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TITLE: Just a Puppy’s Bite
DATE:February 5, 2019 TEXT: John 3:16 ESV - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
That last line up there is important to remember, as I tell you of a 65-year old woman from Virginia. Two- years ago this lady went to a yoga-retreat in India which lasted a number of months. While she was in the city if Rishikesh, a puppy nipped her in the ankle. Understand, this wasn’t a tear, it wasn’t a rending, a rip, the kind of bite which called for stitches. It was just a puppy-like bite on the ankle. Understandably, the unknown lady wasn’t pleased with the situation, but what could she do? Actually, she did the logical thing: she washed off the wound as good as she could and then she did her best to forget about it. She got back to finishing up her trip and prepared to return home. Well, she forgot, she came back home, and everything was just fine. Everything was fine until about six-weeks after she had been nipped. On May 3, the lady felt some pain in her arm… then came other symptoms. Within four days she was experiencing shortness of breath, anxiety, sleeplessness and difficulty swallowing water. Her condition continued to worsen until her family authorized use of the Milwaukee protocol…a last ditch attempt to help a patient who has contracted rabies, by putting them into a coma. The last ditch attempt didn’t work and our lady died on May 21, 2017. Looking at the case, Physicians agree: rabies is easily treated before the symptoms appear, but after symptoms show up, the disease is almost always fatal. Which means if you’ve been exposed to rabies you need to act before it is too late. It’s all very much like what happens when people are infected with sin. Now I suppose that doesn’t make much sense. If so, let me try to explain things this way. As you know, every person has been exposed to, and is infected by sin. When we were born, sin was part of the package. Now when we were infants, people looked at us and said, ‘What a beautiful baby.” They didn’t talk about sin very much. Even so, sin was still there… it would always be there. But the problem is this: sin isn’t always super-noticeable. Besides, many people developed ways of dealing with sin:
Now during all this time, their sin, and the oncoming problems of sin, were immensely and completely treatable. 2,000 years ago the heavenly Father had sent His Son into this world to bring about a cure which would be 100% effective. Getting this cure cost Jesus His life, but the cure worked. It removed the worst of sins and saved the worst of sinners. The only catch was this: it, that is saving faith in Christ had to be there when the individual was alive. If the sinner died, nothing could be done. If Jesus returned in Judgment, the individual was lost. It was that simple… which is why we share the Savior’s story with all we can as often as we can. THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, let us share the story of the Savior while we can and while there is still hope. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. Today’s devotion was inspired by various articles, amongst which is the one written by Luke Rowey on January 3 209198 for Newser. Those who wish may check out this link which was, at the time of writing, fully active: http://www.newser.com/story/269458/woman-bit-by-puppy-dies-weeks-later.html?utm_source=share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=def The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann, one of my long-ago confirmands. He is singing with three brothers. This song comes from the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html
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