a monthly devotional journal
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Issue No. 55 |
June 1995 |
In this issue:
Perspective 1 - By the Handful
Perspective 2 - Feeding the Good, Starving the Bad
Perspective 3 - Shield and DefenderIt's been a bountiful, fragrant spring. With abundant rains the world has quickly left behind the drab browns and grays of winter's end to burst forth into spring's endless palette of fresh greens.
The maples and oaks, in timeless succession, have released the buds and leaves held captive during the long winter months; the lilac bushes and Lilies of the Valley have sprouted their aromatic clusters and shared their sweetness; and the cherry, pear and apple trees have already clothed themselves in extravagant blossoms, then turned to the more serious matter of growing fruit.
The animal world too has sprung back to life. The wrens have returned: first the male, to call and sing for his mate; then together the happy couple has set to the task of collecting twigs for their nest. The wood ducks, with the male so resplendent yet henpecked, have returned to the pond, hoping once again to claim one of the houses before the grackles; but alas, same as last year, they took too long to make up their minds, and they've missed the opportunity. The evergreens are filled with nests and new life for the families of robins and mourning doves and cardinals.
Everyday the resident chipmunks scurry back and forth, jowls crammed with food. The squirrels, too, busy themselves retrieving the acorns left over in their winter hiding places. And every evening around dusk the deer come to drink from the pond, the young bucks always showing off for the thoroughly unimpressed does.
Linda has been busy restoring the splendor of her gardens. New crops for this year are leeks, spinach, garlic, bok choy and cucumbers for pickles. For fruit, she's added three currant bushes, blueberries and an apricot tree.
Always one of the first tasks, before planting anything new, is to remove the weeds that have sprung up between seasons--and, with the rains of this spring, the weeds have been abundant.
But a gratifying phenomenon is taking place. After several years now of removing the weeds from the gardens--of long hours spent digging and cultivating and pulling up the persistent villains--the job each succeeding year has been easier. With each passing year, the weeds have had less of a stranglehold on the good plants, and are removed and kept at bay with less work. With immediate attention given to their beginnings, and with generous helpings of nutrient-filled compost and mulch applied around the remaining plants, the weeds very often stay away for the rest of the summer.
There is, at the same time, a companion phenomenon observed. A garden overgrown with weeds is depressing. It's appearance is unsightly, cluttered; excuses are found for avoiding the area as much as possible. It saddens the one expecting to see rows of healthy vegetables or beautiful flower beds.
But a well-tended garden brightens the spirits. The sheer abundance of things growing and flourishing in a healthy environment brings joy and thanksgiving. The sight of brightly-colored blooms and luxurious bushes and plants--even from a distance--fills the mind with peace and expectations for good things.
Our lives are gardens that need constant attention to the weeds that persist in cropping up. One way or another, today or tomorrow or the next day, we will have to deal with these weeds. When and how we do has a direct impact on the quality of our lives right now.
Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear." Matthew 13:3-9
Perspective 1
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Winter is finally past and the last night of freezing temperatures has come and gone. The ground has thawed and the garden is at last ready for planting. Now what?
The first thing to do in preparation for planting the year's garden is to clear away the weeds that have accumulated since the previous fall. The gardener can choose from many different methods of weed removal, from mowing them off to blasting them with some obnoxious chemical. But the most effective method is to simply get down on your hands and knees and yank 'em out by the roots.
"In the western United States there grows a plant called the locoweed. This plant is poisonous to cattle and when eaten by a steer has the effect of shorting his equilibrium, destroying his muscular coordination and throwing his eyes out of focus so that he may shy away from the smallest object or misjudge the size of a large object and walk right into the side of a cliff.Sin is a poisonous weed that throws the whole nature out of order. The inner life disintegrates; the flesh lusts after forbidden pleasures; the moral judgement is distorted so that often good appears evil and evil good; time is chosen over eternity, earth over heaven and death over life."[1]
We all know there are different levels of faith. Compare Cain to Abel, Samson to Joseph, Eli to Samuel, or Demas to Timothy. The result of living in this world--as opposed to the next--is different for each person. This temporal enclave does not create or cause the sin that dwells within us, but it does feed it. And while some people are under the impression that temptations diminish after coming to Christ, the truth is that temptations seem to flourish once the Spirit is in residence.
I respect those who claim they can--even for a little while--live a sinless life. Personally, I think the only times I am sinless is when I am fast asleep.
For most, the Christian life requires daily weeding, and it is an active occupation; weeding does not take place by simple attrition.
"We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. I have heard others, and I have heard myself, recounting cruelties and falsehoods committed in boyhood as if they were no concern of the present speaker's, and even with laughter. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin. The guilt is washed out not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ."[2]
The ultimate act of weeding is, of course, the initial act of faith: believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and confessing that He alone can remove our sin. Beyond that, however, our lives require regular maintenance--not for salvation, but for Godly living.
There is one profound similarity between weeding the garden and Spiritual weeding: both are performed on one's knees. Our Spiritual weeds are not removed by attrition, but by contrition. There are certainly tangible actions we can take to remove sin from our life, but the process always begins with repentance before God, and agreeing with Him on just what should be removed.
