One Fish Two Fish

(Read to Page 9)

Truly a classic.  If you are familiar with the story, how many people have read this book?  If you are familiar with the story then you know that Dr. Seuss isn’t content to entertain us with stories of Whimsical fish.  One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish was first published in 1960 and is one in the series of “Beginner Books” along with other classics such as The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and Hop on Pop.  And before Seuss finishes he introduces us to a variety of strange and wonderful animals like the Seven Hump Wump and the Zed with one hair on it’s head. 

For those who aren’t familiar with Dr. Seuss his actually name was Theodor Geisel, Seuss was actually his middle name and in German it is rhymes with Choice.

Theodor Geisel was born in 1905 and died in 1991, he was married twice but never had children of his own, he has been quoted as saying, “You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em.”

For those who are curious Seuss began drawing cartoons for magazines in the 1920’s and 30’s  wrote over 60 books in a career that spanned more than 55 years, the first one was published in 1937 and the last one was published in 1998, seven years after his death. 

During the Second World War he worked for the US army producing animated films to be used by the defence department.

So, back to the book. (Read last three pages of the book)

One Fish Two Fish is a celebration of those things that are the same but different.  Did you catch that?   One Fish Two Fish is a celebration of those things that are the same but different. 

If there is one question that I am asked as a pastor more than any other it would be . . . “Why are there so many different denominations?”  Or sometimes it is simply phrased “Why are there so many different churches?”  And usually I surprise the person with my profound and theologically deep response which is: “What is your favourite fast food?”  Once they get over their initial surprise at the intellectual depth of my question they will usually respond by telling me they like burgers or pizza or fried chicken.  To which I probe deeper, McDonalds, Burger King, Harvey’s, Pizza Hut, Greco or KFC.   And then I tell them my preference and why it’s my preference.  There is a theological phrase which is sometimes used to describe this phenomena and it is “Birds of a feather flock together.” 

That’s why you don’t see cowboy hats in a hip hop club or dew rags in a Jazz bar. 

And while we should celebrate the diversity of the Christian experience that isn’t normally the way it is, it sometimes seems that in order to justify what we do we need to demonize what others do. 

And so if they don’t sing like we do, if they don’t preach like we do, if their service times are longer or shorter than ours then they must be wrong.  And not just a little wrong but a lot wrong.  And that thinking has divided families and more than that it has divided the Christian family.

There is the old joke about the guy who gets to heaven and as Saint Peter is giving him the tour they pass a section with a high wall and when the guy starts to ask what it is Saint Peter says “shhh, it’s the Wesleyans and they think they are here by themselves.”  And you can substitute Wesleyans for Baptist, Pentecostals, Catholics and others.

It’s almost like through the years we have either skipped scriptures like Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  Or the prayer of Jesus in John 17:23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.  Or perhaps Ephesians 4:13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Or if we don’t ignore those scriptures then we think unity should mean uniformity and they are two different words. 

This morning I would like us to focus on the lessons we can learn from “One fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish.”  In the scripture that was read earlier Jesus calls the fishermen, Peter and his brother Andrew and John and his brother James, to follow him,  and his call to them is found in Matthew 4:19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”   If you grew up in a traditional Sunday School program you probably sang the Song “I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men.” 

And so I thought it was fair that if Jesus could use the analogy of fish for those who would follow him, I could probably stretch that far as well, and I’m not alone.  Do you remember the story at the end of John, it’s after the resurrection and the boys have gone back fishing and have caught nothing? Jesus appears in the morning mist and commands them to drop their nets on the other side of the boat and they caught so many fish they thought the net would break.  And then we read this John 21:11 So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn’t torn. Because people are funny, theologians through the years have tried to figure out why John would mention the number of fish in the net.

Augustine had a great theory, he figured that there are 10 commandments and 7 is the perfect number of grace and that’s 17 right?  Now if you add all the numbers from 1 to 17 together, you know 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 all the way up to 17 you’ll get 153.  And not only that but if you were to arrange them like this, with 17 fish in the first row, and 16 in the next row, and 15 in the next row you get a perfect triangle which of course symbolizes the Trinity.

On the other hand, Cyril of Alexandria said that the 100 represented the fullness of the gentiles, the 50 symbolized the remnant of Israel and the three of course was there for the Trinity. 

Jerome suggested that there were 153 different types of fish in the sea and it was symbolic of the church reaching all the people in the world.  Both Cyril and Jerome saw the fish as symbolizing those who would come to know Jesus.   So if I am out there on this one at least I’m not alone.

