cor 12:12,13,20), and just as the petty quarrel of the hair strands turned this beautiful girl into a Greek monster, our petty gripes and quarrels with each other collectively makes the BODY of Christ look bad.

Not every pastor who rides a Bentley Mulsanne is a crook and just because a sister looks drop-dead gorgeous does not mean she has ‘marine spirit’. Some people are just blessed the way they are, we should be happy for them.

They’re our brothers and sisters whether we like it or not. The strands on this girl’s hair look like they want to just fly and run away; but that’s impossible. They all one; they have the same DNA and are of the same body. Like her hair, we can continue to repel each other and give the church a bad image, or embrace each other in spite of our differences and make Jesus’ ‘Body’ beautiful.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Keyword: ENVY

What’s Up With This Picture? IV

But the fruit of the Spirit is … self-control. – Gal 5:22,23

Our picture for today is the material for several Christian memes; (“ye, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…”, etc.).

Looking at the casual and oblivious gait and prance of the cat, you’d be forgiven for assuming this must be a Photoshop work. This image is REAL, however; that’s a real cat sashaying in front of fifteen vicious Alsatian dogs.

So what’s the deal? Which kind of cruel and callous person parades a tabby little cat before her mortal enemies? Well, as it turns out, this image is actually taken form the last phase of a dog training school.

Working with security dogs, (whether military or police), is a serious issue that sometime involves life and death situations. As such, the dogs need to have the highest levels of discipline and loyalty.

That’s why, despite their vicious looks, correctly-trained military dogs are actually harmless to you. If they do attack, it’s ONLY because they were commanded to do so by their handler, not because they don’t like you or because you threw a stick at them.

To get this strict disciplined behaviour, Military and police dogs are trained not to succumb to their natural instincts to charge at anything. They must learn to move only when told to do so. And how best can this be tested than by making a cat – their lifelong mortal enemy – stroll in front of them.

This level of control is what our Master, the Lord Jesus, needs from us as well. He wants to trust us to follow His dictates at all times; not yielding to our own agenda and thought patterns.

Keyword: SELF-CONTROL

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

What’s Up With This Picture? III

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, – Mat 5:16

I got this hilarious image of a leopard with its head stuck in a cooking pot from a dear friend of mine. One of the first thoughts that came to me was, “This is the kind of humiliating predicament an uber jungle predator gets into when they decide to wander into people’s kitchens”.

Big cats are famous for their skills in hunting live prey. However it’s very unlikely that pot had a live prey in it, so what was the leopard looking for? Antelope Soup? Bushmeat stew?

But who are we to judge the leopard’s newfound culinary tastes? Every human being at some point gets into some trouble for sticking their heads where they know they shouldn’t. But by the mercies of God, and the help of friends and families, we all end up bouncing back to normalcy, right? 

Well, as we see in this picture, help is not always automatic.

It’s apparent from the image that the people do NOT want to harm the leopard. If they wanted to, then they had the perfect opportunity. On the contrary, they want to free the leopard from its self-inflicted trap.

So why don’t they? Why are they just standing around? Your guess is as good as mine. It’s because they cannot guarantee their safety once the pot is off the leopard’s head. Like my friend said, “Sometimes, people would really like to help you but… YOUR BEHAVIOUR.”

We’re used to thinking that our good works – our shining as lights – is for the benefit of God’s Kingdom and for His glory (Mt 5:16); but the truth is, it’s also for our benefit. Some of the things God does for us require Him acting through men on our behalf; and the answers to some of your prayers are hinged on how we treat others and/or have treated them in the past.

Keyword: REPUTATION

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

What’s Up With This Picture? II

 

 “You will never get to heaven, if you break my heart.” – Dionne Warwick lyrics (1964).

The Pastor of Hill Road Baptist Church must have been very upset that someone inconsiderately and so irreverently stole his church’s AC units. We can understand his anger. It must have taken quite an effort to get the people to contribute the funds to have them installed and now someone has taken him back to square one!

It took me a while to get the humour in his message to the AC thief; but when I did, I found it both hilarious and worrying at the same time. Sure, the message was a tongue-in-cheek reference to where the thief was going to spend his or her eternity in, but considering that this was coming from a church it was not well thought through.

In the U.S. church signboards are usually for making service announcements and for evangelism messages. What message were they now sending to the Hill Road community? That they wish whoever does them wrong ends up in eternal Hell? What ever happened to “Bless them who persecute you: bless, and curse not”? or “Recompense to no man evil for evil”? or “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”? (Rom 12:14,17,21).

They are most certainly not practicing the forgiveness that they preach on Sunday mornings. No thanks to their bitterness, the whole community (and now the whole world) has a wrong notion of Christians and Christ.  What’s worse, the thief, the person for whom they put their whole reputation on the line for, may never even get to see this sign.

Beloved, forgiveness may not be easy, but the converse is expensive. Here’s some wise counsel from Apostle Peter:

“Never return evil for evil or insult for insult (scolding, tongue-lashing, berating), but on the contrary blessing [praying for their welfare, happiness, and protection, and truly pitying and loving them]. For know that to this you have been called.” – 1 Peter 3:9 (AMP).

Keyword: FORGIVENESS

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

What’s Up With This Picture?

Be ye angry, and sin not. – Eph 4:26

Have you ever been so angry that you feel like strangling someone? Some people try to control their anger by screaming into a pillow. Some go to the boxing gym and pour out their frustration on the Heavy Bag (aka punching bag). Others try to find their calm by picking up some cushion of sorts and just stab away at it. It’s this last practice that our image today is making fun of.

Would you believe that this intricately designed pillow was the product of anger and frustration? Of course not. Note that the texts you see in the picture are actually black threads sewn into the red pillow. The more you look at the image the more you realise how much skill and presence of mind it would take to produce such a masterpiece. It’s difficult enough to make the “I’m so Angry” follow the curves of the pillow edge, but the artist was also able to draw a human fist, clutching a needle – all with a simple needle and thread!

Sure it may have taken three thousand or more ‘stabs’ to produce such a work of art, but one thing is certain: Anger did NOT produce this. The fact is, anger never produces anything constructive.

Apostle James says it perfectly, “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” (Jas 1:20). So the next time you feel like there’s smoke oozing out of your ears and you want to just strangle the cat, kick the dog… or pick up your phone and type a strongly-worded retort to that tweet, remember that nothing good will come out from that. As a matter of fact, a lot of regrettable evil is most likely to ensue.

In place of anger, Brother James prescribes wisdom:

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace. – James 3:17-18.

Keyword: ANGER

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN