WORKING AS ONE

It is now several decades since Neil Armstrong took his one small step for man, a single step that was the fulfilment of the giant leap for mankind of putting a man on the moon. An absolutely brilliant line, well in keeping with the magnitude of the achievement. Wonder who wrote it! Remembering, a little hazily now, (shows my age) back to that incredible day, I still am amazed by the co-ordinated efforts of tens of thousands of people spending billions of dollars over many years to make a single step, by one man, possible.

In fact, you could probably go right back to an ancient China where no doubt a visionary fireworks maker would have dreamed of harnessing the power at his disposal to one day reach out to the moon. Of course, for Werner von Braun and his German associates hurling Hitler's hellfire onto England at the end of World War 2, the vision was coming closer to being a reality than for our ancient Chinese dreamer. Yet it finally took the inspiration and commitment of John F. Kennedy and the United States government to provide the resources and focus to achieve the dream. To enable Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts to sink their feet into the soft lunar landscape and in the process sadly confirming that it wasn't made of cheese after all!

To achieve such an amazing feat required co-operation and co-ordination on a scale not previously experienced in human history. For man had a vision and a goal to work co-operatively towards. Neil Armstrong simply took the final step in an adventure made possible by the faithful work and dreams of so many others.

It is like that in God too. The final frontier for Christians to focus upon is the return of Jesus, an event of such great magnitude that landing a man on the moon will seem as insignificant as a single grain of sand in the vast desert of time.

Yet this man inspired rocket flight still illustrates a vital key to the return of Jesus. For the Word clearly shows that to achieve the greater goal, a unity of purpose and action is required. If one part of the giant rocket had failed, the mission would have failed, possibly with disastrous consequences to the astronauts aboard and certainly to their mission.

While our Father is more forgiving than a human rocket, He still desires, indeed requires, us to work together in ministry and life to prepare for this climax of the age. How sad He must be when he sees petty squabbling and personal kingdom building amongst those who claim to follow only Him. So next time we are tempted to sow dissension or promote ourselves, may we be reminded that we could well be responsible for delaying the very event which should be at the very heart of every true Christian's faith and longing. To see the return of Jesus for His unified spotless and pure bride. We wouldn't want that, would we? So let's give our all, and all our glory, to Him.

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COMPUTER CONFRONTATIONS CONTINUE!

The battle of the binary 'botchups' has, we hope, almost concluded. Speaking in faith(!) we will be back into communication with a waiting world later this week! Unsurprisingly, the world has continued along just fine without my minutiae contributions! Does put things into perspective! As well as testing the fruit of the Spirit in my life... love, joy, peace, longsuffering... self control. Sometimes it's hard being a follower of Jesus, isn't it?

FROM THE WORD

"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, their is neither slave nor free, their is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galations 3:26-28)

"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are... selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies... and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." (Galatians 5:19-26 abridged)

DAVID'S DOODLINGS

&&& The major difference between childhood and adulthood is taking responsibility. Many Christians dislike responsibility!

&&& In nature, human growth occurs naturally. We expect the same in the Spiritual and get offended when others grow more quickly than us.

&&& Human growth is measured in height, girth and wrinkles, spiritual growth by the 'fruit of the Spirit.' Often we confuse the two.

There are now over 430 David sayings for you to view at ...

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FACTS FOR FUN

LAST WEEKS QUESTION: What is an "inclined elevator"?

ANSWER: Quite logically, "Inclined Elevator" was another term used at the turn of the twentieth century for what we now call an escalator. The first one was installed at Harrod's department store in London and it was scary enough that store personnel served brandy to customers who felt faint while riding it.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Is it true that hair and nails continue to grow after death?

Answer Next Week.

SOME FUN FACTS
THE DOGFIGHT
The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the Pacific. When arming their aeroplanes on the ground, the .50 calibre machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." (Unfortunately most ended up 6 feet {2 yards} under.)

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Rene Descartes came up with the theory of co-ordinate geometry by looking at a fly walk across a tiled ceiling. (No wonder I couldn’t understand it – for the fly has now flown away!)

ILLITERATE?
The term ‘the 3 R’s’ (for reading, writing and arithmetic) was coined by Sir William Curtis, who was illiterate. (Naturally, he couldn’t spell either!)

A CHALLENGE FOR YOU!
In a conventional clock, how many times does the minute hand pass the hour hand between noon and midnight?

