If inanimate creatures could but speak, your food would say, “Lord, must I nourish such a wretch as this, and yield forth my strength for him, to dishonor Thee? No, I will choke him rather, if Thou wilt give commission.” The very air would say, “Lord, must I give this man breath, to set his tongue against heaven, and scorn Thy people. . . . No, if Thou wilt but say the word, he shall be breathless for me.” His poor beast would say, “Lord, must I carry him upon his wicked designs? No, I will break his bones, I will end his days rather, if I may have but leave from Thee.” A wicked man; the earth groans under him, and hell groans for him, till death satisfies both.
– Joseph Alleine
1634 – 1668
Christ Alone Wyoming 
As a wise preacher (his name fell out of my head!) put it, regarding Uzzah’s attempt at “saving” the ark: Uzzah made the error of thinking he was cleaner than the dirt. The dirt had no sin.
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Good quote, makes one think and makes one realize that we are worse than the dirt, we are dirt polluted. We are like the dirt that one sees when a gas station is ripped down. The dirt is wretched, polluted and useless for nothing but must be carted away to a landfill never to be used for anything profitable again. Praise God for His cleansing power and undeserved merit…praise God.
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This is going to help with my fasting big time! Now I’m going to imagine my pop-tart begging God for permission to kill me every morning.
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Have we ever thought about how mortal we truly are? We are at the mercy of red lights, the yellow line separating the traffic, safety regulations limiting planes from falling out of the sky on us and most importantly, the love of a holy God that for some reason hasn’t obliterated us for our wanton sin and rebellion. We coast along in life oblivious to the fact that we teeter on the edge of eternity every second of every day and don’t realize it. Right down to our food, the air and the water we consume. Every moment of every part of our lives passes by God and He says, “He may continue to live”, or “It’s his time…”
Kind of makes what Jesus said about working now while it’s still light more apropos, doesn’t it?
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r&r:
I couldn’t agree more. Especially in light of Heb. 9:27. We get so distracted by duties, responsibilities, etc. that like Martha we lose focus on what’s really important. And nothing is as important as our eternity. And nothing more urgent than getting the Good News out to as many as possible while we still have opportunity.
Pilgrim:
Thank you for this reminder of a fundamental principle: all creation suffers because of man. Death, decay (even of the physical universe) being the direct result of man’s sin. And so all the innocent creatures (who weren’t created for us but for God’s pleasure, Rev. 4:11) suffer misery and death because of man. But that was not God’s plan or purpose, death being an enemy of God (1Cor.15:26). So we look forward to death being done away with altogether (Rev. 20:14), and the New Heaven and New Earth He will create, where all of His creatures can live together in joy and peace as He originally intended, never to die or suffer pain again. What a wonderful, glorious thing to look forward to!
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Well said, DavidW. The one thing that I am looking forward to is the fact that I will be free of this cursed flesh nature that holds me down from serving God the way He intended. It’s like an eagle being forced to hop around everywhere.
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