Dr. Scott Benjamin
This book was written regarding the love that Jesus has for us and how he gave us animals to do this. The book is dedicated to my 13 year old labrador retrevier, Maggie who became sick last year and has to go home to be with the Lord. She was special and the book outlines what God wants us to do to take care of His animals and also how we can love and give the Jesus way, where do our talents come from and also how do we stay obedient to God.
Scott Benjamin received his
undergraduate training from the Michigan
Technological University
and his physical therapy BS from the University
of Illinois at Chicago in 1989. His doctoral work has been at the University of Maryland and he is co-author “Post
Surgical Rehabilitation After Artificial Disc Replacement; an evidenced based
guide to comprehensive patient care” with Dr. Roy Bechtel. He has co-authored papers on lateral
epicondylitis, isokinetic testing, modalities and aquatic therapy. Scott has taught continuing education courses
nationally, and his areas of interests are biomechanics of the spine, sacroiliac
joint, manual therapy and rehabilitation. He and his wife, Lora, are born again Christians
and participate and worship at Mount Hope Church in Lansing,
Michigan.
Pastor Mark Bender has been teaching, giving and helping other at Mount Hope Church for over 20 years. He is involved in missions and is the head of the Bible Training Institute at Mount Hope Church. He and his wife, Kim, work with student, couple and hold classes at the church for personal enrichment and marriage.
For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”(John 3:16)
We all know the story, “let
there be light” and there was light throughout the land. (Genesis, 1:3)
God gave us many beautiful things to wonder about, the stars, Adam, Eve,
plants, trees and animals. All animals belong to God (Psalm 50:10-11). God created all the animals (Genesis 1:24-25) and God cares for the animals. “Look at the birds flying
around…your Father in heaven takes care of them.” Matthew 6:26.
Animals were special in
their own right and God wants to them to be with us. They are very wonderful creatures for their
ability to love and keep giving love to their masters. I am a dog lover and have had many in my life
so far. Mostly, they have been large
dogs and what has been the best thing about them is the endless love that they give no
matter what the day may bring. Work can pile up and they are there. No matter how much you get mad at them, they
were designed to love and please. God
made them that way and it is stated in Proverbs that a righteous man will care
for his animals and one that does not, is wicked. They only want to give and they only want to
show how much they love you. God
designed them that way and made them from the beginning to love and show that
life is really an easy thing to live. God cares for the animals (John 4:16) and we must keep caring for them but take it one step further and care
for the ones we love in the same way.
We can learn much from
what animals bring to the table and remember that the cruel intentions of
people and poor communication that goes on makes it tough to want to give or
love you neighbor. But, ask yourself
this question, did Jesus get
made? Did He stomp off? Did He run away from the problem at hand, No
he went to who ever had a problem with him and he also showed that you never
run from your trouble but face it head on.
God did not want you to be
mean to other humans and animals and honestly, you truly were not
designed that way. You were designed to
love and by doing so, God and his Son are smiling in heaven down upon you.
God gave us dogs to remind
us to love unconditionally as they do us.
When they come to you with their tail wagging behind them, all they want
is love. I have a 13 year old Labrador
retriever (Maggie) and she has been with me during many tough times. I told myself that when she needed me to take
care of her, if she became sick, I would do that. She is white and her eyes are large and she has
a very sweet disposition. God has
blessed me
and He gave
m
