In response to Anita's mail, I think that was an interesting story and very relevant too. I remember when we used to have prayer groups during my undergrad years in SME (Kottayam) and sometimes when someone did not agree with someone else's point of view or behaviour, especially when it was from the so called "leaders" I was tempted to stop coming for all those prayer meetings. I don't remember who it was but someone told gave me a lovely piece of advice. "Don't let the focus of your prayer group be on anyone else but the 'real leader' Jesus Christ". Diversity will always be present in any group of people because we are all individuals and we all have our own beautiful way of thinking and reasoning. However when we concentrate on ourselves and our thoughts, when pride takes over, or when we become so narrow minded that we think only we are right, our original focus shifts to a new one. the new focus could be anything related to the group, it could be another individual, it could be one's own glorification, anything, but that is immaterial. what is important is that we realise what the point of our group meeting was in the first place and readjust our vision and our energies to our original focus point. with love in Jesus sheril daniel :) grahamstown, south africa anitha dsouza wrote:My dear friends,
Just want to share with you a story for reflection. It would be nice if we could read the story carefully , think, pray and reflect about it and share our inspirations with our beautiful group…..which I am sure will help many of the prayer groups all round. So please do share your thoughts after you have gone through this, Once, there were two angels, the good one named Gabriel and the one who had stood against God whose name was Lucifer; both of them went on to tour the whole world. As they came across a small village, both of them happened to glance at a poor villager, ploughing his fields, singing joyfully the spiritual hymns that he had often heard in the church. They both knew that, he was a simple and a humble man, who was pure in heart and did no harm to anybody. Gabriel was indeed pleased to see him, so joyfully absorbed in his work and decided to reward him more, so that he would be an effective instruement of Christ. As the farmer went on ploughing, Gabriel threw down a little ‘ grace of evangelization’ towards his path. The farmer suddenly caught hold of the grace, gave thanks to the Lord , left his plough in the fields and ran into the village, with His new found mission to evangelize. Gabriel, being very pleased with the farmers response, challenged Lucifer, ‘See, how eager the Lords people are, to carry out their missions on earth. This person is going to be a great evangelizer and is going to draw more and more crowds towards the kingdom of heaven.’ At this challenge, Lucifer laughed out loudly, and threw back another challenge at Gabriel. ‘You say, this person is going to draw vast crowds towards the kingdom of heaven; You know what I will do? I will wait, till he goes to his village and starts telling everybody of his new found grace. And then, more and more people will be attracted towards him; and his teaching; he will make fellow believers and finally He will form a large group of people, who will gather every now and then for their fellowship gatherings, there will be praise and worship and singing of hymns in those gatherings……..’ Gabriel was indeed pleased when he heard all of this from Lucifer, He started imagining the great group which will focus on worshipping the Lord and telling others about their faith. It was then, that Lucifer continued his talk, ‘And when the group is all set and ready and well functioning, I will put my seeds of jealousy, greed for power, hatred and misunderstandings in that group, and start of with simple diversity of ideas which will later form into major arguments and finally when the group is disrupted, I will bring all those large crowds of people towards me. Thus, with your single seed of grace, I will make vast number of followers for myself.’ Gabriel was angry and furious on hearing this and said sternly ‘THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN.’ And they parted their ways, each waiting eagerly to see what the outcome was going to be……… My dear friends, this was only a story, but does it in some ways reflect truth in our fellowship gatherings……. It was a challenge between good and evil……. We too, may be members of various prayer groups, cell groups…..and the like….. Diversity of ideas can come in our groups too….. When such situations arise, whom shall we allow to win the challenge….? The good or the evil????? When we see certain things which affect the harmony of the groups taking place withen our groups, what are the steps that we can take to prevent the devil from having his victory……????? love in christ, anita, kuwait Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] **************************************************************** Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
