Phil,

Thanks so much for sharing that with us. I really liked that. It is so
sweet and loving!

Love,
Pat Ferguson



At 11:07 AM 4/14/05, you wrote:
>Vinny sent me this little story.  I think it focuses on a very important
>message.  I am wondering, however, if you notice any aspect of this story
>which bothers you.  If so, what is it?  Just curious.
>
>THE SONGBIRD AND THE FLOWER
>
>by Chip Brogden
>
>http://www.watchman.net/articles/songbird.html
>
>      In a land not too far away lived a songbird. According to
>outward appearances this songbird was no different than the rest.
>She had blue feathers, a white breast, and a yellow bill. But she
>also had a very special gift!
>
>      Her gift was discovered one day quite by accident. She
>enjoyed singing to the Lord and worshipped Him at every
>opportunity. It was her custom to wake up early to see the
>sunrise and spend time worshipping the Lord. She had done this
>every morning since she was a little bird.
>
>      Her song carried unusually far one morning. Her neighbor,
>the squirrel,  was sitting in his little recliner with a cup of
>tea, reading the  morning newspaper, when suddenly this
>magnificent song came wafting through  the open window!  "I have
>to find out where that's coming from!" he  exclaimed.  Jumping up
>out of his chair, he ran through the door and into  the field,
>looking for the source of the beautiful music.
>
>      Also, at that exact moment, a deer was walking through the
>woods and heard the same sweet melody. "What singing!" she cried.
>"I wonder who it could be?" And she, too, went off to find out
>where the music was
>coming from.
>
>      The songbird, of course, was oblivious to the excitement she
>had generated. She was lost in her worship when suddenly the
>squirrel arrived on the scene, followed by the deer - and about a
>dozen other animals!
>
>      "Where did you learn to sing like that?" they all asked with
>great admiration.
>
>      The songbird shrugged her shoulders. "I always sing like
>this whenever I want to give praise to the Lord. I hope I didn't
>disturb you."
>
>      "Disturb us?" answered the deer. "We think it is wonderful!
>How uplifting to hear such beautiful singing early in the
>morning.  You really have a gift!"
>
>      "I do?" asked the songbird.
>
>      "Absolutely!" said the squirrel. "God blessed you to bless
>others, and you shouldn't let that gift go to waste. You have a
>special calling!" And all the other animals agreed.
>
>      "I don't want to waste my gift," answered the bird. "What
>should I do?"
>
>      "Come with us to the church service this morning," said the
>deer. "I'll speak to the pastor about you and he'll let you sing
>for the congregation!"
>
>      The songbird wasn't sure what to do about all this
>attention, but she didn't want to waste her gift, and she
>certainly wanted to bless others with what she had been blessed
>with. So she agreed to go.
>
>      Of course, the congregation of animals were blessed by the
>singing songbird, and she was such a blessing that they invited
>her to sing every Sunday morning. The little group began to grow
>as a result of the songbird's beautiful voice. In no time the
>songbird became the worship leader. Not only was she responsible
>for selecting the music and leading the worship service, but she
>was supposed to conduct the choir practice twice a week and teach
>voice to the pastor's daughter ( the crow) so she could one day
>sing as well as the songbird.
>
>      One Sunday morning a group of eagles arrived, listened to
>the songbird, and watched her very carefully. After the service,
>the eagles gathered around the songbird and began to prophesy!
>"The Lord says that you have a special anointing, and He will
>give you an international ministry!"
>
>      Of course, the songbird was very thrilled about this,
>because she wanted to use her gift and she wanted to be a
>blessing. Another member of the church, the fox, offered to
>record her music and put it on CD. "That way," he explained, "You
>can reach more animals and be a blessing to God's creatures all
>over the world. This is what the Lord meant when He said He was
>giving you an international ministry!"
>
>      Before long the CD's were produced, and the fox had promoted
>them all over the world. The orders began to come in, and
>everyone said they were blessed by the songbird's music. Then came
>the invitations! "Is the songbird available to come to our
>church?" Everyone wanted their own live performance, and the fox
>took care of everything.
>
>      "Congratulations!" he told the songbird. "You're booked up
>for ministry every week for the next two years, and your CD's are
>in record stores all over the world. Now you can be in the
>full-time ministry! The Lord has really blessed you!"
