Apples

April 14, 2017
A Day Like No Other Day

Today is Good Friday. And if you have been a part of this TGIF email list, you know that this is the one Friday in the year that I do not send out a joke in deference to the events that transpired on this day in 32 AD. For it was on this day that Jesus was crucified, died and buried.

It was a warm Friday morning. Just outside the Jerusalem walls a crowd gathered around an unusual spectacle --- three crosses ... three naked men dangling by their nailed hands and feet. You hear men groaning, women sobbing, flies buzzing and landing on fresh dripping blood. In the middle cross is a man ... actually a carcass more than a man .... You ask yourself what did he do to deserve this? Isn't this the miracle worker? Isn't this the teacher?

Who would have thought that all of mankind --- before and after --- would focus on this one day. And yet the historical and spiritual significance escaped everyone who was present.

Even today, only a few truly grasp the who, the what and the why this day had to happen. Knowledge and intelligence are not the problem. There's enough accessible evidence to convince anyone that Jesus is who he says he is. It's really a heart problem.

I challenge you to discover the truth for yourself. I'm not going to spoon-feed you with what I believe. And what better day to reflect on it but today?

Thank God It's Good Friday people!

(Don't worry, next Friday we will back to our regular TGIF program.)

Apples
Contributed by Rodney of Manitoba, B.C.

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding... all but one!.

He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did. The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the
girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued
on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride... and he wondered. He gently went back and said, "No, I am nothing like Jesus - He is good, kind, caring, loving, and would never have bumped into your display in the first place.

"The girl gently nodded: "I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him - only He knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call, Mister."

Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus?

That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day .

You are the apple of His eye even though you, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

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