My Cat and the Pitbull - Knowing who you are in Christ

This morning I go out on the porch to eat breakfast and read my bible, and my cat comes out to join me. About that time, the neighbors' very large pitbull comes out of the house across the street. My cat looks nervously at me, and then proceeds to jump off the porch and head toward the dog! I watch with dismay and unbelief that my cat could be so ignorant and unintelligent. They say "Like pet, like owner," and I am refusing to claim her at this moment.

As she gets closer to the dog, her tail starts looking like a squirrel's tail, all puffed out. She goes into stealth mode, sneaking up on him. Then she stops, and the dog turns and sees her. It's the moment of truth. The dog looks at her with a puzzled look on his face, trying to figure out if she's bluffing or if she's as dangerous as she obviously thinks she is. He takes a few steps back, and she hisses.

Then the dog seems to realize that there's a size difference between them. He takes a second look at my cat, and barks loudly. She shudders about the same time I do, and at this point I come off the porch in case he decides he's hungry and wants cat for breakfast. He sees me and growls. By this time, I'm talking to both of the animals. I say, "Mr. Dog, I'm sorry. My cat obviously has not looked in the mirror lately, and she thinks she's bigger than you. Please ignore her..."

And I'm saying "Here, kitty, kitty!" in forceful tones that she's clearly ignoring. I can almost read her mind; it's saying, "Lemme at him, lemme at him!" Finally the dog turns around, tired of wasting his time on something a tenth of his size, and heads back toward his house. The cat turns back to me, looking quite smug. I just roll my eyes and take her into the house where at least for the moment she'll be safe from her ignorance.

As I was watching this, I thought about how my cat has attacked dogs in the past. She's so small and weak that most of the dogs could have turned on her and done away with her, but yet they ran off. This was one of the few dogs that didn't run away from my cat. Yet he didn't attack, and he seemed intimidated at first that she would even attempt to attack him. Isn't this how we as Christians react to attacks from Satan?

We don't realize how powerless he is, and how powerful we are because of Christ within us. We need to look in the mirror of God's Word, realize who we are in Christ, and stand up to the devil! For too long we have been backing down and even allowing the devil access to our territory, to our "yard" so to speak. He's not going to go away just because we back down. He's going to keep intimidating us until we stand up to him and use the power God has given us to chase him off. It may seem scary to us, but if we could see the situation as God sees it, we would realize our fear is just as silly as the pitbull's fear of my cat.

The bible says the devil walks about "as a roaring lion," seeking whom he may devour. Notice it doesn't say he is a roaring lion, but rather he's "as" a roaring lion. My cat may walk around thinking she's a lion, thinking she's big stuff, but she's just a little black kitty. Let's realize who we are in Christ, that we don't have to back down, and that through Christ, we have power over the enemy!

An Inspiring Excerpt from "My Billion Bible Dream"

Here is an excerpt from a book I'm reading, "My Billion Bible Dream," by Rochunga Pudaite. The author has sent millions of bibles all over the world and has helped translate the bible into his people's native language in India. The following quote comes from a conversation he and a man were having about India and poverty. The man confronted him that he should be sending food instead of bibles. Pudiate responds by telling this story:

"Watkin Roberts was a chemist in Wales when a great spiritual revival swept his area. He read Lord Roberts's account of the pursuit of the Hmar headhunters and felt God wanted him to take the Bible to the Hmars. But when he arrived on our borders, the British agent said to enter our territory was too dangerous. He found some Lushais from a trip adjoining the Hmars and set to work to translate the Bible in the Lushai language.

One day, missionary Roberts received a gift of five pounts, worth about twenty-five dollars in American currency, from a Christian woman in Hemstead, England. He used this money to print a few hundred copies of the Gospel of John in Lushai. Then he sent Gospels by a British runner to the chief of each village in the tribal area.

The chief in my father's village of Senvon received one of the Gospels. A Lushai tribesman happened to be there and read the book to him. But the Lushai could not satisfactorily explain what it meant to be born again. He suggested that the chief invite the translator, Roberts, to the village.

When Roberts asked the British agent for permission, he was told not to go. 'When I go in there, I take along a hundred soldiers for protection,' the agent said. 'I can't spare a single soldier for you!' When Roberts showed the invitation to the British official, the agent retorted, 'That's an invitation to have your head lopped off. They'll make a celebration out of you.' But Roberts found an interpreter and went...

