Just Another Dog Devotion

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”  John 6:9 NIV

Some people never feed their dogs human food and that’s great.  Our dogs wait patiently for the last bite and always get to lick the plate clean.  They know that if it is up to the baby, a lot more food will be thrown their way and licking her hands and face after a meal is a given.

The little boy in John 6 has five small loaves of bread and two small fish.  That’s not too much more than what our dogs can expect to be slipped under the table and yet in Jesus’ hands, it fed 5,000 men and who knows how many women and children?

A bag lunch multiplied to feed over five thousand people.  The story of Jesus healing ten lepers is recorded in Luke 17.  John 2 tells us Jesus turned water into wine as his first miracle.  Stories abound of amazing miracles in the gospels and testimonials of people we may know, but are we amazed?  Do we skim over the details accepting them as fact without realizing how amazing it really is?

The disciples reported to Jesus the amount of food they had found to feed the crowd.  Such a small amount yet it was multiplied to feed so many.  Are you comprehending the amazing facts of the story?  When you sit down to dinner with enough to feed your family and have a few leftovers and the pieces of meat that you slip to your dogs under the table could feed the town where you live.  Can you see it?  The lunch you pack for your child could feed everyone in the school cafeteria?  That’s amazing!

Think and ponder the greatness of God.  He’s bigger than you can imagine.  His robe fills the church you attend (Isaiah 6:1).  He’s able to do over and abundantly more than you can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).  God is truly amazing!

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For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  II Corinthians 5:1 ESV

Lucy found herself in the position of being rehomed.  To rehome means to find your dog a new home where it will be safe and loved.

Lucy’s family could no longer take care of her and she was staying with friends.  Burt met Lucy and they became buddies; loving to play, run, and jump.  Lucy could tire Burt out and so we adopted Lucy for Burt to play with and hoped he would be too tired to destroy the house and what was left of the furniture.

We are adopted into the family of God when we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior.  Ephesians 5:1 tells us, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.  This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure”.  We now belong to him and he assures us in Deuteronomy 31:6 and Hebrews 13:5 that he will never leave or forsake us.  We belong to God.  Psalm 100:3 states, “Know that the LORD, he is God!  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture”.

With God, we are safe and loved.  He will never look for a new home for us.  Our place is reserved in heaven with him for eternity.

 

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“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”  Proverbs 27:17 NIV

Duke waits under the table as we eat to ensure he doesn’t miss a crumb.  Our granddaughter actively throws things in his direction and truthfully, any and all directions.  Her dogs sit on each side of her high chair waiting to lick her face and hands and devour anything dropped.  Burt stands and barks at you as you eat, letting his requests be known.

Articles and signs of what not to feed your dog are as plentiful as The Food Pyramid and diet information for adults.  I personally don’t use onion or garlic anymore so I can share with my pups.  As pet owners, we are responsible for our pets diets (at least their indoor diets).  We are their accountability partners.

To be accountable is to be responsible.  Our pets don’t always make the right choices in food intake and other behaviors.  We team up with them to help them live their best lives.  We are a family that loves and cares for each other.

So it is with our Christian family.  We are united in Christ and love and care for each member.  We are to speak the truth in love to help each other stay on track.  It is not always easy to speak nor is it easy to hear correction.  Many churches encourage accountability partners.  This would be someone you can trust to always speak the truth in your best interest.  Someone who will keep your confidences and pray for you to succeed in your walk with God.

James 5:16 tells us to confess our faults one to another, and pray one for another.  Galatians 6:2 states, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ”.  Our verse today tells us that as Christians, we can sharpen each other, making us better members of the body of Christ.  Sometimes, it is easier to see the speck in your brother’s eye than the plank in your own eye (Matthew 7:5).  With an accountability partner, you can both see clearly.

Of course, Jesus is our greatest accountability partner.  I John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.  If you are like our dogs though, find that one trusted friend who has your best interests at heart, to help you be a Christian who is as sharp as a tack.

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In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  I Thessalonians 5:18 NIV

I have been thinking a lot about the past lately.  Memories of Danni float through my mind, bringing tears, laughter and thankfulness for the years she dedicated to loving our family.

I cherish the thoughts of the Christmas tree farm visits where she would run free and her running through the snow at the cemetery with the deer quietly watching nearby.  Memories of Christmas morning, holding her stocking while she took one thing out in her mouth, retreated up the stairs by herself to enjoy her toy or treat, then quietly returning to repeat the process till her stocking was empty.  Frustrated memories of Danni sitting as still as a statue in the car, while we pulled and pushed as she refused to meet our eyes.  We would give in and drive her around the block.  Licking us in thanks, Danni would settle in the seat.  Arriving home, she would hop out of the car, satisfied with our compromise.

Danni is our past but always present in our hearts and I am thankful.  As much as I hate to say it, Burt is our present and our future. I am trying to be thankful. We have a lot of work to do on present and future Burt.

