WISE AND HARMLESS

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep

in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore

wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

(Matthew 10:16 KJV)

What does it mean to be wise as serpents

and harmless as doves?

I certainly am not an expert on the subject.

But I have to wonder, what is it that Christ

is trying to tell me by using these critters as

an example and how can I apply it?

First, serpents or to most of us snakes.  Again

my knowledge is limited but I have had more

experience around them than most people.  If

I remember correctly I have had four "pet" snakes.

That is, if you can call a snake a pet, and ran across

numbers around the house and in the woods.  My

pets at different times and places were two different

"Gopher" snakes as we used to call them.  One "Boa

constrictor," and one "Hog Nose" snake.

Wise as serpents.

One snakes are quiet.  You hardly even hear

one "hiss".  If we want to be wise as a serpent we

will have to learn to shut our mouth.  I one time went

through the entire Bible noting down references about

talking.  If I remember correctly there were twenty three

references.  The essence of all of them was "Let your 

words be few".

Two.

You do not see snakes going around taking "selfies".

Even the very pretty snakes try to stay out of sight.

You never see a snake showing off how pretty or 

good looking it is.

Harmless as doves.

All my life I have loved to hear the doves as they

"cooed" to each other.  But the last few years while

my wife was trying to feed all the birds in the county,

I saw that of all the birds the doves were the most 

patient.  They would sit back and wait their turn.  

So what do I learn for myself about being as 

wise as serpents and harmless as doves?

l.  Keep my mouth shut.

2. Step back and let the others put the show on.

3. Be patient, sit on the sideline waiting my turn.

 

TODAY'S PROMISE

 

"And I am convinced that nothing

can ever separate us from God's

love.  Neither death nor life, neither

angels nor demons, neither our

fears for today or our worries about

tomorrow - not even the powers of 

hell can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky above or in the 

earth below - indeed, nothing in all

creation will ever be able to separate

us from the love of God that is revealed

in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

(Romans 8:38,39 NLT)

TODAY'S QUOTE

 

Edwin Conklin,

an eminent biologist of Princeton 

University said;

“The probability of life originating from 

accident is comparable to the probability 

of the Unabridged Dictionary resulting 

from an explosion in a  printing factory.”

HOW LONG IS A GOOD PRAYER?

I am not sure what brought this thought on.

Perhaps it was because Sunday we had a visiting

preacher who would not stop talking.  His topic was

"wisdom".  I forget where his text was from.  It was

from somewhere in the Old Testament - but not in 

Proverbs.

He used the same text in the morning and the evening.

In the morning he "preached" for forty five minutes

and in the evening for a full hour.  But after all that

 "preaching" I never did figure out what his point was.

This only proves the Scripture:

"The more words you speak, the less

 they mean.  So what good are they?"

(Ecclesiastes 6:11 NLT)

But my thought is prayer, not preaching.

Let me tell you about one of the most effective

prayers I ever prayed in my life.

Pride got me into trouble.  I had bought a old

motorcycle off of a friend.  He had not been able

to get it started so I wanted to be able to brag about

getting it going real easy the next time I saw him.

I was over zealous with starting fluid and the

motorcycle backfired and caught number four

carburetor on fire.  The flames were licking up

around the gas tank which was about one half

full of gas.

I have had things like that happen on cars back

when they had carburetors.  I ether snuffed the

fire out with a rag, or have even blown the fire

out with my mouth.  But I could not do it with

this motorcycle.  I blew and only singed my eye

brows.  I beat with a rag and only got tired.

I finally spotted my fire extinguisher.  I grabbed

it, pulled the pin and pulled the trigger - NOTHING.

The fire extinguisher had simply set around to

long and had lost it pressure.

I thought about pushing the motorcycle outside

the shop and simply let it burn up.  But, my car

was setting just out side the shop door.  And if

I pushed it past my car it would go over the drive

way and roll down by the house.

I was getting desperate.  I was wearing out beating

the flames away from the tank when I prayed perhaps

the most effective prayer of my life at the top of my

voice:

"JESUS HELP ME."

and the fire went out just like that.

A really good prayer is three words long.

"When you pray, don't babble on

and on as the Gentiles do.  They

think their prayers are answered

merely by repeating their words

again and again.  Don't be like

them, for your Father knows exactly

what you need even before you ask

him!"

(Matthew 6:7,8 NLT)

 

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Even before he made the world, 

God loved us and chose us in Christ

to be holy and without fault in his 

eyes.  God decided in advance to

adopt us into his own family by bring

us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he wanted to do, and it 

gave him great pleasure.  So we praise

God for the glorious grace he has

poured out on us who belong to his

dear Son."

(Ephesians 1:4 - 6 NLT)

 

TODAY'S QUOTE

 

“We’re so busy with our own

plans, agendas, activities and

pleasures that we’ve lost sight

of the one and only purpose for

which Christ redeemed us.”

- K.P. Yohannan in

The Road To Reality

JUST USE IT.

All my life I have been interested in cars.

Even before I was old enough to own a

car I was tearing down engines and working

on them.  So, it should be no surprise to 

you that for over twenty five years I worked

as a technician in a Lincoln Mercury dealership.

Yes, I have had a number of hot rods.  But

do you know what.  Depending on my age,

my girl friend or my wife could care less

about all those neat details that make a 

car run.  All they wanted to do was "use it."

I am simply trying to say that by nature I

am interested in the technical aspect of 

things.

I have studied my Bible for over sixty

years, and the Lord willing I plan on it

for the rest of my life.  But this has allowed

me to see a disturbing trend among Christians.

A lot of us learn lots and lots of facts from

our Bible studies.  But, do we apply them?

Jesus said,

"No! The Scriptures say,

'People do not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from

the mouth of God.'"

(Matthew 4:4 NLT)

Perhaps instead of using the Bible as a

technical manual we need to simply 

use it to feed out souls.

How many preachers with a "Dr." in 

front of their name do you see doing,

miraculous signs and wonders?  It seems

that the areas of the world where God is

working miracles is often where the people

are very simple, but they simply take God

at his word.

My point is,

quit worrying about the details, doctrines

etc. of the Bible and just start taking God

at his word and JUST USE IT.

Yes, yes, yes.  God had performed pure

miracles for me a few times in my life.

But not one of them was because I was

smart.  Each one was simply the result

of a desperate cry out to God in the time

of an urgent need.

 "Yes! I tell you that unless you change 

and become like little children, 

you won't even enter the Kingdom 

of Heaven!"

(Matthew 18:3 CJB)