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DIECAST Collectible Model Cars And More
Figures
| Item# |
Description |
Stock
Status |
| 51582 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Mechanic Jim Figure (1:18 scale model, Red/ Blue) 51582 |
New |
| 51583 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Mechanic Sean Figure (1:18 scale model, Blue) 51583 |
New |
| 51584 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Mechanic John Figure (1:18 scale model, Blue) 51584 |
New |
| 51585 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Mechanic Tony Figure (1:18 scale model, Blue) 51585 |
New |
| 51586 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Police Mike Figure (1:18 scale model, Dark Blue) 51586 |
New |
| 51587 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Police Ryan Figure (1:18 scale model, Dark Blue) 51587 |
New |
| 51588 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Sheriff Dave Figure (1:18 scale model, Green) 51588 |
New |
| 51589 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Sheriff Dave Figure (1:18 scale model, Green) 51589 |
New |
| 51592 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Mechanic Jim Figure (1:24, Red/ Blue) 51592 |
New |
| 51593 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Mechanic Sean Figure (1:24, Blue) 51593 |
New |
| 51594 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Mechanic John Figure (1:24, Blue) 51594 |
New |
| 51595 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Mechanic Tony Figure (1:24, Blue) 51595 |
New |
| 51596 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Police Mike Figure (1:24, Dark Blue) 51596 |
New |
| 51597 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Police Ryan Figure (1:24, Dark Blue) 51597 |
New |
| 51598 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Sheriff Dave Figure (1:24, Green) 51598 |
New |
| 51599 |
American Diorama Figurine - Single Sheriff Brad Figure (1:24, Green) 51599 |
New |
SPECIAL HOLIDAY COUPONS
| Item# |
Description and offer details |
Discount Code |
| NA |
1:18 Scale Mini Garage Diorama - Generic Garage. ($60.00 Value)
FREE Garage Diorama with online purchase of $440 or more.
Instructions on how to use:
1. Add $440 worth or more of items into your shoppping cart.
2. Add NA (the Garage Diorama to your cart too)
3. When you check out and get to the SUMMARY stage of the check out process, enter the code "FGD" (without the quotes in in all capital letters into the Discount or Gift Certificate Code box.
4. Hit the recalculate button ($60.00 discount should then appear)
5. Hit the Continue to continue the check out process.
*expires 1/2/2010, limit one per customer, online orders only, this discount cannot be used in combination with other discounts. |
FGD |
| 0802/6 |
Free display box of 65mm Strobe Light Bouncing Balls ($24.00 Value)
Instructions on how to use:
1. Add 12 units of 0802/6 to your shopping cart.
2. Check Out.
3. When you check out and get to the SUMMARY stage of the check out process, enter the code "FSLB" (without the quotes in in all capital letters into the Discount or Gift Certificate Code box.
4. Hit the recalculate button ($24.00 discount should then appear)
5. Hit the Continue to continue the check out process.
*expires 1/2/2010, online orders only, this discount cannot be used in combination with other discounts. |
FSLB |
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Thank you
Lu Su
Toy Wonders, Inc.
www.toywonders.com
201-229-1700
God and the Art of Toy and Diecast Marketing
The Perks of Faith
By Lu Su
One of the greatest perks in having faith in God is peace. Scriptures often uses the word "rest" and "peace" synonymously. I would dare say that most of us, including yours truly, have too little faith. Since our faith is weak, many of us don't have a sense of peace in our lives. Maybe that's why we live in such a tumultuous world. Faith in God would allow us to overcome our fears in life: what we will wear, what will we eat, where will we live, our career, our family, and of course the real big worry -could Jennifer Aniston be possibly carrying my baby?
Which one of us in desperate times wouldn't want an extra dose of this thing called faith? Many of us are not well, because we are being molded and shaped by our fears. Who wouldn't want to be healed and made well? If faith is something God wants us to have at all times (in good times and bad), God why not just give it to us? I think the answer can be found in the following passage. It's not obvious, so watch what Jesus does and says.
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "
So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
-John 5:1-15
"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews." Let me give the historical context; it will help some to understand why Jesus is there. Here the writer John, who is a follower and an eye witness of the miracle, tells us that Jesus goes to the city of Jerusalem to attend a particular feast -specifically, "the feast of the Jews". Now, no person is 100% certain of what the "feast of the Jews" is, but most Biblical scholars seem to agree that this feast was in celebration for something called, "Feast of Purim". Most believe this because it is the only feast day that occurs between December and March-April, the time of the Passover.
