Insight for your “Journey across the Sky”

A View from the Nest www.eagleviews.org

aster is the second most important candy-eating occasion of the year for Americans, who consumed 7 billion pounds of candy in 2001, according to the National Confectioner’s Association.

§In 2000, Americans spent nearly $1.9 billion on Easter candy, while Halloween sales were nearly $2 billion; Christmas, an estimated $1.4 billion; and Valentine’s Day, just over $1 billion.

§Ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are produced each year.

§Chocolate bunnies should be eaten ears first, according to 76% of Americans. Five percent said bunnies should be eaten feet first, while 4% favored eating the tail first.

§Adults prefer milk chocolate (65%), to dark chocolate (27%)

hey are fanciful, often gold wrapped, usually elegantly packaged, full color presentations. From all appearances those chocolate creatures are a delightful treat to eat. On the surface these beauties are elegant and proud. Inside, however, they are an empty hollow shell.

do not know about you but I prefer solid chocolate rabbits over the hollow ones. I much prefer to bite into a solid milk chocolate bunny. I have been fooled in the past into purchasing what looked like a solid chocolate rabbit only to get home and find out it was not. One bite is all it took to know I had been deceived. Although it had the appearance of being solid, it did not pass the bite test. Of course I could have employed the pinch test at the store but that would have only left a broken bunny on the shelf where once stood a proud whole rabbit.

After Easter mark-downs can be found on the broken chocolate rabbits even before the holiday buying season ends. The chocolate still tastes as good as it did when it was in the form of a full standing rabbit, but since it now resembles a pile of chocolate flakes, it lost some of its value. Although the chocolate did not loose any flavor it was no longer pretty to look at.

Hollow rabbits outsell solid rabbits primarily because of the cost. You can get a gigantic 12 inch rabbit for about half the price of a much smaller solid one. Children would love the fact that they have this huge chocolate rabbit to eat, when in reality the amount of actual chocolate in that 12 inch rabbit is less than half of the smaller sized version.

Outwardly these proud rabbits stand tall, but apply just a little amount of pressure and they will crumble. There is no real substance to them. They are of little value when faced with just the slightest bit of pressure. By contrast their solid shelf-mates can withstand tremendous pressure. Have you ever tried biting the head off a solid rabbit?

Solid or Hollow which do you prefer?

ur church worship could be looked at from the viewpoint of solid or hollow. Are we worshipping with our whole hearts, souls, mind, spirit, and strength, or is it more of an outward show to win favorable ratings from onlookers?

“In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made. So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the Lord’s temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom (2 Chronicles 12:9-11).”

he gold was gone. It was replaced with bronze. Although it had an appearance of gold it wasn’t. Bronze is far cheaper to produce than gold and thus less valuable. Although stripped of all the gold, the king made a show of worship anyway. If anyone came to steal these bronze shields would they get anything of value when compared to the golden shields that had been there? Are we “taking away” anything of value from our worship services, any golden nuggets?

Be careful not to let anyone rob you {of this faith} through a shallow and misleading philosophy. Such a person follows human traditions and the world’s way of doing things rather than following Christ. _{Cola 2:8 (GW)}

All across our land many church houses are filled with bronze where once stood gold. What once was solid biblical preaching has been replaced with hollow messages of self-improvement. These messengers appear to preach solid biblical counsel yet their teachings contain no substance. Unable to offer the solid meat of God’s word, they are left with only hollow arguments to the world’s ills. These solid looking brass shields, though golden in appearance, lack the value of pure gold.

It may be milk and it may be chocolate but is it solid? What is your worship made of? Will it stand up under pressure?What is behind that golden appearance? Is it solid or simply hollow? Can you worship when times are rough? Has the enemy come in and taken all the value out of your salvation experience and left you with just a semblance of true worship?

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. _{Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)}