Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Turning Minuses into Plusses

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

In math, as in sports, mistakes count as permanent marks against your score.

These setbacks are always a lag on your performance, and you struggle to overcome them.

But in God’s marking system, our mistakes and failures are viewed differently: minuses aren’t permanent, and can even be turned into plusses.

First of all, God provides forgiveness for our sins through the atonement bought by His Son on the Cross. Our sins are wiped off the record, and we’re given a fresh start.

Secondly, God can even use our mistakes to further His purposes. He can bring good out of the messy parts of our lives.

Examples from the Old and New Testaments show us how:

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Saved By The Blood

Image of ground squirrel by Roy Buri from Pixabay

In a match between a ground squirrel and a deadly rattlesnake, whom would you bet on?

Remember, this is a ground squirrel: it can’t run up a tree to escape.

And if the squirrel needs to defend its burrow with its babies inside, it doesn’t have much choice: it has to stand its ground.

What chance does it have against a venomous rattlesnake?

More than you’d expect.

California ground squirrels have an ace up their sleeve.

When confronted by a rattlesnake, this squirrel is able to engorge its tail with extra blood. It then waves its tail back and forth vigorously, super-heating the blood.

The snake, while lethal, has relatively poor vision, so it can’t clearly see what it’s facing. It instead uses its built-in infrared sensor to detect heat.

The squirrel’s hot, blood-filled tail swishing to and fro mimics the heat signature of a much larger animal. The snake thinks twice about taking on such a formidable creature, and more often than not it slinks away, defeated.

The squirrel has been saved from its enemy by the blood.

And so are we.

On our own, we are no match for that serpent of old, Satan.

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