The Dangerous Gamble - Devotional: Silver Rain. September 20, 2016

A pastor in a church had a tradition of housing poisonous snakes in a room in his church, wrapping them around his neck claiming God' protection.

He along with his church kept declaring the Bible verse:

Luke 10:19 King James Version (KJV)

19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

One day, in church, as a snake was wrapped around his neck, and he was singing and worshiping, the snake viciously bit him.  It was a poisonous snake.  The pastor refused medicine believing he would get healed.  The pastor died.

The Bible says Luke 4

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,

    and they will lift you up in their hands,

    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test."

Purposely doing something dangerous and claiming God's protection is folly.

One day in India, a man was walking along a road when he saw something lying on the road.  He looked closer and saw it was a half dead cobra snake.  The man was a worshiper of snakes so his heart was filled with compassion and took the snake home, gave it milk and helped it revive.  He thought "It is a god and it will bless me!"

That night as he was sleeping, the snake crawled over to him and bit him.  It was a cobra snake with venomous poison and the man died within 30 minutes.

There is a verse in the Bible:  Proverbs 22:3:  "3 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty."

When we know someone has the potential to destroy us, we do not entertain them.  We do not invite them to our homes or hang out with them.  This is called wisdom, prudence.  It is not just about saving your skin.  It goes deeper.  It saves other lives too.

Compassion to evil will result in it destroying the person along with perhaps hundreds or even million of others.  This can happen in nations.  We have compassion on a group of people and take them in, but they actually have an intent to get into our homes and kill us.

If a person has embraced intrinsic evil, they will not change, no matter how much love we give them.  It was their choice.  Unless of course, they finally respond to God's love, which is very rare in souls who willfully chose evil.

When we see evil, we do not entertain it, play with it or call it to our homes.  We do not name and claim protection while we willfully call it in.  That is putting God to the test, a sin in itself.

Flee from it, and don’t look back.

Silver Rain is a devotional based on true incidents.  I called it Silver Rain because I had a vision of beautiful silver rain falling down.  I saw a musical later with beautiful gentle rain falling down.  Later, I opened the Bible and found the verse Ezekiel 34:26 "I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing."  There is always blessing in showers of rain.  The Word of God refreshes and replenishes us spiritually.  May Silver Rain replenish and refresh you.  This is my prayer for you.
Rita.

Some of the names of the individuals have been changed to protect their privacy.