A blonde walks into the post office. "Give me 50 stamps" she asks.

The postmaster replies, "What demoninations do you want."

"My goodness! What is this world coming to?" replies the blonde.

"Ok, make it 20 Roman Catholic, 10 Charismatic, 12 Protestant and 8 Methodist."

Remember that no matter what denomination you are, you are part of the body of Christ and there is no one single denomination that is better or more Godly than the other. They are all part of the same body that serves the same Christ.

It is only that different parts of the body have different functions to keep the body working as one healthy body.

God Bless.

I bumped into a little elderly lady the other day ( approx 60 years old). I know her fairly well from a church that we both "once" attended. This little lady has always been totally on fire for the Lord and does really great work going out and ministering to the poor areas. She is involved in running medical clinics and uses this to reach out to the poor and hurting. She has always been a real shining example of the true love of Jesus to all around her.

The lady started to relate to me how she was recently at a night meeting in one of the poor area's. She had been attending these meetings, aimed at improving conditions in these slums, for the past 26 years. This particular meeting started to get out of hand and soon the fighting began. She left the meeting.

On going to her car outside she was cornered by two black men and her horror ordeal started where she was gang raped.

Instead of being met with the love of Jesus shining through her brothers and sisters in Christ, whom she had so lovingly helped and loved for many years, she was rather met with accusations of  "having been looking for it" and even deserving the rape because she was in bad area's. The pastor prayed once for her and she was expected to have been healed from this horror.

How sad! A hurt and ordeal like this does not simply go away with one little prayer. You don't get over it just like that. Where is that love of Jesus that is supposed to shine out from the brothers in Christ. Instead of love there is condemnation.

The little lady shared how she rejected the church and became bitter and filled with hate. This lasted for months until one little young girl who was filled with the real love of Jesus, noticed the change in the little old lady who had led her to the Lord. The little girl alerted another sister in Christ, from another denomination, who was filled with love of Jesus and this lady came and ministered and loved continually until the hurts of the ordeal were healed by Christ.

Unfortunately the hurts of the rape were healed eventually, but the hurts caused by the unloving and uncaring "Christian" brothers are not healed.

I can recount hundreds of stories like this one. When you are sick or in trouble it is often those who you have ministered to for hours on end and those that you have served lovingly for years, who are the first to turn their back on you. Real christians are unfortuantely a scarce commodity in today's times.

It is sad that many of our churches have become money making machines that are too busy to deal with and help those that are really in need. The love of Christ has often been replaced by a love of money.  Brothers and sisters are too involved in themselves to be worried about others, and the love that is suppossed to radiate out to others is lost and instead attending church has become more about social status than spreading the love of Jesus.

Bring back the love of Jesus into your lives. Spend time to love those who are hurting. Help them and lift them up. Ask yourself what would Jesus do in this situation. Would He turn His back on them or would He hold out His arms and lovingly embrace them?

Love those who are hurting and nurse them back into spritual health. Bring back the love into our churches.

What exactly is the example that Jesus gave to us? There are many instructions in the bible that were given to us to follow, but I am concentrating on one of the important instructions today, that of serving. This is one of the area's that many fall short in. You see, everyone wants to be a leader and everyone wants to be important, it is all part of the pride that lies within all of us, waiting to capture us and lead us astray. Yet no one wants to follow the real example and instruction of Jesus in this area.

Matthew 20:27 to 28, "And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Whoever desires to be the greatest (Pride) needs to become humble (Counteracts the Pride) and must learn to serve his fellow brethren. Another scripture says that he who is least will become greatest.

Jesus did not only give this instruction to His disciples and us, but He also led by example. A little further in the chapter, two blind men cried out to Jesus, and Jesus replied to them ,"What do you want Me to do for you." He was prepared to serve them. This is also very evident when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples (John13). Jesus calmly got up from the table and began to wash the feet of the disciples. Now there were twelve disciples and only one actually took note and turned to Jesus and questioned why the greatest among them was doing the dirty work of washing feet. This shows that the disciples were mostly accustomed to the fact that Jesus did a lot of serving to them as well, and did not just sit around being served upon by them.

Many christians are filled with a sense of self importance, which makes them too good to serve the needs of others. While they may be filled with love for Jesus, they are not willing to follow the example of Jesus and to serve their fellow brethren. Start to get your hands a little dirty, and your reward will be great, not only here on earth through the satisfaction that you will gain in helping others, but also in the kingdom of heaven.

A story that touched me recently is about a local church that has a mission to feed the hungry. Every week they have a soup kitchen, to which hundreds of street kids and homeless people flock. Guess who are the people that are there serving the food and cooking  for these people, they are all pastors and doctors and business owners. They are not too proud to serve, but through their faithful serving they are being blessed as a church and as individuals, like you can not believe. They are doing what Christ has called them to do - serve.

If you want to be great in the kingdom of God, it is time for you to put pride into it's place, change the way that you are accustomed to thinking by renewing your mind, and start to become useful by beginning to serve and help others.

Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve. You are not greater than Jesus, so your calling is to serve others, not that others should spend their time serving you.

If you have never had the chance to serve Jesus, why not invite Him into your life and accept Him as Lord and Saviour of your life.