-------Humor-------

I borrowed this joke from the Clean Jokes newsletter:

A very zealous soul-winning young preacher recently came upon a farmer working in his field. Being concerned about the farmer's soul the preacher asked the man, "Are you laboring in the vineyard of the Lord, my good man?

Not even looking at the preacher and continuing his work, the farmer replied, "Naw, these are soybeans."

"You don't understand," said the preacher. "Are you a Christian?"

With the same amount of interest as his previous answer the farmer said, "Nope my name is Jones. You must be looking for Jim Christian. He lives a mile south of here."

The young determined preacher tried again asking the farmer, "Are you lost?"

"Naw! I've lived here all my life," answered the farmer.

"Are you prepared for the resurrection?" the frustrated preacher asked. This caught the farmer's attention and he asked, "When is it gonna be?"

Thinking he had accomplished something the young preacher replied, "It could be today, tomorrow, or the next day."

Taking a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiping his brow, the farmer remarked, "Well, don't mention it to my wife. She don't get out much and she'll wanna go all three days."

-------Beasts Of The Field-------

What does the animal kingdom have to do with man? Man was created by God and man was to have dominion over the animal kingdom. In fact, God assigned Adam the task of naming the animal kingdom. Animals did not fear man in the Garden of Eden. All indications are that they did not eat each other to survive either. Man was intended to live in perfect harmony with the animal kingdom.

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Genesis 1:26 - 28

Eden was paradise and man lived in perfect harmony with both God and animal. God told man to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or man would surely die. Satan came along in the form of a serpent beguiling Eve into tasting the forbidden fruit. Eve was curious and chose to believe Satan's lie, "You shall not surely die", rather than God's truth, "You will surely die". Adam, who could not bear the thought of life without Eve, also partook of the fruit. Sin entered into paradise and paradise was lost.

By believing Satan's lie, man handed the dominion over this planet to Satan. How could the dominion be handed back to man? Scripture calls Jesus Christ the second Adam. Jesus paid the penalty for man's sin which paid off the deed that Satan has on this planet. Paradise will be restored on this planet but the time is not yet.

The animal kingdom was cursed because an animal was used to bring sin into paradise. Scripture does not tell us exactly when animals had to devour each other to survive but after Noah's flood, God said, 1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Genesis 9

God gave the animal kingdom to man for food. Man also uses animals for farming and labor and man still has dominion over the animal kingdom but that dominion is tainted by the curse of sin and the result of sin is death. I see evidence of the death curse as I travel the roads every day.

Animal rights activists are wrong when they get upset over animals killed in farms to provide food for humans. However, millions of animals are killed daily that has nothing to do with food and I believe in the old saying that what goes around comes around. Man will pay a heavy price for abusing his dominion over the animal kingdom.

Roadkill alone is a horrible abuse of the animal kingdom. In America alone, it is estimated that over one million animals are killed by cars or trucks every day. Few of us desire to run over animals and we all wished that animals had the ability to reason so they could look both ways before crossing the street. Last summer, a very large raccoon emerged from a ditch in a dead run right in front of my car which was traveling 60 mph at the time. There was nothing I could do to keep from hitting the animal. This scenario is repeated a million times each day.

Motor vehicles make it possible to travel great distances in a short period of time but this "progress" has had a very high death toll with both humans and animals. I believe it has upset the natural balance of things. There is going to be a payback. When I look at the headlines with all the deadly diseases looming over our heads like the Sword of Damocles, I am struck by the fact that these diseases were first found in animals then they mutated and leaped to humans. AIDS is known as the green monkey virus. Now we hear about the possibility of a major disease outbreak called the bird flu.

During the tribulation, a fourth part of man is destroyed by sword, hunger, death, and the beasts of the earth. Some believe that the beasts of the earth will kill with disease and that may be true. I believe that the natural fear of man will be removed at that time and the beasts will devour man because of hunger. We are now living in a world tainted by sin which results in death and it is very sad to watch. However, there is coming a time when the sin will be removed and paradise will be restored. People fear the coming of the Lord but they shouldn't. He's coming back to make things better.

Isaiah said 6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea. Chapter 11

I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to be a part of that.

Copyright 2006 by Gary Goodworth