RATTLESNAKE BITE!

I want to post an answerered prayer. It is one of those that you don't have time to do anything but cry for help. 3 weeks ago my fiance' and I were walking down the road by her parent's house in the country when she felt something flip up on her foot off the pavement. She screamed in pain and I pulled her out of the way and saw a young rattle snake coiled at her feet, read to strike again. Immeadiately I killed it and ran to the house about 1/2 mile to get the pickup, praying to God all the way. When I got back and picked her up I prayed with her. We went to the emergency room and they watched her for several hours. She should have had anti-venom which runs about $1300 a shot and would require 4 shots. But they didn't need to do anything, she didn't swell. God totally protected her. As I sat there holding her hand on in the emergency room, I thought to myself how blessed we are. Thank God for his protection and thank God for those you love. She should have swollen up and her whole leg taken weeks to heal, but no God protected her. I just thought I would share a testimony of the protection of the Lord in our lives in a real and tangable way. Praise God!Seek Christ,Philip

Wow, Praise God Phillip! From what I understand the young ones have even more venom, we used to deal with them quite a bit at a Trap and Skeet range I worked at. Thanks for sharing brother,Thank God for his protection and thank God for those you love.Amen!

Praise God Pil.! He does many unseen protection but sometimes he brings it to our knowledge like this incident and I praise Him for both the seen and the unseen protection He does for you and your fiancé!Your sis. Mekdi

Praise God for protecting your wife! The Lord is for us! It seems the Lord is protecting His followers all over- my daughter (arielle) has a wonderful testimony just from yesterday about how the Lord kept her safe:"oh praise the Lord...this evening i experienced a life or death situation. oh i thank my God that i am writing this and i am not injured and do not have a scratch. i was over at the barn working my horse for a couple of hours. when we were finished working, i took him into his stall to take off his bridle. this evening, i used a very different bit (the thing that goes in a horses' mouth) and when i attempted to take it out of his mouth, it got stuck and would not come off..it scared him and he jumped...and then i jumped trying to get it out of his mouth...then he bucked and reared. he continued to jump and buck in his small stall and i just stood there not knowing what to do. he bucked some more throwing his head around (and being a former race horse...he aint small!) i stood there two inches away from him, frozen. (and no one was around to help..i was pretty helpless.) i finally realized that i had to run out of there as quick as possible or else. and when i did, he blocked the door and continued to rear towards me..oh praise the Lord that when i ran out he did not buck and kick. at any moment he could have kicked the life out of me. at any moment this horse could have had me to the ground. how the Lord watches over His children! oh, He is so good...and do i mean this. may i realize this every moment of every day. not just when an extravagant event comes and goes..but may my heart overflow with joy because He is so worthy. though i am a little stirred up right now i cannot help but praise Him...i am alive! but all the more, He is alive and glory to my King!!"but as for me, i will always have hope; i will praise You more and more. my mouth will tell of your righteousness, of Your salvation all day long, though i know not its measure. i will come and proclaim Your acts, oh sovereign Lord; i will proclaim Your righteousness..Yours alone." psalm 71:14-16"

Praise God Chanin! Thanks for sharing this... My the imagination can run wild with these things and the difficulty is in stopping to consider because no harm came that it is easier to dismiss to the realm of 'possibilities' or coincidences etc.No doubt Arielle is precious in His sight as she is too many of us here as well :-D , and that includes her mom ;-) Can also testify to so many things... goodness, could write a book, ladder falls, scaffolding drops, auto wrecks, moped crashes, black widow bites...the drug things, alcohol poisoning, rattlesnakes (!)...yikes, this is just off the top of the head... there is no good reason to be here typing letter after letter, should have been dead at 16 easily... the wonder of it allPraise God!

Thank you for the encouragement. Jesus talks about saints not being affected by snakes as a sign. There are so many snakes in Texas I've already seen 4 nonpoisonous ones at parks this year, and in the flesh, I kind of fear them, but I know Jesus talks about this. Thanks for the note!

Just curious, but..How did you kill the snake? Sounds like you had an easy time of it, and if I'm ever faced with that situation, I'd love to know what to do!Perhaps there is some spiritual application there as well...couch

How did you kill the snake? Sounds like you had an easy time of it, and if I'm ever faced with that situation, I'd love to know what to do!Well, first of all I got angry... very very angry that this snake had bitten my precious bride. The spiritual application is that we need to get angry when Satan hurts those around us. Secondly I acted first for the safety of the person that was hurt, my fiancee' by checking to see that she was alright and moved her to safety. Then I came for the snake. All I had with me was my car keys with a little multi tool key chain. I knew I had to break its back so it wouldn't strike me, so I threw my car keys and broke its back then stomped its head into oblivion with my thick soled leather Doc Martin boots. One spiritual application is don't stop till the "snake" is dead. I crushed his head you could say. Then I picked it up and ran to get my pickup 3/4 mile a way (approx 15 blocks if you live in the city) then came back, picked up my fiancee' and headed to the emergency room. The reason I picked up the snake was because I knew it would get us immeadiate treatment at the hospital, which by God's grace alone we did not need. Praises to the Lord! One note, do not try to stomp on a rattlesnake without it being unable to strike, while this could be accomplished, I HIGHLY do not recommend it. =-) Finally, don't go in flip flops in rattlesnake country, spiritually don't go out into the world with out the full armor of God, which when you look into it is Christ. God bless,Philip

Wow!This is fascinating to me. Thanks for the spiritual insight into this as well, definitely some good application there also.You must have some pretty heavy car keys and a great aim! Throwing your car keys at it broke its back? Wow. Of course, once its paralyzed it can no longer strike. It seems the same could be said about the attacks of the enemy, when he can not strike if he is paralyzed from doing so by the word of God, beleived and resonating in our hearts.I'm sure there was a feeling of conquer when you stomped his head. So when you took it to the hospital, did you try to show it to the staff there as a way to get in quick? I thought you were going to use it so they could identify it and give your bride the proper anti-venom.Either way, the Lord is gracious to heal!

The reason that I took the snake to the hospital was so they would know that we needed treatment right away. There are 2 different kinds of snakes that look very similar in my area, one is poisonous and one is not. The fact that I brought a dead rattler into the ER caused them to instantly realize that I knew what I was talking about. When I walked in the room they were asking, "Where is the snake?" I said, "Right here!" Holding it up and the nurses jumped right out of their skins. They got the doctor right away! =-) I used to work in an ER for a little bit so I understood procedure. That is about it. There are all kinds of lessons in the story we just need to heed and practice them!

This is great stuff here... Great applications on top if it all and got a good chukle from Freed there as well.Mar 16:18 They shall take up serpents; Seeing that moment where the Lord smashes the head of the seprpent in The Passion. Don't think I will ever look at Doc Martins again without remembering this...

:-P A good read to be sure! Praise the Lord and may Satan be dealt with the same way!