So First of all we must discover What Makes a Fish a Fish?  I don’t know what you think of when you think of fish, but when I think fish I think of fish and chips, and I would like all of my fish to look that way.  Lightly battered and golden brown.  And so it was a shock when a friend of mine ordered fish and chips in Sierra Leone and it didn’t look at all like we imagined.  Did that make it wrong?  Nope it was still fish and chips, it was just different fish and chips.  So again I ask the question: What Makes a Fish a Fish?  This time I take you to dictionary.com where I  discovered that a fish is actually:

 Fish: [fish] Show IPA noun, plural ( especially collectively ) fish, ( especially referring to two or more kinds or species ) fish·es, verb

noun

1. any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales. 

So in order for something to be a fish it needs to be cold-blooded, it needs to be aquatic, it needs to have a vertebrate and it must have gills.  That is what a fish is, commonly they have fins, but not always, and typically they have an elongated body covered with scales, but not always. 

So the next question has to be What Makes a Christian a Christian? Like fish, we sometimes think all Christians should be prepared the same way, not necessarily lightly battered and golden brown but we think they should all look alike, act alike, perform alike and like the same music.   And then too often we get bent out of shape when they arrive prepared a little bit different.  But really, What Makes a Christian a Christian?  If we go back to dictionary.com Christian is defined this way: Chris·tian [kris-chuhn] noun

1. A person who believes in Jesus Christ;  adherent of Christianity.

2. A person who exemplifies in his or her life the teachings of Christ.

Which is kind of nebulous.  If we go back 1700 years this is how the early believers defined themselves as Christians.  The Apostle’s Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.  The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Church Universal the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

So according to that creed a Christian believes that Jesus was the Son of God, That he was Born of a Virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit, was Crucified and rose from the dead.  A Christian is forgiven of their sins, and will have a place in heaven.  It doesn’t say anything about how long our services are or what type of music we sing in church, it doesn’t tell us what version of the bible to read, whether we should baptise by immersion, pouring or sprinkling.  It doesn’t even tell us whether we should wear robes, suits or jeans when we preach.

Jesus told his early followers in Mark 16:16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. Which of course should spark a whole other sermon on baptism.  And then told them in John 16:9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.

But it’s not enough that we simply believe, let’s refine it a little bit with the words of Jesus, after all he is the Christ in Christian and he tells us in John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.

It was Soren Kierkegaard who said “It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.”

Just Because it looks Like a Fish Doesn’t Mean it is a Fish sometimes the entire biology thing confuses me.  But then again it doesn’t take a lot to confuse me.

And to add to that just because we call it a fish doesn’t make it a fish.  We call lobsters and scallops “Shellfish” and we call the people who catch them “fishermen”.

But because shellfish don’t have gills or a vertebrae they aren’t really fish.  Doesn’t matter what you call them, even if you they come on your fisherman’s platter they still aren’t fish.  And because Jelly fish aren’t fish either.  Nor are the little gold fish you buy in a box.  

And then you get the creatures that look like fish, you know whales and porpoises and dolphins, but they aren’t fish either.  They don’t have gills they have lungs, so they aren’t fish they are mammals.  An eel is a fish, but a water snake that kind of looks like a ell isn’t a fish it’s a reptile. 

There are groups of people who look like Christians and sometimes they are called Christians, but that doesn’t make them Christians.  You may be thinking “that’s a little harsh pastor; I thought you were better than that.”  Yeah,  a lot of people make that mistake.  Because Jesus said that if we love him we will obey him, which means if we don’t obey him we don’t love him.  Remember John 14:21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”   Sometimes people say they believe in Jesus and all those things about Jesus, but then their lives suggest something else.   

And when people say “I believe in Jesus I just don’t believe he was born of a virgin, and I don’t believe that he was the Son of God and I don’t believe he was raised from the dead.”  Well they might believe in somebody but they sure don’t believe in Jesus. 

Just Because it Doesn’t look Like a Fish Doesn’t Mean it’s’ Not a Fish   I don’t think that there are any more bizarre creatures in all of God’s creation then fish.  And some of them don’t look anything at all the way I like my fish to look, for those of you who have forgotten that would be lightly battered and golden brown. 

But in nature there are some really cool looking fish.

If we go back to our definition of fish Fish: [fish] Show IPA noun, plural (especially collectively) fish, ( especially referring to two or more kinds or species ) fish·es, verb

noun

1. any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales. 

They all always cold-blooded, they always have a vertebrae and they always have gills.  They commonly have fins, but they don’t always have fins, some are like the Spotted Hand Fish and they have what look like feet.  And typically they have an elongated body covered in scales but not always some have round bodies like the Puffer Fish or lumpy bodies like the Rock Fish and the shark is a fish but it doesn’t have scales. 

