Nice Doggy

TITLE: Nice Doggy
DATE: March 14 2019
TEXT: 1 Peter 5:8 - ESV - Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
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When I was the speaker for The Lutheran Hour I was sent to many different places.

One of the countries I never made it to was Estonia… the place for our Dally Devotion’s story today.

 Since I’ve never been to Estonia, you can easily draw some other conclusions. For example, I never took a boat on the Parnu River in the Southwestern past of the state. I’ve never seen the Sindi dam which has harnessed the Parnu River and, most  importantly I’ve never met the principal players in today’s devotion: Rando Kartsepp, Robin Sillamae, and Erki Vali.

These three men are what you might call ‘good-deed-doers’ and ‘lovers of animals.’

I know that because recently the three who were working at the Sindi dam spotted a dog trying to dodge the ice as he tried to swim the icy river They launched a small boat, were able to grab the dog and bring him to shore.

Rather than turning him loose in his hypothermic condition, the three men put the dog in their car and drove him to the nearest shelter. It was at the shelter where they found out their cute little dog wasn’t so cute; he wasn’t so little and he wasn’t a dog.

Nope, he was an exhausted, well-behaved, one-year-old male grey wolf.

The shelter kept the wolf for a day and then released him into the wild… with a GPS collar around his neck.

I like that story. I like it, at least in part because it turned out so well. The wolf was saved and the three men have a story to tell their grandchildren. Of course you know, and I know that giving a ride to a wild wolf isn’t always the safest thing a person can do.

Now you may say, “Pastor, there’s not enough wolves in the wild for us to do such a thing. And to that I reply, “There’s probably a lot more cuddly-looking wolves out there than you might imagine.” For example, when Satan made his suggestions to Adam and Eve, they thought they were in control; they thought they could give that temptation a ride and nothing would happen.

Every day a great many people give a wolf a ride when they convince themselves they are in control of their gambling habit; their thirst for alcohol, their enjoyment of illegal drugs and they can handle things.

The bottom line to all this is simple:

1. It’s not wise to give a wolf a ride; Don’t see how close you can come to a temptation.
2. It’s not wise to make him your friend and for sure,
3. Don’t convince yourself you can handle temptation.  Jesus could, but He was and is the Son of God. You aren’t.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, temptation come. Grant that I may avoid temptation rather than trying to snuggle up to it. Give me the wisdom to see that those things which sometimes look innocent are not. This I pray in the Savior’s Name. Amen.

Today’s devotion was inspired by various articles, amongst which is the one written here: http://www.newser.com/story/271727/they-pulled-a-dog-from-icy-river-it-wasnt-a-dog.html

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