I was glad when they said unto me,Let us go into the house of the Lord.
A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see, that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be … grabbed a cook ie or two from the bag in between, which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.
So she munched the cookies and watched the clock, as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.”
With each cookie she took, he took one too, when only one was left, she wondered what he would do. With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh, he took the lastcookie and broke it in half.
He offered her half, as he ate the other, she snatched it from him and thought… oh, brother. This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude, why he didn’t even show any gratitude!
She had never known when she had been so galled, and sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.
She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat, then she sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise, there was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.
If mine are here, she moaned in despair, the others were his, and he tried to share. Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.
Gideons – As of 2023, the total number of Bibles distributed by the Gideons has reached 2.6 billion. It took 93 years to reach the first billion (1908-2001), It then took just 12 years (2002-2014) to reach the second billion. And now more than a half billion more have been added to the running total (2015-2023).
Gender – However, according to the Gideons, all of those Bibles are to only be given out by men. Women can accompany their husbands as they distribute the Word of God, but only the male can actually do the placement of them. The Gideons were founded by men and full membership is still limited to males.
Well in Canada, like the cookies, who can give out Bibles has become a bone of contention between Canadian Gideons and American Gideons. The Canadians want women to, too; but the Americans refuse. And the Yankees have even gone to court and secured a legal ruling that says if you are not going to abide by Gideon rules then you cannot use the Gideon name. And so north of the border, the Cannuck Gideon organization is now known as Share Word Global.
The bottom line? In the Bible, the only restriction placed on women in ministry is “in the churches”. There is no such restriction of “in the Gideons”.
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