You can find groups of Christ Followers in the Appalaction mountains who literally claim the promises of Mark 16:18 They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”  And as a regular part of their worship they handle poisonous snakes, and that is just weird.  But really that doesn’t matter, because weird or lack of weird isn’t what defines you as a Christian.  I don’t know a lot about churches that handle snakes and you don’t ever have to worry about me taking a job pastoring a church that handles snakes or for that matter even attending a church where they handle snakes but that isn’t what makes them Christians and it’s not what keeps them from being Christians.

Now if they believe that their salvation is somehow wrapped up in handling snakes and not in the grace and forgiveness of Jesus, that’s a different story.

I’m sure that compared to some church Cornerstone would be considered a little strange,  and there are certainly churches out there who we would consider a little different in their worship, and it would have nothing to do with snakes, but worship isn’t what defines us a Christians, or at least it shouldn’t be. 

You aren’t a Christian because of the type of music you sing, or how long your services are, or whether you worship in a church building or a movie theatre or in a home.    It’s not a matter if you jump or shout or just sit quietly with your hands folded.

And I get tired of Christians and churches who insist that everyone worship the way they do and read the same translation of the bible that they do, and dress as they do, and embrace the same causes and vision as they do.

One valid criticism of missions was that some missionaries weren’t content to bring Christ to unreached people they wanted to introduce them to western civilization and make them dress and act like Europeans, and sing the same music that was sung in cathedrals across England and the Continent.  And somehow they felt that English or French or German were holier languages then whatever it was that the national people spoke. 

In Canada the issue wasn’t that the church wanted to introduce the First Nation people to Jesus, that was noble, to introduce people to a God of grace and love and forgiveness.  What was a crime was when the church felt that had to steal their language and culture at the same time.

That was what is technically known in preaching as a tangent or a rabbit trail, but we are back now.

So, back to the message.  If it isn’t how we worship, or what we sing, or how we dress or how long our services are that makes us Christians what is it?   It is what we believe about Jesus; that he was the Son of God, that he was born of a virgin, that his death on the cross was atonement for our sins, that he was raised from the dead.  It is not only believing in the Grace and forgiveness of Christ it is accepting that Grace as a reality in our lives and committing our lives to him.  If we are going to be a Christ Follower than it means that we are going to follow Christ, that we are going to follow his teaching and we are going to follow his commandments. 

Two thoughts to close, supposedly it was Augustine who said “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”  That’s not bad advice considering that just hours before Jesus would die for us he prayed for us and part of his prayer was John 17:23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.  

And a part of experiencing that perfect unity in His church will be embracing the wonderful diversity of His church.

Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

Thus begins Dr. Seuss’s book “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are”.  First published in  1973 Seuss’s tale takes our hero, only identified as “Duckie”, on a journey to show him how blessed he is, but it is done by showing how unfortunate other people are. 

Perhaps your parents did that to you when you didn’t want whatever it was they were serving for supper and they would remind you of the children in Africa or India who would be more than happy to have what you were being served.  And I discovered the appropriate response was not “well let’s put it in an envelope and mail it to them.” Or perhaps you remember the pithy little saying from yesteryear, “I was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.”  And I discovered the appropriate response there was not “So I took his shoes, he didn’t need them.”

In 2010 I was teaching in Ghana in West Africa, People have asked when I’m going back and that would be next January and I will be talking more about that in the days ahead.  But back to the story, I was in Ghana when the news of the Earthquake in Haiti reached us and I was intrigued by the response, Joe Ocran the National Superintendent of Ghana told me “In Africa we watch Haiti because it reminds us how lucky we are to live in Africa”

Let’s finish up the story.  (Read last page of book)

And maybe that is normal to put our lives in perspective by looking at the lives of others.   Perhaps we have become so used to what we have that we lose perspective on how lucky we are to have it.  Which is why Thomas Fuller commented “Eaten bread is soon forgotten.”

It doesn’t take long for us to become accustomed to what we have, and so our first house which seemed so massive and beautiful when we first moved in soon became simply ordinary and it isn’t long before that new vehicle which impressed us so much when we drove it off the lot becomes simple transportation. 

In the scripture that was read earlier Paul gives direction to the early Christ Followers on how they were to live their lives and he finishes with this bit of advice Ephesians 5:20 Give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We probably don’t often think about how little these people had compared to what we have today.  2000  years ago life was rough, Ephesus was located in what is now Turkey and it was occupied by the Romans, who reigned as conquerors.  In many ways it was exponentially worse off than what we would refer to as a third world country today.