>
>      So the songbird took her itinerary from the fox and began
>flying all over the world to meet the demands of her full-time
>ministry schedule. The fox even made her a special backpack so
>she could take all her CD's and ministry resources with her and
>raise money for her ministry.
>
>      The songbird sang in church services, and in retreats, and
>in conventions, and in concerts. She truly enjoyed meeting all
>the other animals, and she still enjoyed singing. She was getting
>a little tired of flapping her wings all the time to get from one
>ministry event to the other, and her voice seemed to be losing
>some of its former strength and purity from being used all the
>time, but she accepted that as part of fulfilling the call on her
>life. Besides, no one seemed to notice. Everyone loved her, and
>wanted to hear her.
>
>      Time went by, and the songbird was becoming more and more
>popular. She had a ministry headquarters, a ministry staff, and
>ministry partners all over the world. Her next CD was coming out
>soon, and everyone was looking forward to it with great
>anticipation. She was a busy little songbird, flying all over the
>place to keep up with her hectic ministry schedule, but having to
>carry around all those CD's and ministry resources on her back
>was a constant strain, and she tired easily.
>
>      One day she was traveling to her next singing engagement and
>found herself flying over a canyon out in the middle of nowhere.
>Exhausted from her flight, she decided this would be a good place
>to stop and rest her wings for awhile. Far below her she saw a
>gorgeous flower of indescribable beauty! So she circled around
>the flower and landed right next to it. What a lovely little
>flower it was! It had round petals of many colors - yellow, blue,
>pink, and white - and golden leaves. She had never seen anything
>like it in all her travels around the world. And the fragrance!
>It was unlike anything she had ever smelled, and far better than
>any perfume she had ever tried. Yet here it was, growing out of a
>crack in the bottom of a rocky canyon floor, out in the middle of
>nowhere!
>
>      "Hello little flower!" the songbird said. "I was just flying
>overhead and admiring your beauty, so I thought I would visit
>with you for a moment. You are certainly the most beautiful
>flower I have ever seen, and I don't think there is another
>flower in the world quite like you."
>
>      "The Lord has been very gracious to me," answered the flower
>pleasantly. "Who are you, and where are you going?"
>
>      "I am Rev. Songbird and I'm on my way to minister at a
>retreat on the other side of this canyon. Maybe you've listened
>to one of my CD's, or seen me on television?"
>
>      "No, I don't believe I have," the flower said. "I'm quite
>alone out here in the canyon, and I don't have a lot of contact
>with the rest of the world. As you can see, I don't have wings to
>carry me anywhere."
>
>      "That's a shame," said the songbird. "Because you are such a
>beautiful flower, and you give off such a lovely aroma. The Lord
>has blessed you to be a blessing, yet your gifts are not being
>used as they should! Why don't you come along with me to church,
>so the other animals can see your beauty and enjoy your
>fragrance?"
>
>      "Oh no, that would never do," the flower said, "Because that
>would only distract me from my own ministry."
>
>      "So you are in the ministry? What denomination are you with?"
>asked the songbird.
>
>      The flower laughed. "I'm not with a denomination.
>
>      "Where do you go to church?"
>
>      "Oh, I'm not involved with a church, either."
>
>      "Do you have some books or tapes out?"
>
>      "Heaven's no!" the flower laughed.
>
>      "So what kind of ministry do you have, then? Are you in the
>ministry full-time, like me?" the songbird asked.
>
>      "Oh yes, it is a full-time ministry," answered the flower.
>
>      "But you are out here in the wilderness, all alone. There
>are no churches, no one to fellowship with. How can you be in the
>full-time ministry? It seems like such a waste."
>
>      "Oh, but that is where you are wrong," explained the flower.
>"You see your ministry as being to the other animals, but my
>ministry is to the Lord Himself! He has planted me out here in
>the wilderness, hidden from the rest of the world. You believe
>that is a waste, since no one can see me or smell me. But He can
>see me! And He can smell me! And the measure of my fruitfulness
>is not what I am to other people, but what I am to Him."
>
>       The songbird was silent for a long time. Finally, she said,
>"Creatures all over the world are being blessed and encouraged by
>my music. Perhaps you are called to minister to the Lord, but I
>am called to minister to the other animals!"