I read a Thanksgiving devotional using I Thessalonians 5:18 as the scripture.  It is a popular verse at Thanksgiving.  It simply states that in everything give thanks for that is God’s will for you.  I have read many devotions on this verse and listened to many sermons.  Some concentrated on what is God’s will for you?  To give thanks.  Others urged us to be thankful always.  This one pointed out the word in.  In everything give thanks, not for everything.  In your recuperation, give thanks, not necessarily for your recuperation.  In your illness, give thanks.  In the death of your pet and trying to live through the new pet, give thanks.  In the loss of your marriage or the teenage years of your children, give thanks.  For it, no, but in it, yes.

I don’t know what future Thanksgivings look like but I’m sure there will be many things I will be thankful for but also many things I must be thankful in.  Life is full of mountains and valleys, the good times, the bad times and the in between times.  God is there.  Whatever season of thanksgiving you are in, He is here and that is our reason to give thanks in everything.

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“And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.  Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him”.  Acts 10:38 NLT

Burt knows what it is to “go around”.  First he went around to three different shelters.  He goes around to each piece of furniture to tear the stuffing out or from table to table to peer out the window.  He periodically escapes to go around the neighborhood.  You hear his distinctive hound bark first on one street, then the next.  You may even periodically see him run through his own yard to give you a failed attempt at catching him before he gets hit by a car.  You may worry that his leash will get caught on something and he will get hurt but you need not fear as he has chewed that off to prevent injury.  Burt gets around.

Jesus got around, but unlike Burt, he went around doing good.  Paul states in Acts that his purpose in going around was to do good and heal all.  God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and God was with him.  Jesus started his day with prayer and then he got to it. He didn’t have a to-do list where he checked off good deeds as they were accomplished.  He lived his life and went around doing good.

You may think that you don’t have any opportunities to go around doing good.  You might be confined at home and can’t get around but you can live your everyday life as Jesus lived.  You can start your day with prayer and be filled with the Holy Spirit and know that God is with you.

All those we meet are opportunities for God to shine through you.  A phone call from a telemarketer or a scam artist trying to get your Social Security number are all God’s children that are loved by Him.  You may even own a Burt and feel there is no hope but God is with you as you go around living the exciting or mundane minutes of each day.

Give your day to the Lord and see what happens as you go around because God is with you wherever you are.

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The sons of Amram:  Aaron and Moses.  Aaron was set apart, he and his descendants forever, to consecrate the most holy things, to offer sacrifices before the LORD, to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in his name forever.  I Chronicles 23:13 NIV

To set apart is to select something or someone for a specific purpose.  Something is dedicated for a specific purpose or task.  It is to be chosen, picked out, selected or taken from a number of alternatives.  I hate to admit it but this is what I did with Burt.  I selected him out of all the other alternatives at the Humane Society.  As he reclined on his bed, filled with his anxiety medication, looking calm and quiet, I walked by and stopped.  I told my daughters, I like this one.

There were others I was drawn to but I selected Burt.  I set him apart for the specific purpose of being our new dog.  He was chosen to be a part of our family.  He was selected to come home with us and that is where he remains.

We have been chosen and set apart for a specific purpose by God.  He sent his one and only son to die on a cross that we might be children of the living God.  We have been selected to be part of his family.  We are on our way home to him and that is where we will remain.

Burt has proved himself to be quite a trial.  He trashes our home and tests us on a daily basis.  He is not the best fit for our family but I pray he is a work in progress.

I am thankful that I too am a work in progress and God does not regret purchasing me with the blood of his precious son.  He sees the finished product.  He knows the plans he has for me.  Plans for good and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).  I praise him that he is faithful to complete what he has started in me (Philippians 1:6) and that the power is from God and not from us (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Romans 8:30-39 in the NLT states, “And having chosen them, he called them to come to him.  And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself.  And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.  What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?  If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?  Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?  No one-for God himself has given us right standing with himself.  Who then will condemn us?  No one-for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.  Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?  Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  (As scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)  No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow-not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below-indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

Relax!  God loves you just as your are and always will.  He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).  He has set you apart as his own.

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Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  Ephesians 6:11 NIV

My husband asked me in church this morning if I noticed anything different about his suit.  I looked but did not notice anything specific.  He pointed out that the jacket no longer had any buttons on it.  Burt had struck again.  Burt likes clothes as well as furniture to chew.  Anything in this hound dog’s vicinity is fair game.

Have you ever showed up anywhere half dressed?  Not being clothed properly can leave us feeling vulnerable and totally unworthy.  The proper attire gives us confidence and a boldness.

The Bible has a lot to say about being clothed in Christ’s righteousness.  We are told to put on the full armor of God so that we are able to stand in battle and know we are protected from the evil one.  God’s proper attire fills us with His confidence and the Holy Spirit’s boldness.

We don’t have to be concerned with buying the right clothing as it has already been provided for us.  When Christ died on the cross for our redemption, his shed blood is our covering.  We will never stand naked before the throne of God.

Isaiah 61:10 tells us, “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God.  For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels”.  Just as the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve in the garden, he will clothe us.  Zechariah 3:4 states, “He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him’ Again he said to him, ‘See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes’.  In Revelation 3:4, he addresses the church of Sardis saying there were some who had not soiled their garments; and they were worthy and would walk with Christ in white.

