SALVATION
A word about salvation.  Because no human is good enough to enter the Kingdom of God, and I mean no one, it became necessary for God to make a way for us.  The alternative to Gods Kingdom is unthinkably hellish.  Therefore He doesn’t want anyone to suffer that reality.
God's way for us was for Him to become flesh in the man Jesus, the Messiah, who being without sin, bore the punishment for our sins; reconciling us to God.  Not only did Jesus die in our place, But He was also raised from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God continually interceding for us; covering all our sins past, present, and future with His innocent blood.
All God asks of us is to believe what I have just written, admit we’re not perfect and ask Jesus to cover us with His Blood.  Then be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Baptism is necessary to “fulfill all righteousness” and symbolizes being born again in Christ.  If we are sincere in our belief God will then indwell us with His Holy Spirit guaranteeing us as belonging to Him and give us the promise of resurrection, just as Jesus was, and eternal life in His Kingdom.
If we think we are a good person and don’t need help; we are greatly deceived.  Good is the enemy of perfect and God demands perfection, which can be obtained only by believing in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, for He is our perfection.
God bless you,
Marshall Warren   

Nature's Way

I had an experience the other day that caused me to think about the savagery of nature.  A male bear (boar) killed a fairly good sized cub in the backyard of a neighbor.  As is the bear's habit, he covered the dead cub to hide it and stayed with his kill to protect it. We couldn’t chase the old boar away, in fact, he had no fear of us at all.  There are children living nearby, so we had a problem.

As we stood by and watched him tear the cub apart and eat it, the decision was made that the bear had to be killed.  He was just too dangerous.  When wild animals lose their fear of humans they don’t become cute and friendly, they become dangerous.  

Eating one’s own kind in nature is not uncommon.  Nature is killing to live; there is one rule…survive!  By our standards, surviving in nature is savage; but for this adult bear, simply a necessity.

Wild animals rarely kill for fun.  There’s a good reason they don‘t.  The killing of any creature, regardless of the size differences, is dangerous.  The predator can’t afford an injury.   

I watched a dog I had hunt field mice.  One of them jumped at least a foot and latched on to the end of my dog's nose.  He yelped and shook his head violently until the mouse let go and went flying.  Dripping blood from the end of his nose he tucked his tail and trotted home. 

There are exceptions. I once lived in an area called the Callahan Divide, a rough mountainous region of west Texas.  In the last century, this was a big ranch country.  The descendants of one of the ranches broke it up into 50-acre tracts, creating a large subdivision.  Occasionally at night the family dogs would form packs and kill sheep and goats of the ranchers.  I have also witnessed them killing deer, just for fun.  I have seen documentaries saying domestic cats lead the world's list for predators.  In the above area quails and rabbits almost disappeared over a 25-year period.

Humans have always been hunter-gatherers and fishers.  Many peoples today still hunt and fish for survival.  In modern society, we have people that raise and kill animals for us.  Most people have lost touch with the reality that the meat they eat was an animal that someone killed for them.

Hunting for sport has been with us from antiquity.  “The poor kill to live, the rich live to kill.”  I was a professional hunter (PH) in Mozambique for a while.  People come to Africa from all over the world to hunt for fun.  Trophy hunters.  It’s a big business here in Alaska too.  I admit to having a problem with trophy hunting.  I was also responsible for anti-poaching on our 1,500,000 acre hunting concession in Mozambique.  I say this because the money raised by the controlled selling of wild animals to hunters is a major source of revenue to fight poaching.  The truth is poaching, not trophy hunting is what threatens African wildlife.
  There is no such thing as cannibalism or savagery in nature, just necessity. It is a mistake to attribute human characteristics to animals, because we are the true savages, killing without necessity.     

Marshall Warren