Hello ,

Every year revelers from around the world head to Pamplona, Spain to take part in the running of the bulls glorified by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. The festival, a heady nine-day mix of partying and adrenaline-chasing, draws hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to Pamplona, a city of around 300,000. Fifteen people have been killed in the bull-runs since records began in 1911.

The most recent death occurred five years ago when a Spanish man was gored.

Bill Hillman, a 32-year-old Chicago-based journalist, is an expert on the event. He even co-authored a book subtitled "How to survive the bulls of Pamplona." But on July 3, 2014, just knowing about bull running, even knowing enough to write an instruction manual on bull running, wasn't enough. A 1,320 pound fighting bull named Brevito lagged behind the pack just before entering the city's bull ring at the end of a rain-slicked run in the annual festival. At the opportune time, Brevito gored Hillman in the right thigh and a 35-year-old Spanish man in the chest. Both men's injuries were serious but not life-threatening.*

Spiritual application?  We can know all about temptation and sin in this life...but we should never think that we can get close enough to only narrowly escape it.   Some people want to walk as close to the edge of the "cliff" without going over it.  God can help us through the temptations of life, but we should never presume that we can play around with temptations WITHOUT consequences.

Lord, help me to take sin (and its consequences) seriously.  In Jesus name, amen!

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word 

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