We have everything we need in Christ to be fully clothed.  Ephesians 6 lists the armor of God that we are to put on daily.  The belt of truth for Jesus is the truth.  The breastplate of righteousness for Jesus is our righteousness.  Our feet are covered with the gospel of peace for Jesus is the good news of peace.  The shield of faith covers us as we have faith in Jesus for our salvation and our hope of heaven.  On our head is the helmet of salvation protecting us from false and negative thinking and our sword is God’s word, the bible and Jesus Christ, God’s living word.  What else could we possibly need or want when in Christ we are fully clothed in His righteousness alone?

You need never fear showing up half dressed when Christ is your righteousness.

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“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”  Lamentations 3:24 ESV

“When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.”  Psalm 94:19 ESV

There is a song called “Gone Crazy” sung by Alan Jackson.  One line of the chorus states, “Ever since you left, I’ve been gone”.  It spoke to my heart as there are times that we lose someone and we are still physically present but we are emotionally gone.  Such is the case with losing Danni.  I go through the everyday routines but many times I feel mentally and emotionally checked out.

Genesis 37 tells the story of Joseph. His brothers are jealous of him and his big dreams so they plot to kill him. Instead of killing him, they sell him as a slave. They come up with a plan to tell their father. They kill a goat then dip Joseph’s robe into the blood. They take it to their father, Jacob, and he believes Joseph to be killed by a wild animal. Verse 34 tells us, “Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.'” So his father wept for him”.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 states that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.  Lamentations 3:22-24 tells us, “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail, They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”  Did you catch that phrase?  I say to myself!

What are you saying to yourself?  Are your thoughts negative and only of the past?  Are you noticing the sunrise of a new day where God’s great love for us is shown in numerous ways?  Are you gone emotionally or are you present for the beauty of God’s great gifts to us?  Do you tell yourself to arise and shine with God’s love?

Yes, there is a time to weep. Even Jesus wept.  There is a time to laugh and a time to mourn but let’s be present to experience God’s great love for us.  It is new every morning.

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“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves”.  Matthew 7:15 NASB

Many people put up “Beware of Dog” signs.  Some truly are guard dogs who are quite protective and you wouldn’t want to get on their property.  Others are more to protect the owners so you are properly warned if you get nipped on their land.  A “Beware” sign gets your attention and you know to look out and be very cautious.

The bible is full of “Bewares”.  In Matthew 7, Jesus is preaching and teaching his sermon on the mount.  It lists instructions on what to do and what not to do.  In verse 15, he tells us that false prophets come disguised as sheep but are truly wolves in sheep’s clothing.   Jesus follows it up by telling us in verse 16 that we will know them by their fruits.  Good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit.  We should approach with caution until we see their actions.  Jesus warns his followers in Matthew 10:16, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.  Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves”.

Jesus tells us in the end times that false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24).  2 Corinthians 11:14 states, “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light”.

Not everyone you meet will be transparent in their words and deeds.  We are to do unto others as we would have them do unto us but we are to be wise in our relationships and dealings.  Some are out to deceive and there will be no “Beware of the Dog” sign to warn you.  We must fill up on the word of God and look to their fruit to know whether the tree is good or bad.

Don’t be deceived.  Be wise.  Be cautious.  Proceed with care.  You don’t want to get bitten when you least expect it.

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He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept.  I thought, ‘Who knows?  The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.’  But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting?  Can I bring him back again?  I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”  II Samuel 12:22-23 NIV

Who would have thought the death of my dog, Danni, would shake me to the very core of my being?  I am hanging on by a thread and my faith is the only thing I cling to but it seems so very fragile and far, far away.  I know God loves me but I feel so utterly and devastatingly alone.

I prayed.  No, that is a lie.  I do not have the energy or gumption to form words and sentences in prayer.  My unspoken thoughts were answered with the above scripture by a loving God who knows what I need before I ask.

II Samuel 12 records the account of King David after Nathan the prophet goes to him to reveal his sin with Bathsheba.  Nathan tells David that God has taken away his sin but the consequences are that their son would die (verses 13-14).  As soon as Nathan left, the child was taken ill.  David pleaded with God on behalf of the boy.  He fasted and prayed, laying in sackcloth on the ground.

After seven days, David’s child died.  Everyone was afraid to tell David of his death because he had been so despondent.  They feared he might do something desperate but upon hearing his son had died, David got up from the ground.  He washed, changed clothes and immediately ate.  All around him were surprised and asked the King why he acted like this?  His reply is our verse today, “Who knows?  The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.  But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting?  Can I bring him back again?  I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

A funk is a state of depression.  I am in a funk and I do not believe I am alone as daily circumstances, disappointments, and tragedies are faced by each of us.  We can hold up after suicide, illnesses and suddenly the death of your beloved dog sends you over the edge.

The Bible is filled with everyday people facing everyday things.  With God’s help, we can get up off the ground.  We will wash, change our clothes and eat to survive because our God is able.  He is able to sustain us.  He is able to hear our unspoken cry.  He is not far, far away.  He is right there in the middle of your funk waiting to lift you up.  Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).

 

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