Remember there would have been no running water, no sanitation, no garbage collection, no electricity, no modern school system, no human rights and no hospitals.  There was hunger, there was persecution for being followers of Christ, there was disease and there were high infant mortality rates.  And Paul tells these folks Ephesians 5:20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And when those early believers stopped and thought about it they were probably better off than many people were in that day and age.  And because they didn’t know what we would have today they didn’t know what they were missing then.  When I was growing up I didn’t miss the computers and video games of today and five hundred years from now when society looks back and wonders how we existed with the little we had in the way of technology they won’t understand how blessed we were.

“Have I ever told you how lucky you are?”  Because the reality is that we don’t often take the time to reflect on how blessed we are, sometimes it’s too easy to compare ourselves to those who have more than us than to look at those who have less.  Because we know in our heart of hearts that those who have less than us could have what we have if they only worked harder just as we know those who have more than us are just lucky.

In the stories of Jesus there are no more dramatic accounts then those who were healed of leprosy.

Lepers lived without friends, family or future.  They lived a life of tragedy without a home and without a hope.  Have you ever heard someone say “They treated me like a leper” or “they acted like I had leprosy?”  Back in the eighties when AIDS was just surfacing and  society and science still didn’t have a grip on how it was spread or who would contract it you would often hear those who had acquired AIDS make that statement, “I feel like a leper.”  And while I wouldn’t want to minimize the hurt that people feel when they ostracized by others it is doubtful that anyone in this time could ever fully comprehend what life as a leper was like 2000 years ago.

Leprosy was probably the most feared disease of the time, and that wasn’t just then either, we don’t think of leprosy as a modern disease but the world health organization estimates that there were 192,246 new cases diagnosed last year (2011)

We forget that the rest of the world doesn’t have the health care that we have.  And while we gripe about a half-hour wait for the doctor or a three-hour wait in outpatients there are many places in the world where the closest hospital is a day journey away, and drugs are almost impossible to acquire for the common person.  As a matter of fact it’s not a far stretch to say that this group of people would be considerably smaller if we lived in a third world country, because some of you would not have survived without the medical care that you have obtained in Canada.

And so people were terrified of leprosy, as you can well imagine, and so at any sign of a skin disease the person was examined by the Priest and put into quarantine, if the symptoms disappeared the person was considered cured however if became apparent that the disease was or could be leprosy the consequences were actually quite dire.

And if the physical effects of leprosy were horrible there was something even worse.  The leper had to bear the mental anguish and heart break of being totally cut off from the people he loved, being banished from society and shunned by everyone.

The book of Leviticus contained the law for the people of Israel and this is what it said Leviticus 13:45-46 “Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must tear their clothing and leave their hair uncombed. They must cover their mouth and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as the serious disease lasts, they will be ceremonially unclean. They must live in isolation in their place outside the camp.

 Nice huh?

The person with leprosy was not allowed to mingle with anyone who didn’t have the disease, they weren’t allowed to live in the village or the city they had to move into the wilderness living in caves and hovels, their only companions other victims.  The closest they could come to a person without the disease was six foot which would have made for a tough time keeping your marriage intimate, but that didn’t matter because once you were diagnosed with leprosy you were considered dead and your spouse could remarry and your estate was divided up amongst your heirs.

There has never been a disease that has so separated people from the rest of humanity as leprosy, not even AIDS.

And numerous times in the gospels we read accounts of Jesus violating a half a dozen Old Testament laws as he touched and healed lepers who had come to him seeking healing. 

They were asking for the one thing that they desired more than life itself, to be healed.  That their disfigured faces would once again be looked upon with love instead of revulsion, that twisted limbs would become straight and that life, life would return to normal.

And in each of these cases we are told that when Jesus touched them that instantly the leprosy disappeared.     

I wonder what it felt like as the nodules disappeared and their skin was made smooth again, as twisted limbs became straight and strong.  I wonder how many of them had lost appendages to the disease and what it felt like as fingers and toes grew back.

And there are a pile of life lessons that we can learn from those who were healed from this horrible disease, we see how they realized that their only hope was Christ, we can see how they approached Jesus humbly, without demanding that their requests be met.  And we should marvel at their faith, how without question they believed what Christ offered them. 

But what I marvel more than anything is that in all of the accounts there is only one record of a leper saying “thank you.” 

Think about it, their lives were radically changed, their lives were literally given back to them but the only time we hear a thank you is in Luke 17:15-16 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.

Perhaps Jesus should have asked “Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?”    So I wonder why those who were given so much didn’t even take the time to say a simple thank you?  Because maybe, just maybe it might provide insight into our response to God for the many, many blessings in our lives. 

