John 1:19 Are You A Eagle Or Chicken?
Several years ago, I went to a camp meeting, and the speaker was Doug Batchelor, He preached a series of sermons, “What is your identity?” He likes to tell stories, sometimes in the middle of the sermon, and even sometimes a story within a story. He told the story of the fable of an eagle that thought it was a chicken. Somehow, an eagle’s egg fell out of its nest and onto the ground. A farmer found the egg, took it to his farm, and put it with the rest of his chicken eggs. When the eagle’s egg hatch and saw little baby chicks and chicken around it, it automatically assumes it was a chicken as well. The farmer was too busy to notice or care much, but one day, a naturalist, was visiting the farm. He notices the eagle, behaving like a chicken. The naturalist told the farmer, “Hey mister that is an eagle, not a chicken,” the farmer’s reply was, “Sir, that eagle believes it is a chicken, so he is not pretending, he acts like a chicken because that is how he feels.” He lifts the eagle on a fence post then stretches its wings out, tells the bird, fly like the beautiful eagle you are, but it just falls to the ground. The naturalist returns the next day. He was determined to prove to the bird it was an eagle and not a chicken. Takes the eagle on top of the farmhouse and tells it to stretch its beautiful wings and fly. The naturalist lets the bird go, and down to the ground, it went and back to the chicken coop. On a third day, the naturalist takes the beautiful bird, high on a mountaintop. Telling the bird, you either live like the beautiful eagle you are, or fall to the ground and die, like the chicken you are not. The naturalist lets the bird go, as the eagle is falling, it sees another eagle in the distance flying, so the beautiful bird stretches out its wings and started soaring through the sky. John the Baptist knew he was a man of God, but the religious leaders of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem were not sure. The religious leaders were sent to see who John was, and they asked, “Who are you?” John the Baptist lived and preached in the wilderness. He could have preached and taught in the holy temple, but he chose not to. John the Baptist could have worn priestly garments, but he did not. He only wore camel hide with a belt. John the Baptist could have eaten the tasty meat, that the worshippers of the temple bought for sacrificial worship. John the Baptist only ate locusts, bread, and some honey. John the Baptist was content living this way. Many Christians have more but do not seem content, we have way more. My brothers and sisters, do you live in a house, or in a tent in the wilderness? Do you have a meal of insects and honey, or do you have juicy steak, with chocolate cake with it? Has anyone asked you about your faith, or heard rumors of you and asked, who are you? Are you a child of God, or living in the wilderness with no direction at all? Are you a prophet, preacher, teacher, or just a bondservant of God, do you share the Lord’s word in any fashion? God bless you all, Jesus the Messiah loves you and so do I. Samuel J H, a bondservant of the Lord.