Answer at the end of A David Musing

175 fun facts and trivial trivia now found at ...

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LAUGHING AT OURSELVES

***Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused***

Just seems appropriate this week! Like all computers it could always do with updating. How to know you are getting old. You still remember what a 386 and 486 were!

ABRAHAM AND WINDOWS 95
Avraham (Abraham) wants to upgrade his PC to Windows 95. Yitzhak (Isaac) is incredulous.
"Pop," he says, "you can't run Windows 95 on your old, slow 386. Everyone knows that you need at least a 486 with a minimum of 16 megs of memory in order to multitask effectively with Windows 95."

But Abraham, the man of faith, gazed calmly at his son and replied, "God will provide the RAM, my son."

Now over 150 sermon fillers for your entertainment and use at ...

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LIFE'S A LAUGH!

'MR TOUGH'
On the weekend of the biggest motorcycle gathering of the year, I was bar tending at a club nearby. When the roaring machines pulled up outside, our patrons' eyes swung toward the door and conversation turned into uneasy whispering.

A group of tough looking bikers walked up to the bar, and one of them asked me where the phone was. I pointed it out, and the silence in the room let everybody overhear what the biker said into the receiver. "Hi, Mom. Just want to let you know I'll be home late tonight."

Many more entertaining true life experiences at...

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CHURCHSPEAK

ARMOUR-----------Protection

BABYLON----------Religious confusion

DOOR, GATE-------Jesus i.e. the entrance to God

EGYPT------------World

LINEN-------------Righteousness

ROD--------------Authority

SWORD-----------The Word (Bible)

YEAST, LEAVEN---Sin, Human weakness, False doctrine, Corrupt practices (but not in Matthew 13:33)

Lots of interesting definitions of 'religious' terms at...

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AN INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE SITE

For those who have been asking, our free downloads from Inspirational Tapes will return next week. It has been holiday season in New Zealand, but most are back at work now.

In the meantime, hase a look at the Inspirational Tapes site and see what they have available. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Find us at...

http://www.inspirational.org.nz

A DAVID MUSING

It is really interesting how God works. As mentioned last week, we naturally would prefer to receive everything at once, but that would make life too easy and turn Jesus into a pseudo Father Xmas.

For example, in our impending shift in less than 2 weeks time, we had 4 crucial items that needed to fall into place. Over the past 3 weeks, one has happened each week. The first week, and most critically of all, our new church was checked out by us and us by them. All is well. The next week, Kathy got a job in the local public hospital's Operating Theatre. And last week, we enrolled our youngest son into his new school. This leaves only the matter of our accommodation outstanding, which we have 2 weeks to arrange. "Plenty of time," says he!

Step by step, as we honour our Lord, so He blesses us. Life is never dull when we walk on the Lord's path.

His servant and yours

David Tait

Today's Word Puzzle Answer: Only 10 Times!

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ABOUT US

WALKING WITH JESUS MINISTRIES is a non-profit, non-denominational, Bible based ministry located in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand. A ministry dedicated to developing discipleship, fostering unity amongst God’s people to achieve the Great Commission, and in doing so, preparing for Christ’s return. It is securely based upon the foundational principles of the Apostles Creed while recognising the wide and rich diversity of beliefs amongst Christians in other areas. In accordance with the Lord’s direction, materials produced by the ministry are available, free of charge, to genuine enquirers upon request. The ministry is solely funded by donations, as the Lord provides. A list of materials available (plus some fun!) is obtainable and freely downloadable from our website wwj.org.nz or by contacting us as follows.

Walking With Jesus Ministries
P O Box 5160
Mount Maunganui
New Zealand

Phone: (07) 575-7164 International (0064) 7575-7164
Fax: (07) 575-7124 International (0064) 7575-7124
Email: enquiries@wwj.org.nz
Web: wwj.org.nz
Our role is to bless and encourage those in ministry while promoting co-operation and unity of direction amongst the body of Christ, as emphasised 3 times by Jesus in His longest prayer, immediately prior to His arrest and crucifixion. "… so that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:12, 21, 23-4) Our website is currently being developed to encourage your participation one with another, to share resources, and to enable you to promote events and items of interest to the body as a whole – and have a smile while doing it!

For comments upon and contributions to this service, please contact
david@wwj.org.nz