In these days of testing and trial, we need to remember that "the joy of the Lord is our strength." Somtimes we can take ourselves too seriously, and we need to know that "a merry heart does good like a medicine." David Wilkerson tells a story that I find to be quite humorous. David Wilkerson is probably one of the most sober and serious minded Christian leaders that I know of in the Body of Christ. He doesn't put up with a lot of foolishness and nonsense. One day Brother Wilkerson was walking in Times Square and he was carrying a very heavy burden, and apparently this could be seen by all those that he came into contact with. Brother Wilkerson walked by a crack addict, and the man saw the sad expression on the man of God's face. This crack addict attempted to try to cheer up David Wilkerson. He said something like: "Come on man, cheer up, its not that bad." The Lord spoke to David Wilkerson through this crack addict. No matter how bad things get in this world we should remember the words of Jesus: "These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer,I have overcome the world." (John 16:33). Mike Mike
_________________Mike
as someone who's ancestry includes a LARGE dose of Cherokee Indian... and belongs to the tribe because of my bloodline... and has many relatives who still live on the "reservation" in Cherokee, NC... I found the joke quite funny
_________________Sandra Miller
when I was in Bible School in 1966 or 1967
This reminds me of our daughter's sister-in-law whose mother was Polish - yes, she is an immigrant to the USA from Poland. She loved Pollack jokes, collected them, in fact. She knew more then anyone else which makes the joke spoken from her funnier then ever.
Well, I think it depends who is around. I work in a multi-cultural environment and belong to a minority within our mostly African and Asian church.I have some Polish, Indian or British friends that I can tell jokes and we laugh together. I know I am not offending them. I remember I while ago, I was offended by a church leader who met me a the entrance saying. Oh, no _____s please! At that time I could not take it. I and my wife were very offended at that time and he did not apologize to us; he only said that he did not mean it that way. It does not matter what the joke teller things, it matters what the other person thinks about and ultimately what God thinks about. So if you can laugh wholeheartedly about American Indian jokes, that may be good for you, but not for everyone.Later the Lord showed me that I should die to what I was offended about anyway because I was holding on to my dignity. Nevertheless the leader should better not have said that to cause someone to stumble. Well, I will rather miss a joke than to offend someone. The Holy Spirit many times convicted me to go back to people and apologize about comments I made. A Jew may tell me Jewish jokes, but I as a German cannot presume on the liberty to do likewise.narrowpath
The original story (about predestination) reminds me of a quote from celebrated physicist Sir Stephen Hawking in his work "A Brief History of Time: "[i]I find that even people who claim everything is predestined look both ways before crossing the street[/i]." :-P
_________________Christopher
"I find that even people who claim everything is predestined look both ways before crossing the street."