*** PORTIONS ***


Re: Daredevil Sparrow

The other evening as I was sitting on the back step, reading from my 
Palm in Isaiah, the most bizarre thing happened. But let's set the stage 
first:

One of my neighbors has a bird feeder in her back yard, at which the 
neighborhood sparrows feast regularly. Some of those sparrows make their 
home in some bushes next to the house of the neighbor to the other side 
of me. So, these sparrows regularly fly back and forth, between their 
bush, and the feeder; flying -very- close to my house; and if I'm 
sitting at the back step, they fly right next to me...so close that I 
can easily hear the flutter of their wings, and if I were fast-as-a-cat, 
I could probably reach out and grab them as they fly by...they fly that 
close. They always fly across, whether I'm there or not, at 
break-neck-speed. Zooooom!!!

OK...so the other evening I'm sitting there, as I do regularly, now that 
spring is warming up, sitting sideways leaning up against the side of 
the house; this little 'corner' that is cut out where my back door is. 
It's kinda like a little two-sided 'nook' to sit in, enclosed on two 
sides. As I'm thusly leaned against the house, head somewhat forward, 
reading from my Palm, I hear this sparrow starting to fly 'by'...but as 
he gets to where I'm sitting, he makes a bee-line over between my head 
and the wall, circling around inside this 'nook'ish' area, and back over 
to the roof of the house where 'his' -bush- is situated. Up on top of 
the roof, hopping around, body up tall, head stretched out....really 
STRUTTIN' HIS STUFF...to put human expression to what he was doing, as 
if to say: "Look what I just did! I dive-bombed the human!"

Now, mind you...between my head and the house was barely 6-8 inches, and 
as he flew through/between (not over), his fluttering wing brushed 
against my head/neck. Of course, being startled, I expressed: "Whoa! 
What's going on here!"  And then, as I realized the sparrow was 
strutting up on the roof, eyeing me, 'bragging', I laaaaughed back at 
him.

A friend suggests to me that this may be a 'male' bird behavior, as he 
told about what their male cockatiel does when let loose to fly around 
the house, doing a similar dive-bomb sort of thing to them; but the 
female doesn't. Perhaps this is, simply, 'male' behavior. Don't human 
males do similar things?  I dare ya to do....! And the males do all 
sorts of things to try to impress each other, and the females; as they 
try to one-up each other.  The bragging rights!

(maybe one of these times I'll sit out there with a piece of bread in my 
hand, and see if he will come by and snatch it up)

Trouble is, such one-ups-manship often lands the strutting one in the 
hospital, as they had been pushing the limits just a tad too far, and 
messed up....and got hurt; sometimes, killed.

This sparrow, now... had I anticipated his intentions, I could just as 
easily have pushed my head back, pinned him in, caught him....and then, 
boy oh boy! what a 'fix' he -could- have been in!

Well...this is -precisely- what many so-called "christians" do. And yes, 
even -real- Christians, struggling with the flesh, do it, too.  I can 
dabble next to the things of the world, but it's not gonna snag me, 
because I'm a "strong" Christian. See how quickly I can fly right next 
to that human? He can't catch me! Strut, strut, strut.  The young people 
engage in petting/necking/making-out (whatever they may be calling it 
these days): Oh, we're being 'careful' and won't go 'too-far'...not yet 
understanding the strength of hormones, until it's too late.  Like 
somebody I know, who is an alcoholic, and he has been assuring me for 
some time, when I ask him, that he's "staying dry"; and the other day 
when I happened to see him at the store buy a couple of bottles of 
liquor, looked him in the eye, and chided him; he assures me that he's 
not binge-drinking. He's on his ???th DUI license revocation...doesn't 
he GET IT? An alcoholic CAN'T DRINK...NOT A DROP.

But "christians" behave like the world, dress like the world, entertain 
themselves with satanist music, even bringing satan into their church 
services...Oh, but it doesn't 'affect' meeee like that!  As they wallow 
in their self-worth and self-esteem and self-confidence and pride.

Here's what God's Word says:

"The way of the upright is to turn away from evil; he who keeps his way 
guards his soul. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit 
before a fall. It is better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, 
than to divide the spoils with the proud." (Pr16:17-19)

And regarding the carnal church at Corinth, that was openly allowing 
sexually perverse people the full blessings of fellowship: 

"Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens 
the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a 
new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, 
was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old 
leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the 
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1Co5:6-8)

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off 
the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk 
decently, as in the day, not in carousings and drunkenness, not in 
cohabitation and licentiousness, not in strife and envy. But put on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its 
lusts." (Rom13:12-14)

Amen!

---