Coco Calling No.293 - Taking Care of What Really Matters

Many years ago, when I was an unruly teenager, I used to have rough and tumbles on the floor with my owner’s pet labrador. Unfortunately, on one occasion, things got a bit out of hand. The labrador rolled over onto me, and I ended up with a broken femur. Fortunately, my owner took me to a specialist parrot vet. I joined a queue of assorted parrots in the waiting room, (which was adorned by a long string of parrot fairy lights). The vet, -a human of very few words, -soon identified my break, wrapped my leg up in a piece of Velcro, and then sent me home with the words ‘Nice bird.’ (Yes, he was clearly a very discerning man). And I was very fortunate because when there is a clean break, bird bones heal very quickly, and so within three weeks, I was back to normal again and none the worse for wear.

I have to hand it to humans; they certainly offer some wonderful care through their vets and their hospitals and their doctor’s surgeries. In fact, here in the U.K., the human government spends more than £200billion every year on the N.H.S. which must be one of their greatest achievements. But I sometimes wonder whether humans place too much emphasis on their physical and mental health instead of taking care of their spiritual wellbeing. Because good physical and mental health will see us all through to a normal life expectancy, but good spiritual health will see us through to eternity. A life here on Earth is gone in the blink of an eye, but a life spent in Heaven endures for ever. And making ourselves ‘Heaven ready’ is no easy thing. This world is full of pitfalls and hazards, all waiting to knock us off the rails. So much so that the only way we can ever hope to reach Heaven is to allow God to take over at the helm of our lives.  To pilot our ship across the stormy seas.

When I look around the world today, I see far too many human leaders, politicians, business tycoons and those human ‘fat cats,’ who are shining examples of ‘worldly success,’ but who are also spiritually impoverished. So, maybe someone, somewhere, needs to invent the ‘N.S.S.H.’ The National Service for Spiritual Health. Because a healthy inner spirit overcomes everything that the world can throw at us. Our wealth, our status, our health and our bodies will one day shrivel and die, but a God-filled inner spirit will always endure for ever and bring joy throughout adversity. And that is totally priceless as well as totally free…..

“Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.” 

(Martin Luther King Jnr.: [1929 – 1968]: American civil rights campaigner and Baptist Minister who was eventually assassinated by a white supremacist.)

“When a man is born of the Spirit of God, he’s a creature no longer of time, but he’s a creature of eternity ……. God’s Holy Spirit is the tonic. Yes sir. And it makes a new creature out of you. It makes a new person out of you. It straightens you up, and makes you what you ought to be…… He fills you with the spirit. He fills you with His own divine nature, and He changes your carnal nature into His nature. Then, in this, you become a new creation in Christ…… It has to be the Spirit of God with us, too, or all our efforts are in vain.” 

(William Marrion Branham: [1909 – 1965]: American Christian minister and faith healer.)

 

“God will meet you where you are in order to take you where He wants you to go.” 

(Tony Evans: [1949 – present]: American evangelical pastor, speaker and author.)

“God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.”       (Dwight Moody: [1837 – 1899]: Prominent American evangelist.)

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”

(1 Corinthians 6: 19a)