The Tomato Ketchup Story

One rainy Saturday morning four friends met at a local café. They chatted about the weather and their jobs. Leo was drinking lemonade, Ollie was drinking orange juice, Billy was drinking chocolate milk, and Sebastian was drinking a brand new bottle of tomato ketchup.

“You’re a funny boy!” Sebastian’s friends chanted.

Sebastian grinned and took another slurp from the straw in the bottle of ketchup. “What can I say? I just love ketchup.”

“Has anybody seen Charlie?” Ollie asked. “I sure miss him coming to the café with us.”

Billy took a swig of his chocolate milk. “The last I heard, Charlie was spending most of his time in his room because his legs still won’t work since the accident.”

Sebastian eyes widened. “And his mum refuses to have ketchup in the house. Can you imagine life without ketchup?”

“I only like ketchup on my hamburger.” Leo rolled his eyes and then took a big gulp of lemonade. “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we take Charlie to see the Man who performs miracles?”

“Do you mean Jesus?” Billy asked.

“Yeah, that’s His name! He’s been saying and doing all kinds of cool stuff!” Sebastian continued, “Let’s take Charlie to Him and see if Jesus can make his legs work again.”

The three friends bolted out the door to find Charlie. Ollie jumped up so quickly he knocked Sebastian’s ketchup bottle over and splattered red spots all over Sebastian’s face.

“I’m sorry, Sebastian.” Ollie dabbed Sebastian’s face with a napkin.

“No problem. Accidents happen.” Sebastian licked his lips. “Mmmmmmm. Ketchup is yummy for the tummy.”

 The friends galloped up Charlie’s stairs and scurried to their friend’s room. They each grabbed a corner of his bed and ran back down the staircase.

Charlie rubbed his heavy eyelids as they raced out of the house and down the road. The bouncing bed made his teeth chatter.

“Where are you taking me so early this morning?” Charlie gripped his blanket tightly. “I still have my jimjams on.”

“It won’t matter to Jesus if you have your jimjams on.” Sebastian huffed and puffed. “He looks at the heart of a person and not at what they wear.”

The friends ran until they saw a house with a large crowd gathered around it. When they moved closer, they saw the rooms were crammed with people. In one of the rooms was an old lady who reeked of cabbage sitting beside a young mother cradling a baby in her arms. The baby’s nappy needed to be changed. An old man clipped a peg on his nose so he wouldn’t get sick from the stench. Men and women, boys and girls spilled out of the house into the garden and then out of the garden on to the street. There were chubby people and skinny people, short people and tall people, old men with walking sticks and teenage boys with donkeys, pregnant mummies, and little girls on roller skates.

Leo, Ollie, Billy, and Sebastian wondered how they were going to get their friend to Jesus. That’s when Ollie spotted a narrow path around the back of the house.

“I have an idea that just might work,” Ollie hollered loudly. “Maybe we can find a back door.”

So they carted Charlie in his bed down the path. As they were making the final turn, Billy’s curly hair got caught on the laundry hanging on the clothesline. “Yeow! I’m doomed to have a bad hair day.” Billy howled as he yanked his hair free.

“Meeeeooooow!” wailed a fluffy kitten when Leo accidentally stepped on its tail.

“Now is not the time to be collecting ‘cattails’!” Ollie teased.

The four friends came to an abrupt halt. “There’s no back door.” Sebastian shrugged his shoulders. “Now what are we going to do?”

Billy snapped his fingers. “Look! There are some dustbins.”

The four friends stared at each other. Charlie looked at the  dustbins and groaned. He didn’t like the idea of being carted about and climbing those wobbly dustbins, but his friends were determined to get him to Jesus.

They yanked and tugged on the four corners of the bed until they finally arrived safely on the top of the roof.

“Will somebody please help me get banana skins out of Charlie’s hair?” Sebastian ordered. “We want him to look presentable when he meets Jesus.”

The friends quickly removed the slippery banana peels from Charlie’s hair and started tearing the tiles off the roof. Ollie passed the torn shingles to Billy, who passed them to Leo, who passed them to Sebastian.

“All this hard work is making me thirsty.” Sebastian pitched the tiles on the ground. “Sure wish I had a big bottle of tomato ketchup to drink.”

“Sebastian, can you just forget about your beloved ketchup for a few minutes?” Leo scolded. “We’ve got to get Charlie to Jesus.”

After they removed a few more tiles off the roof, Billy said, “Now we’ve made a hole big enough to put Charlie through.”

Leo pulled a long rope from his tattered bag and tied it around Charlie’s bed. The four friends carefully lowered Charlie and his bed through the hole in the roof and placed him right in front of Jesus.

Sebastian cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, “Jesus, our friend can’t walk.”

Jesus looked up at Leo, Ollie, Billy, and Sebastian staring through the hole in the roof. “You must really love your friend and believe I can help him to go to all this trouble.”

The four friends’ heads bobbed.

“Because you went to all this trouble to get Charlie to Me, I will heal him.” Jesus turned and glanced at Charlie. “Son, your sins are forgiven. Take up your mattress and go home.”

Charlie’s toes began to tingle. He jumped up, grabbed his bed, danced a jig, and ran out the door.

“I don’t think he even cared if people saw him dancing in his jimjams,” Ollie giggled.

The four friends waved their hands above their heads and began dancing on the roof.

Crack! Creak! Crunch!

“Whoa!”

“Look out below!”

“Watch out!”

“The sky is falling!”

Splat!

The four friends tumbled through the roof and fell into the house. Sebastian sat on the floor looking dazed.

“Are you alright, Sebastian?” Leo inquired.

“I think so.” Sebastian rubbed his head. “Where’s Charlie?”

The lady who reeked of cabbage peeked out the window. “Charlie is marching down the street right now, and he has something in his hand.”

