Birds: "How we wish we could fly out......"

There once was a man named Thomas, a pastor in a small town. One Easter Sunday morning, he came to the church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit. Eyebrows were raised and as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak....

I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming towards me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom fo the cage were three little birds, shivering with cold and fright."

I stopped the boy and asked, "What you got there, son?"
"Just some birds," came the reply.
"What are you gonna do with them?" I asked.
"Take them home and have fun with them," he answered.
"I'm gonna tease them and pull out their feathers to make them fight. I'm gonna have a real good time."
"But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do?"
"Oh, I got some cats," said the little boy... "They like birds. I'll take them to them."

The pastor was silent for a moment.

"How much do you want for those birds, son?"
"Huh??!!! Why? You don't want them, do you? They are just plain 3 old birds. They don't talk, and they don't sing."
"How much?" the pastor asked again.
The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, "RM 100?"

The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a 100 ringgit. He placed it in the boy's hand. In a flash, the boy was gone.

The pastor picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened the door and by softly tapping the bars, persuading the birds out, setting them free.

Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and then the pastor began to tell this story.

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One day, satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting.

"Yes, sir, I just caught the world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn't resist. Got them all! Haha!"

"What are you going to do with them?" Jesus asked.
Satan replied, "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to fall in love, how to marry and then divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse. I'm gonna teach them how to invent guns and kill each other. I'm gonna teach them how to be real sad and give them hard situations to go through! I'm really gonna have fun!"

"And what will you do when you get done with them?" Jesus asked.
"Oh, I'll kill them, or even better, teach them to end their life themselves," satan glared proudly.
"How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked. "Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you. They will not want you. They will spit on you, curse you and kill you. You don't want those people!!"

"How much?" He asked again.
Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your blood, tears and your life."
Jesus said, "DONE!"
Then He paid the price.

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The Bible says...

For God so loves the world that He gave His only begotten son, Jesus Christ to die for us, so that those who believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. So that we are no longer spiritually separated (do not know Him and cannot experience Him).

Jesus Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death on the cross when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready.

And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. And most of the time, we humans, are weak and ignorant enough to the point that in our hearts, we think we do not need God, and we think we can handle our life real well. We would rather squeeze out all our energy and wisdom to work things out. Or we would try to place responsibilty and blame on someone else.

We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

While we still do not know Him, while we still are stubborn with our own ways, He chose to die for us to reconcile us back to Him. Wonderful Jesus....That is great love!!