Perhaps They Were Overwhelmed with What happened.  Sometimes what happens is so incredible that we can’t find the words to acknowledge what has happened.  And maybe that’s what happened, it wasn’t that they were ungrateful it was just that so much more was happening in their lives that they simply didn’t get around to saying thank you.  Kind of like those "thank you" notes that you’ve always intended to write.

For whatever reason it is sometimes harder to show gratitude for the big things then for the little things.  It’s easier to thank someone for saving our place in line then for saving our life.   Benjamin Franklin said “Most people return small favours, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones -- with ingratitude.”

And so in the haste to get their lives back, they forgot the one who had given them their lives back.  Very few of us will be physically in that situation, although there are some who owe a doctor or paramedic their very lives.  But what about the spiritual gift of salvation? Are we so overwhelmed with the gift of eternal life that we haven’t taken the time to thank the giver? 

Or maybe They Were Underwhelmed.  Oh sure they had been given their health back, they had been healed from this horrible disease, but it wasn’t enough.  You’re probably wondering what more could they want?  They had probably thought about this day for a long time, and imagined what it would be like.  But sometimes our imaginations are greater than reality.  Have you ever talked to someone whose life has changed radically, a windfall of money, or a healing or a better job and yet they still aren’t happy.  They still haven’t found what they are looking for.

Perhaps they thought that life would be like it had been before the disease only to discover that their spouses had remarried, their property had been divided between their children, and their job was now filled by another person. 

Perhaps they realized that they had lost the freedom they had as lepers.  Confusing, maybe, but as a leper they had no social responsibilities, no moral responsibilities, they didn’t have to provide for others they didn’t have to worry about disciplining the kids or doing a good job at work.  All they had to do was stay alive.  Mark Twain made this statement: “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”

Some people become Christians and then are disappointed because they don’t become more popular, they don’t get a better job, or make new friends, or they aren’t healed.  They are disappointed because they are still human and life still goes on. 

Epicurus said “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

Or perhaps They Took It For Granted. You know what I’m getting at here.  They thought "Well of course he healed me that’s what he’s supposed to do." 

Kind of the difference between a dog and a cat.  You feed a dog and they think you are the most wonderful person in the world, you feed a cat and they wonder what took you so long.  Somebody said that when you take care of your dog the dog thinks you must be a god, when you take care of your cat the cat thinks it must be a god.

We don’t thank the Doctors who make us better physically because that’s what doctors are supposed to do.  We don’t thank the teachers who make us better intellectually because that’s what teachers are supposed to do, and we don’t thank the pastors who help us grow spiritually because,. . . well let’s not go there it’s too self-serving.

Too often people view God as some genie in the air who is there only to take care of our wish list and we never acknowledge the debt because we don’t really acknowledge the gift.  Most prayer lists have a lot more items on the “I want” side than on the “Thank you side.”  When our prayers are answered how often is it written off as a coincidence?  Or do we think “Well of course God answered my prayers, he’s God, that’s what God is supposed to do, answer my prayers.”  Don’t take God for granted, he doesn’t have to answer your prayers, after all he’s God.

The truth is we don’t know why the we don’t read about others taking the time to thank Jesus for being healed, but we do know that one did.  I would suspect it’s the same proportions today, most of the time we don’t take the time out of our lives to express our thanks to God. 

How would our lives change if we embraced an “Attitude of Gratitude”?  If we took the time to pause and give thanks to God and to others?  Maybe we need to take heed of the words we started with in Ephesians 5:20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

It was William Bennett who said “Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that thankfulness is indeed a virtue.”  Who comes to mind right now that you should be saying thank-you to?  How about your parents, you know there was a period in your life that if they hadn’t been there you would have died.  And there was probably a time in your life that if they hadn’t exhibited some self-control they would have killed you.  But you’re still here and there’s probably a lot of things in your life that you need to thank your parents for.

How about a particular teacher?  Years ago I phoned a man by the name of Joe Thomson in Saint John to thank him for the impact that he had on my life.  Joe was my grade twelve English teacher, but more than that he was my debating coach and a good portion of who I am as a public speaker was formed by influence that Joe had on my life.  And it took me twenty years to get around to thanking him.

How about God, what has God done in your life that you need to stop and say thank you for?  Look around at the country we live in, the life style you have, your health, your family, your salvation.  You have experienced God’s salvation haven’t you?

You see all Jesus gave the leper was life, he gives us an even more incredible gift he gives us eternal life. 

“Have I ever told you how lucky you are?”