GOD’S WORD FOR JANUARY 22 ~ ~ Matthew 8:20 ~ ~ “And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”
If you feed birds in your yard, or even if you don’t, you’re probably familiar with the tiny Black-Capped chickadee: This delightful bird is friendly, and appreciates our feed in the winter. His perky “Chicka-dee-dee-dee” greeting blesses our hearts on a cold winter day . However, actually, the little chickadee communicates danger with its “chickadee-dee-dee” call. Bird-watchers also know that some other birds use different warnings for dangers from the air or from the ground.
Scientists decided to see if chickadees used specialized calls for different dangers. In their first experiments they used a stuffed hawk to see what the chickadees in an outdoor aviary would do. However, they were only fooled once, and after that researchers had to use live hawks. After studying over 5,000 responses, a pattern emerged. Small, agile raptors like hawks are more dangerous to chickadees than, say, a large, horned owl, which the chickadees can easily evade. When confronted by a smaller raptor, the birds’ “chicka” call added up to four “dee”s in rapid succession, instead of two more leisurely “dee”s. Even more “dee”s might be added if the chickadees evaluated the danger as greater. Most frightening to the little birds was a pygmy owl that rated 23 “dee”s.
God cares for all His creatures and has given them protection in many ways, including warning each other of the dangers of predators, which came through man’s sin, and was not present in the garden before that time.
We are also warned of dangers to our spiritual life. The Word of God warns us of many dangers that are always present in our lives, powered by the enemy, the world system, or our own evil nature, which, even after being saved, will remain with us all our lives on this earth.
But the Word warns us to walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
That means, like the chickadee is warning his brothers…… “heads up, bros” “don’t fly into danger” “don’t land in a vulnerable place” “You are weakened now, and in grave danger, go for shelter” That, for us, would be “under the shadow of His wings”
Psalm 17:8~ ~ “Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of Your wings,”
But, even worse danger is warned in God’s Word for the unsaved, who have never been under the shadow of His wings yet. Jesus Himself warns the unsaved, who have never fully relied on Him for forgiveness of their sins, without any church or priest in between, that they are in the most grave danger a human being could possibly be in.
John 8:21-24~ ~ “ Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”
So the Jews said, “Will He kill Himself, because He says, ‘Where I go you cannot come’?”
And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
We are all vulnerable like the tiny chickadee in the evil world. Please, heed the warnings, walk in the Spirit if you’re saved, and lead others to follow, and run to the Savior if you’re not yet saved. He’s waiting with open arms and a loving heart.