Cleaning the fish does not mean giving them a bubble bath.....

I can't believe summer is here.  I know the calendar says it's a little ways off yet, but Memorial Day has passed and it's hotter than a cheap tamale so I say it's summer time.  We can all pull out the white pants and shoes now with no fear of being out of season.  I am in the south, remember, where white before Memorial Day or after Labor Day is taboo.  We survived the three day holiday intact. We had the required grilled burger and yard work without the annual trip to the pool.  I just didn't have it in me this year, well, that and the fact that I still don't have a pool key, but that's another story completely.  (sorry, I'm a little distracted by the ginormous spider right outside my window that has just caught a bug and is busy wrapping his breakfast to go. eewwww!!!)    We also watched the required series marathon on tv.  This year it was a show called "River Monsters with Jeremy Wade".  Have you ever seen it?  It really is fascinating.  I will never swim in a river again, but the show was great.  This guy, Jeremy, travels the world, fishing in all these remote locations for what he calls "fresh water monsters".  Some of the things he pulls out of the water are enough to give a girl nightmares!  He caught a catfish that weighed 300lbs.  300lbs!!!!  It looked as if it could have swallowed a small child, and was actually accused of doing just that.  Boat ride? No thanks, I'm just find right here on the shore!  On the last episode we watched, Jeremy was fishing somewhere on the Amazon river in South America.  He was trying to catch a really nastily aggressive fish with way too many teeth called the wolf fish.  So here this guy is in the middle of the night, fishing a small stream out in the jungle, hundreds of miles from civilization, for a fish that could rip him to shreds.  (Jeremy, while somewhat attractive, is not necessarily the smarted fish in the pond!)  After days of fishing, he finally hooks a wolf fish.  Unfortunately, the stream he is dipping his rod into is also home to a cayman.  If you're not familiar with the cayman, it's a slightly smaller, somewhat more aggressive cousin to the crocodile.  It's not something you want to cuddle up to! lol  They are the gangstas of the jungle. In other words, they will cut you.  Anyway, back on the river, Jeremy has finally beaten the odds and his frustration and hooked a wolf fish.  However, he is really more concerned about the cayman and it's interest in his catch than he is landing his trophy.  In his rush to get it out of the water before his competition can sink it's teeth into it, he lets it get away.  After words of extreme frustration the likes of which I cannot reprint here, Jeremy decides to try a different location.  Good idea, Jeremy!  Wow! what made you think of that one?  Could the critter waiting to remove a limb have been part of your persuasion?  So the mighty hunter moves to a more conducive spot, lands his aquatic treasure, gets the shot on camera, releases his gilled friend and as his smiling face filled my tv screen the credits roll and everyone is happy.

Most of you know me well enough by now to know my brain works in mysterious ways and sees connections where few others do and this is no exception.  After the tv watching was completed for the evening my mind continued to return to the cayman inhabited stream in the dark, lonely regions of South America.  (if I have my way, in my mind is the closest I will ever get to actually being there. my idea of roughing it means there's no room service!)  You see, Jeremy was fishing in the cayman's territory.  His reptilian friend was there first and had already laid claim to all that surrounded it.  Being a conservationist, Jeremy wouldn't just pick up a gun and blow the gnarly, blood thirsty monster away.  I, on the other hand, not being a conservationist would not have had any problem at all helping Mr Toothy meet his maker before I started fishing.  (don't send me nasty notes, I love all God's creatures, but I am allergic to being eaten by one)  Jeremy wanted something the cayman considered his and in the process of trying to get it nearly lost more blood than was healthy and in the end lost the fish as well.  When we are going after something in our lives the enemy considers his we must not go in blindly, hoping he won't mind if I just grab this one little thing and go.  Unless you enjoy a good spiritual blood letting it would be wise to take some precautions first.  Think of how much easier it would have been to land the fish had the cayman (the enemy) been bound up first.  When we have, by choices we have made, given the enemy of our souls legal right to something we can expect he will fight to keep it.  The good news is, through the blood of Jesus, it's possible to remove that legal right, bind the enemy up, and regain what has been lost.  Make no mistake, trying to do this in your own power will, most often, result in spiritual blood loss as well as the possible removal off a spiritual limb or two.  Don't hesitate to accept the authority given to you through the blood of the lamb to bind up the caymans in your life and take back what the enemy has stolen and now considers his possession.

What are you missing in your life? Are there things you have allowed the enemy to slip in and take that you would like to have back? Go! Get your spiritual fishing rod, the bait of the Holy Spirit found in the tackle box of the Word and go fishing!  But first, make sure you deal with the cayman in your stream or you could be in trouble.

In the meantime, I'll be here, sitting on the side, dangling my toes in the water............of the pool!  If you had seen what I had seen you would feel the same way.  I'm now suspect of the little creek behind the house. You never know...........

Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor