Last week, my family trimmed some rhododendron bushes and offered the branches to our herd of goats. Because they love to eat anything green, all but two of them started to eat greedily. Those leaves were so fresh and delicious!
However, by the next morning, they were sick. Nasty, smelly, green paste covered their whole pen, the barn wall and themselves. They looked miserable, and the baby goats’ cries were pitiful. What had looked to them (and to us) like a tasty treat had turned out to be poisonous and possibly deadly.
We started giving them liquids to help them, but they did not seem to know we were trying to help. If they were strong enough, they tried to run away. They did not know that without our immediate help, they would die.
This story reminds me of the situation many people find themselves in. They have sinned by disobeying God, not realizing that what looked fun or even beneficial, like the rhododendron leaves looked to the goats, was really dangerous. Now they are sick, and they cannot help themselves. They are on the road to hell and certain death, feeling miserable, yet not allowing the Healer to help.
Who is the Healer? He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, who came to earth over 2,000 years ago to provide the only remedy for our sin. The remedy is free. Because of His suffering, death and resurrection to take away our sins, all we must do to be saved is to accept the gift of God which is “eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31) tells us, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “With His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:55But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)).
We did manage to help the goats, and we were glad that some of them got better before long. It seemed that the ones who ate the most took the longest to get better, but finally all of them were healed.
Will you allow Jesus to heal you? Or will you keep running from Him and insisting on a path that leads to death and destruction?
Messages of God’s Love 1/31/2021