>
>      "Who told you that you are called to minister to the other
>animals?" asked the flower.
>
>      "The Lord!"
>
>      "Really?" asked the flower.
>
>      The songbird thought about what the squirrel had said, and
>what the deer had said, and what the eagles had said, and what
>the fox had said, and what all the other animals said. "Well,
>just about everyone who has heard me sing has told me that the
>Lord has given me a special gift, a special calling, and a
>special ministry."
>
>      "Yes," agreed the flower. "But all of God's creatures have a
>special gift, a special calling, and a special ministry. Who told
>you that your gift, calling, and ministry is to the other
>animals?"
>
>      "I guess the other animals said so."
>
>      "Naturally," continued the flower. "But wait! What is that
>huge pack on your back?"
>
>      "Oh, that is my bag of music CD's and ministry resources. I
>carry these with me wherever I go, because this is how my
>full-time ministry is supported."
>
>      "It looks mighty heavy," observed the flower.
>
>      "It is, believe me!" said the songbird. But it's part of
>being in the ministry."
>
>      "For your ministry, perhaps," said the flower. "It's not
>part of my ministry! Ministering to the Lord is not a burden at
>all."
>
>      (Secretly, the songbird envied the flower, but she couldn't
>bring herself to admit it.)
>
>      "It does sound good," said the songbird. "But I'm not sure I
>even know how to minister to the Lord."
>
>      "Do you remember when you used to sing praises to the Lord
>in secret every morning, and just worshipped Him for Who He is,
>with no agenda or vision or plan or crowd of onlookers to
>minister to? Do you remember when you just sang the songs He gave
>you, and they were just between you and Him?" the flower asked.
>
>      "Yes."
>
>      "You were ministering to the Lord! And what was your reward,
>when no one could hear you sing, and you were just singing to
>Him?"
>
>      The songbird thought. "I didn't get any rewards, or
>recognition, or applause. So I guess the only reward I had was...
>Him?"
>
>      "That's right," the flower smiled. "When we minister to the
>Lord then the Lord becomes our reward. So then the question
>becomes: is Jesus enough for you? Or is the work of the Lord more
>important to you than the Lord of the work?"
>
>      And the songbird had to admit that she never had time to
>just sing to the Lord the way she used to. With all her traveling
>and performing she seldom took time to just minister to the Lord,
>the way she did before anyone knew how gifted she was. Now the
>ministry had become so big that the Lord Himself had been
>neglected.
>
>      "I see it now," the songbird finally admitted. "I went into
>the ministry, but I missed my calling."
>
>      "That's what usually happens," said the flower.
>
>      The songbird and the flower sat together in silence for a
>long time.
>
>      "So what do I do now?" the songbird whispered.
>
>      "Just go back to the beginning," the flower said. "The Lord
>is waiting to meet with you there."
>
>      The songbird and the flower embraced, and the songbird flew
>back to her nest, leaving the burden of her ministry behind on
>the canyon floor. So from that day forward the songbird devoted
>herself to ministering to the Lord, just like she used to do. And
>the Lord gave her some beautiful new songs to sing - just for
>Him.
>
>      NOW WHAT?
>
>      Ministry to people is important, but it isn't the most
>important thing. We know all about ministering to one another -
>preaching, teaching, singing, conducting evangelistic crusades
>and sending missionaries. All these things are needed, but
>learning how to minister to the Lord is the most important
>ministry of all because this is the basis for every other kind of
>ministry. Sadly, few people know how to do this. Therefore,
>ministry to the Lord is on the verge of becoming extinct.
>
>      The Lord is looking for people to whom He can reveal
>Himself, share His secrets, and make known the mystery of His
>ways. But there is no revelation without a relationship.
>
>"Ministering To The Lord" will encourage you to go beyond the
>veil and spend more time sitting at His feet in the Secret Place
>of the Most High God, where you learn how to be a friend He can
>confide in.
>
>      Check out "Ministering To The Lord"
>http://www.watchman.net/audio/ts108.html
>
>      I am your brother,
>
>      Chip Brogden
>      http://www.watchman.net
>
>      (c)2004 Watchman.Net.
>
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>provided this notice appears.
>
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>
>Phil C Sharp
>The Coil Of The snake
>A Free Online E-Novel
>www.SafePlaceFellowship.com