...The chief received him graciously. But Roberts couldn't seem to help the chief understand the gospel either. After five days he was about ready to leave when his interpreter, who had been listening, took him aside and told him a story. 'When two tribes are at war,' the interpreter said, 'the side that wishes to make peace goes to a mountaintop at sunrise and beats a big war drum three times. If the other side replies before sundown by beating their war drum, that means, 'Come to the boundary and let's talk it over.' The chief who wants to make peace kills an animal and lets the blood of the animal flow along the boundary line. Then he and his enemy place their hands on the slain animal while their spokesmen negotiate. When they reach an understanding, the chiefs embrace and share in a peace dinner. I believe that is the way you can explain how God makes peace with man,' the interpreter told Watkin Roberts.

That evening missionary Roberts explained to the Hmar chief that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to die on the cross - the 'boundary' of sin between God and man - to make peace with man. The Bible was a record of God's treaty with man and His invitaiton for man to come to the boundary and accept God's sacrifice for peace.

The chief and four other Hmars solemnly announced they wished to make peace with the great God of the Bible. Once they had done so, Roberts returned to the British outpost."

After the missionary left, the Hmars that received salvation that night became preachers. They preached in other villages, and many people were saved. One of the sons of those first preachers went on to translate the entire bible into their language. The population of the Hmar tribe in the late 70's was up to 125,000, with at least 95% of them being Christians. They had an 85% literacy rate when the book was written, much higher than India's national rate, and the per family income was nearly twice as high as the rest of India. Pudiate, the author, felt the burden to give the entire world a bible because of what the bible did for their village. It wasn't charitable donations or government; God and His Word changed over 100,000 people because of one missionary, Watkin Roberts, and the distribution of bibles. At the time Watkin Roberts went to the headhunting villages of the Hmar tribe, he was 22.

Breaking Free from the Hook

I was listening to Pastor Paul Daugherty preach this morning about temptation, and he compared fishing with temptation. We’ve probably all heard the analogy how that the devil uses something that looks good to catch our eye, but there’s a hook in it. Pastor Paul brought out some new points I had never heard. I go fishing sometimes with my brother, and it really made me think.

Whenever we’re fishing and I hook a fish (this happens more often for me than my brother, just saying), it takes a little while to get it in. When it stops fighting for just a second, I reel it in closer to me. Eventually I will have worn it down enough to pull it all the way in and get it in the boat. This is what Satan does. Once he causes you to take the bait and he gets a hook in you, then he waits. Maybe you go to the altar and try to break free, and fight to get loose, but just can’t seem to break free. Then later that night, Satan reels you in a little further because you’ve stopped fighting for just an instant.

It amazes me that I only hook the fish in the mouth in one little spot, and it’s a small hook compared to the fish, but yet he can’t get free. Maybe that’s how you’ve felt with sin. It seems like such a small thing, but yet you can’t seem to get loose. That small thing has changed the whole direction your life is going.

When I’m fishing, not very many of my fish get loose if I’ve really hooked them. However, there is this thing fish do that I hate! Last week my brother had a big fish, and it swam under a log and wrapped the line around the log. Fortunately the water wasn’t very deep and my brother jumped in and pulled the fish out, but there have been times I’ve lost fish because it wrapped itself around something, and the water was too deep to get it out. I just had to cut the line and give up.

Likewise, after we’ve been hooked into sin, there is a place where we can run, a place we can wrap ourselves around. In the Old Testament, if someone committed a crime unintentionally, they could run to a brazen altar and hold onto the sides, or horns, of it, and be safe from punishment. However, if the crime were committed intentionally, that person would receive punishment even if they had made it to the place of safety (Exodus 21:12-14).

Maybe you unintentionally fell into sin. Maybe you didn’t mean to see that billboard that caused you to think wrong thoughts, or maybe you were abused as a child and can’t seem to break free of the pain and other problems it has caused. There is a place you can run to, a place where you can find forgiveness and healing and freedom!

But maybe you intentionally sinned. You knew it was wrong to look at that website, wrong to go to that place, but yet you did it anyway. Maybe you’re asking, what good would it do to go to the altar now? Well, the altar was a place of sacrifice. People would sacrifice animals on the altar to remind God of the ultimate sacrifice His Son would make on the cross. But almost 2,000 years ago, God’s Son did come, and He died for our sins. The blood price was paid, and now the altar is a place of redemption. When we run to the altar, we can know we’re guilty and still be safe from death, because someone already paid the price, someone already died for what we did. When Jesus died, He created a place we can run to for safety.

So maybe you’ve been hooked into sin, and feel like there’s no escape. But like a fish swimming around a log to escape, there is a place of safety you can go to! God can break every string, every chain that has a hold on you. The brazen altar was the last hope a criminal had of escaping punishment, and when we realize that we have no other hope of escaping sin, we can go to God, run to the altar, and allow Him to set us free. Run to that place of safety today, and let God free you!