She Took Their Sting
CBS News reports:
Firefighters responded to a call about a bee attack after a mother and her two children were swarmed and attacked by bees while doing a family photo shoot, Arizona Fire & Medical Authority said in a statement on Facebook.
Fire officials said the mother's "quick thinking" saved her kids from being stung when she put them in the car as she took the brunt of the stings.
"She was transported to the hospital with over 75 stings but thankfully has recovered," fire officials said.
A mother's love is fierce, willing to take all the pain, all the trauma, and even the threat of death to protect the children she loves.
How much more fierce is the love of the Savior, taking all the pain, all the trauma, and not just the threat of death, but death itself to protect His children from eternal eternal separation from God?
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55, NIV).
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24, NIV).
The Wages of Sin
Consider the following parable:
One day a LONG time ago there were two coal mines in the heart of Central Pennsylvania. It was payday at one of the mines, and there was a long line of men coming to the cashier's desk to receive their wages. The men were very tired from a long week and a LONG, LONG day of work! The men from the first coal mine were getting their wages, when some men came up whom the cashier didn't know.
"Where have you been working?", he asked.
"We were working in the other mine," they answered.
“Well, then that is the place to go for your money."
"No," they said, "we like your pay best; we are tired, and we want rest, and we want peace and plenty, and we want to be happy knowing that we have worked so hard for good wages! At the mine where we have been working, they are treating us cruelly, and we get no pay, but blows and hard words. Won't you pay us?"
But the cashier said, "No; you chose to work in the other mine, and you must take the wages they pay; you cannot work for one employer and get your wages from another."
That was fair, was it not?
Romans 6:23 clearly tells us that "The wages of sin is DEATH!" But how many people are working in the "mine" of sin and expecting to recieve the wages that God has to offer. Matthew 6:24 tells us, "No man can serve two masters." How can we serve one master and expect to receive from another?
We find in Romans 6:16 that we are a slave to whomever we choose to obey. If we choose to obey sin, this will bring us the "wages" or the "salary" of death. On the contrary, if we choose to be a slave of God and serve Him, this will bring us the "wages" or the "salary" of life.
Don't work for sin and expect to receive the wages that God bestows!
Enter the Poison Garden
Have you ever heard of the Poison Garden?
The Alnwick Garden [located in Alnwick, UK] plays host to the small but deadly Poison Garden—filled exclusively with around 100 toxic, intoxicating, and narcotic plants. The boundaries of the Poison Garden are kept behind black iron gates, only open on guided tours.
Visitors are strictly prohibited from smelling, touching, or tasting any plants.
Entry to The Poison Garden is included with your day ticket but please note tours are subject to availability.
Wait, what?! A garden filled with nothing but poisonous plants?!
A combination of dark, ivy-covered tunnels and flame-shaped beds creates an educational garden full of interest and intrigue, where the most dangerous plants are kept within giant cages. ... The Poison Garden is home to around 100 species of dangerous, toxic and harmful plants, each of which has the potential to severely injure you! These are some of the most dangerous to look (but not touch) out for on your tour:
Laburnum
Atropa Belladonna
Helleborus Odorus
Monkshood
Ricinus communis
Giant Hogweed
Opium Poppy
Gympie- Gympie
… and hundreds more!
Aparently, though quite deadly, these poisonous plants can be quite beautiful and alluring ...
This world is a veritable poison garden filled with all manner of temptations and worldly pursuits that can quite literally kill us!
God calls us to wander through this Poison Garden circumspectly, careful to not "touch" the poison all around us.
Long story short, enter the Poison Garden careful to obey all the warning signs!
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23, ESV).
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—" (Romans 5:12, ESV).
"Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:15, ESV).
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17, ESV).