“What is it?” Sebastian asked.

The old woman crinkled her nose and squinted. “Why it’s a bottle of ketchup with a straw in it.”

“Now I know I’ll be okay.” Sebastian winked at his three buddies. “Ketchup is yummy for the tummy.”

About Katie Bodsworth

In my efforts to entertain and captivate a five year old with the adventures of Jesus and his friends, I have created a series of Bible adaptations designed to be funny and entertaining without losing the message within. Bright pictures, catchphrases and a look at some of the characters not always touched upon in Sunday School give my children, and hopefully yours, an active interest in their Bibles and a growing interest in their Church.

In the future I am aiming to have all stories available to buy with their illustrations, either as an ebook format or to order as full colour storybooks. The text of the stories, however will always be free, in the spirit of spreading the Word!

http://yummyforthetummy.webs.com

How God Defines a Woman’s Success

How do you define success? Is it by your bank account? The neighborhood you live in, or the kind of car you drive? Maybe it is determined by your occupation. If we take the time to learn what the bible says, we may gain a whole new perspective on the concept of success. Every day our lives are filled with stress and activities dictated by the circumstances of our lives. We are sleep

deprived as we wake far too early in order to organize our daily schedules. Waking children and readying them for school, then off to a full time job juggling time for domestic chores and errands. Finally home after a full day of work we prepare dinner, see to children’s activies, and finally bedtime routines. Then perhaps we have an hour or two to prepare for tomorrows schedule. The day is over. All this in order to bring home a paycheck to pay the bills and hopefully have enough left over for some recreational activies or to acquire the symbols of success; The beautiful home, the BMW in the driveway, private dance lessons for the kids, or the pool in the backyard.

Perhaps we define success as recognition. Recognition can be selfish, prideful, and boastful. Without God we can do

nothing and are nothing. I am not suggesting that it is wrong to be confident, but our confidence needs to come from Christ, not self. We are told in Proverbs 18:12″Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.” We cannot be prideful and successful. Likewise Jeremiah 9:23-24 tells us about boasting, “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things.”

I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with aspiring to a specific lifestyle or enjoy being recognized for our work or achievements in our jobs. But if we use them as a measure or our success then perhaps we are confused by societies idea of success and that of the bible.

The bible says in Joshua 1:8, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from you mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Therefore the path to success is to meditate on the word. The better we know God’s word, the easier it is to do his will. Doing his will will always bring success. God wants to give us the desires of our heart. We know this by reading Psalms 37:4 tells us, “Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” David tells us in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord; plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” God is our biggest cheerleader. He knows what we need and just as we want to shower our own children with gifts of love and praise, He wants to do the same for us. This life is like a puff of smoke and then it is gone. True success is eternal life. and we can only live eternally through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. John 3:16 states it best, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

This life is simply preparation for eternity. James 4:14 tells us, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Shouldn’t we be focusing on our success for our eternal life? To find peace in this life we need to look no further than Philippians 4:9-10 which tells us, “Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me – everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the peace of God will be with you.”

In Jesus’ name,

Lynn

Lynn Kennedy
Associate Publisher
Director of Women’s Ministry
Christian Times Online
http://www.ChristianTimesOnline.com

Women Can Find Courage and Confidence

It is far too common today for women to feel a lack of confidence. We are continually striving to find our self worth in our work or our relationships. We need to recognize that our true confidence comes from Christ alone.

Why do we as women feel so insecure? Is it our upbringing, the age old nature vs. nurture argument? Or Is it that as women we are wired differently from men? Maybe it is because we just simply don’t understand our value in God’s eyes. It is true that many of us grew up in homes where we felt devalued. Perhaps we were intimidated by a sibling who seemed to have more appealing or valued talents and abilities. Maybe our parents were not as nurturing as they could have been and we felt abandoned and unprotected. Perhaps there was strife in the household; a job loss, or divorce of our parents can confuse us making us wonder if we were somehow responsible. Maybe we are one of the estimated 3 out of 4 women to be sexually abused in their lifetime. These things along, with a myriad of life circumstances and situations, allow guilt and shame to creep into our lives completely decimating any sense of self worth.

As women we have made great progress with our civil rights in the last 100 years, yet it remains a fact that society continues to discriminate against us. We are looked upon as the “weaker sex” and in one way we truly are. Generally women are, in fact, physically weaker then men. That is simply a fact of life. Women were created to be nurtures while men were created to be hunters and providers. These traits were vital to survival at one time. Though gender roles have become somewhat more equal in modern times it still remains that despite legislation we still make only 75% compared to men’s salaries. But does that make us less valuable?

God did not make us to be a “weaker” sex. He created us to be man’s partner. When he created Adam he looked upon his work and saw that it was incomplete. He recognized immediately that it was not good for Adam to be alone. He tells us so in Genesis 2:18 where He says,”It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” God intentionally created us to be different. Woman was created and designed to ”compliment” man, to ”complete” him; not to compete or be compared to him. We are different, but no less valuable nor loved. Galatians 3:26 tells us,”You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

If Christ sees us as man’s equal, why do we allow society and other people to determine and define who we are. We learn that we are so important and special to God that “the very hairs on your head are numbered.” We must ask ourselves if we are trying to find our worth in Christ or man. Galatians 1:10 reminds to ask urselves,”Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” We will never find our value from others. We all fall short of the Glory of God. Only in Christ do we find our true and complete worth.

No one should rely on ”self-confidence”; our confidence comes directly from God himself. For without Christ, we are nothing; through Christ, as stated in Philipians 4:13,”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.

With God’s blessings,

Lynn

Lynn Kennedy
Associate Publisher
Director of Women’s Ministry
Christian Times Online
http://www.ChristianTimesOnline.com

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