Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Not Fond of Snakes

Finding a snake where you think I a snake ought not to be is quite unsettling. A friend hit a golf ball into a small pond. The ball was right there, just underneath the water. So was a snake. The ball stayed put and he went on with his game.

Another friend woke up in the middle of the night with a snake in her bedroom. She and her husband corralled the snake in a boot and took him outside. Snakes should stay outside and not come into the house.
Most of the time I’ve run across snakes, I’ve been the one out of place. They were right where they should be: in the woods, beside the river bank, under the boards, in the bushes. But even still, seeing a snake, period, rattles me a bit.

I pulled into my brother’s driveway the other day and opened my door, only to stare face-to-face with a four-footer. Needless to say I stayed in my car until he decided to move on. I wasn’t scared, mind you, just apprehensive.
We’re supposed to be apprehensive of snakes. Some of them bite. I’ve been bitten before. Sure the bite hurt a bit but it wasn’t the act of biting that got to me, it was the venom. The bite stung, like a wasp on steroids, but the venom is what became the problem. It stayed in my leg and began to spread.

I don’t think it is by coincidence that Satan first appeared as a snake in the garden. Had he been a lion or grizzly his attack would have been brutal, quick and deadly. But because he was a snake, he had a weapon that would make far greater impact. The venom he injected venom had long-term affect.
Snake venom targets the nervous system. It shuts down the victim from the inside until he is so paralyzed he just gives up and gives in to the wishes of the snake. Without the venom it is unlikely he’d hang around and let the snake eat him.

The venom Satan shot into Adam and Eve messed up their lives and all the lives that followed, even our own. But the anti-venom is available. The venom resulted in sin. The anti-venom results in forgiveness.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Feel the stinging bite? Call for the anti-venom.

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