For those whose memory might be rusty, the Feast of Purim has to do with an event that occurred roughly 500 years before Jesus arrives on the stage. In 479 BC the Greeks defeat Xerxes at Thermopalye. Xerxes is the Persian King with a cool name (how many people do you know with two x's in their name?). He also happens to be the most powerful man in the world at the time. This is the time where the Persian empire is waning and the Greek empire is rising. Perfect time to run a beauty pagent. In 478 BC Xerxes holds a beauty contest and the winner of this contest gets to become the Queen of Persian. This Jewish girl name Esther wins and she becomes queen. What is interesting is at the time of the marriage, neither Xerxes nor his prime minister (Haman who hates Jews) knows that Esther is Jewish. This is very understandable. You cannot just by looking at a person to know that they are Jewish. Like I didn't know that the the three actors that played the Three Stooges were Jewish. What difference does it make if a queen or an actor is Jewish? It shouldn't make any right? It shouldn't, but in 478 BC it did make all the difference for the Jews living in Persia.
You see, when things go bad and in this case the war was going poorly for the Persians, the natural thing to do is to find a scapegoat. Add his dislike of Jews, Haman writes up a bill and fast tracks it to King Xerxes. This new law basically said that on a certain date all Jews living in the Persian empire were to be exterminated. If it was not for Queen Esther and her cousin Mordicai, a remnant of Israel might not have existed to return back to Israel. History has shown that the Jews have been scattered far and wide. But the prophet Isaiah, about 300 years before the Esther and Xerxes exchange their wedding vows, predicts the destruction of Israel, but the return of a remnant.
"Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will return." - Isaiah 10:22
So the Feast of Purim was a celebration of Yahweh delivering Israel. Yahweh did not have to deliver the Jews from the Persians (but He did). Jesus didn't have to come to deliver us from death (but He did). Jesus not only comes to celebrate the feast, he enters the city and fulfills the prophesy given by Isaiah "Then will the lame leap like deer," found in Isaiah 35.
"Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades." According to the Bible, healing occurred at this pool called Bethesda. Now you know why so many hospitals like this name. I find it interesting that during the time of Jesus, there was at least 10 gates into Jerusalem and each gate is given a name. However, in the New Testament part of the Bible, the only gates mentioned by name is this gate (the Sheep Gate) and the temple gate. The Sheep Gate was given this name because sheep were brought through this gate where they would then be sacrificed on the temple's alter for the remission of sin. To the Jew, to the Christian, and to Jewish Christians (It's not an either or thing and the writer John himself is one of the first Jewish Christians), the sacrifice of a lamb has huge symbolic meaning. Another Cliff Clavin tidbit is that only the Western wall of the temple still stands to day; the Sheep Gate still exists and is still in use.
The sacrifice of an animal to temporarily cover this destructive thing called "sin" dates back to Adam and Eve. Remember, God didn't cloth the first man and women with a cotton sweater or a dry-weave Nike warm up suit; some animal paid with their life. But more recently, lambs were used in the Exodus of Jews out of Egypt. If you don't know what that was all about, ask any Jew what Passover is all about. Ask how lambs were used in order to preserve their first born. But more recent than the first Passover celebration, you have this wild man name John the Baptist (not to be confused with the apostle John writer of the 4th book of the New Testament) crying in the dessert.
"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" -John 1:29
So it seems fitting that the Lamb of God would enter Jerusalem through the Sheep Gate. This could not have happened unless a person named Nehamiah returned with a remnant to rebuild Jerusalem's walls and gates. "Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate." -Nehamiah 3:1
Jesus enter Jerusalem and stops by the pool of Bethesda, where there is a multitude of blind, lame, and paralyzed desiring to be the fist to enter the water when it stirs. Jesus walks up to man who is an invalid for thirty eight years. Back then the life expectancy wasn't that long. So you could easily say that this man was an invalid for more than half of his life.
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
What kind of questions is this? Jesus is all knowing. He knows this man's thoughts. Of course this man wants to get well. You don't even need to be omniscient to know that this man who has been unable to walk for 38 years, would prefer to be able to walk than to not walk. Why does Jesus even ask this question? Why doesn't Jesus walk up to the man and without saying a word heal him? While he's at it, why doesn't Jesus wave his hand and heal everyone at the pool? Why does Jesus ask just this man such an obvious question? I think the answer to this question is directly tied into the question on why God just doesn't give us more Faith.
I think the answer has something to do with this thing called love. Love isn't rude or self seeking. Love certainly doesn't force itself onto another person. For Love and Faith to be genuine, they must be offered up by the other person voluntarily. Physically forcing or coercing another to do something you want is considered wrong -even by our standards. Likewise, God is unable and unwilling to force us to love or to have faith in Him. We must choose for ourselves. You don't have to travel far to see that we live in a broken world. Many of us come from broken homes. Many of us have troubled relationships. We are not well. So here's the question; it's as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago, "Do you want to get well?"
The last question. Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." Something worse may happen? What could possibly be worse than being lame for 38 years?
Sources:
http://www.jesusplusnothing.com/studies/online/nehem3.htm
http://www.plim.org/PURIM.htm
http://www.fireonyourhead.org
