“How Many Times”

            A tomcat and a tabby cat were courting on a back fence at night.

            The tom leaned over to the tabby with pent up passion and purred..."I'll die for you!"

            The tabby gazed at him from under lowered eye lids and asked, "How many times?"

            Jesus asked us to die to ourselves, everyday: 23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

Must You Live?

            The great British author and linguist Dr. Samuel Johnson once rebuked a man for engaging in a shady business. The man replied, “You know, doctor, that I must live.”

            Dr. Johnson answered, “[I do] not see the least necessity for that.”

            Dr. Johnson was channeling Jesus, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.”

Source: Edmund Fuller

Death to Self

            From TIME magazine’s Feb. 28^th issue, here is an example of self-denial:

            In the early twentieth century, Walter Reed and his three junior doctors, James Carroll, Aristides Agramonte and Jesse Lazear desired to discover the cause of Yellow Fever, which killed so many American soldiers during the Spanish American War.

            Exposing themselves to disease-carrying mosquitoes, Lazear died from the experimentation, and Carroll suffered long-term complications, which eventually killed him at age 53.

Hero dog risks life to save kittens from fire

            In October of 2008, the residents of Melbourne, Australia hailed a hero. He was a terrier-cross named Leo. He was a dog.

            A fire had broken out during the night at a residence in that Australian city. Leo refused to leave the house, instead, steadfastly guarding a box containing a litter of kittens until firefighters arrived and saved the young ones.

            Rescue personnel had to revive Leo using oxygen and heart massage.

"Leo wouldn't leave the kittens and it nearly cost him his life," Commander Ken Brown reported to the press. And, yes, the kittens survived.

            So many in creation have been endowed with the instinct and desire to save others, even at the expense of one’s own life. When Jesus called upon His disciples to “deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me”, He was not calling them to cruel service. Instead, He was summoning them to conform to the standard by which they had been designed by their Creator. This holds true today.