OzThoughts Tuesday 10th March 2009.

OzThoughts Tuesday 10th March 2009.

(Please forward this OzThoughts to your friends).

There is some debate about “VIP Tours” of disaster areas. A government leader obviously being followed by reporters and camera men is shown on television with some victims in an evacuation centre. Or maybe they are shown “helping” some emergency workers or discussing the situation in the emergency management centre.
One side of the debate says that they just get in the way and distract the emergency management and volunteers from the real tasks. This side of the debate maintains they are only there to get “brownie points” for their caring attitude. The other side of the debate says that when government leaders visit it lifts the spirits of both workers and victims and the good effect cannot be measured.

Years ago, I was working in one flood evacuation serving coffee in pouring rain, when yet another person arrived to ask how things were going. I answered without looking up as I made yet another coffee. My teenage son who was helping me began chatting to the person as I worked. When I could I went to join the conversation and found myself face to face with the Lord Mayor of the city.

Here he was with a raincoat on, shoes in water, rain dripping from his hat, talking to us and the folk we were serving hot coffee. There were no reporters or cameras but a man showing he really was concerned and cared. I was fairly new to the city but I learnt that this was his style. He was not a “poser” , he was “fair dinkum”.
Matthew 23:1-12 (The Message)

1-3 Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. "The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God's Law. You won't go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don't live it. They don't take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It's all spit-and-polish veneer.
4-7 "Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called 'Doctor' and 'Reverend.'
8-10 "Don't let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of 'Father'; you have only one Father, and he's in heaven. And don't let people manoeuvre you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.
11-12 "Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

Prayer: (Using the Song Book as a Prayer Book):

O that in me the mind of Christ
A fixed abiding-place may find,
That I may know the will of God,
And live in him for lost mankind.

Chorus
Doing the will of God,
Doing the will of God,
The best thing I know in this world below
Is doing the will of God.

The suffering servant he became,
Yea more; in loneliness and loss
He bore for me in grief and shame,
A crown of thorns. a heavy cross.

O that in me this mind might be,
The will of God be all my joy,
Prepared with him to go or stay,
My chief delight his sweet employ.

More than all else I would become
The servant of my servant-Lord;
My highest glory his reproach,
To do his will my best reward.
Author: Edward Henry Joy (1871-1949)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 451

[ In preparation for Easter read a Christian book during Lent which is now. ]


````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.

To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au

If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).


`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):

SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/

Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates



Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au

Unsubscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au

OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au