Repentance means that God's standards are the ones used to determine what is a weed--thereby needing to be removed--and what is not. We will never rid our life of those things repugnant to Him by listening to the standards of the world; we will never remove those things that inhibit our healthy growth toward Him by taking counsel with our own rationale.
"If I grapple with sin in my own strength, the devil knows he may go to sleep."[3]
Into the Word
Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom. Song 2:15
1 Kings 16:30-33 ___________________________ Eccles. 12:14 ___________________________ Isaiah 29:15 ___________________________ Jeremiah 9:3 ___________________________ Jeremiah 16:11-12 ___________________________ Jeremiah 50:8 ___________________________ Jeremiah 51:6 ___________________________ Luke 12:2-3 ___________________________ 1 Cor. 6:18 ___________________________ 1 Cor. 10:14 ___________________________ Ephes. 5:8-20 ___________________________ 1 Tim. 6:11 ___________________________ 2 Tim. 3:12-15 ___________________________ James 4:7 ___________________________
Digging Deeper--Moving Higher | |
Making it Personal
The first step is obvious: What and where are the weeds in your life?
After confession and repentance in prayer, what can you do to remove these weeds? What will you do?
Into the Word
Once you have compiled your list of personal weeds, above (whether on paper or mentally), use Scripture to determine how God feels about them.
Perspective 2
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In garden circles it is referred to as 'black gold.' It's a precious substance that is horded, and portioned out sparingly. This gardener's gold is called compost.
Compost begins with garbage. Organic kitchen scraps such as banana peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, orange rinds and carrot tops are combined with shredded leaves or grass clippings and first layered, then later mixed together well with manure and soil. The compost pile (or heap) sits there percolating for several weeks or months (depending on the mix). Periodically the gardener turns over the pile, stirring the ingredients.
Slowly over time, the stew that began as kitchen garbage decomposes, blends together, and comes to resemble nothing less than a mound of dark, rich loam. The end product-- humus--is a soil rich in nutrients and beneficial microorganisms that improves garden soil structure, encourages earthworms and other beneficial soil-dwellers, and improves drainage.
Compost feeds the garden with good things, so that it can better fend off the bad.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Philip. 4:8
A life that is not nurtured with righteous things will never be capable of weeding out sin.
There are still those who believe that people are essentially good--that everyone is born innocent, and any bad or evil qualities are learned, or imposed by someone else.[6] If that be the case, permit me to pose just one question: Would you like to live with a teenager who had never received any parental discipline?
What happens to children who receive no other training than the behavior with which they were born--who are, essentially, left to raise themselves? They grow up to be adults who are selfish, arrogant, self-centered, abusive, uncaring and unsharing.
The best instruction for any child--or adult, for that matter--comes from God's word.
How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Thy word. With all my heart I have sought Thee; Do not let me wander from Thy commandments. Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee. Psalm 119:9-11 NASB
God's word is rich in Spiritual nutrients that make it difficult for bad things to grow--and easier for good things to take root.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Col. 3:16
A heart occupied with the things of God has little room left in which sin can root and spread. A heart occupied with self has little room left for God.
Compost not only nourishes the garden soil, but it also breaks up clay with its organic matter.
The soil around our house in San Diego consisted almost entirely of clay. One day years ago, when trying to find an easy and quick solution for a darkroom sink's drain, I ran the drain pipe out the wall and dug a hole in the ground into which it would run. Being from Iowa, I figured that the waste water would run into the hole and eventually soak down into the soil.
Silly boy. That miniature lake sat there for weeks--months! That clay was so dense, so compacted that the water simply would not budge. It could only evaporate out of the hole.
God's word is the rich organic matter that breaks up the tightly-compacted clay of sin in our lives. Unconfessed wrong builds up, layer after layer, becoming a dense layer of sludge that insulates us from the blessings of God. His word absorbed into our mind fills our life with nurturing righteousness, which breaks up the compacted sin, making it easier for good things to take root.
Into the Word
Psalm 54:4 ___________________________ Psalm 55:22 ___________________________ Psalm 103:2-5 ___________________________ Psalm 119:9-11 ___________________________ Proverbs 30:8 ___________________________ Matthew 4:1-4 ___________________________ Matthew 5:6 ___________________________ Matthew 6:11 ___________________________ Romans 8:1-17 ___________________________ 1 Cor. 3:6-7 ___________________________ 2 Cor. 9:6-11 ___________________________ Philip. 4:8 ___________________________ Col. 3:16 ___________________________ 2 Tim. 3:16-17 ___________________________ Hebrews 1:9 ___________________________ Hebrews 5:13-14 ___________________________
Digging Deeper--Moving Higher | |
"The famous cuckoo bird never builds its own nest. It flies around until it sees another nest with eggs in it and no mother bird around. The cuckoo quickly lands, lays its eggs there, and flies away. The thrush, whose nest has been invaded, comes back. Not being very good at arithmetic, she gets to work hatching the eggs. What happens? Four little thrushes hatch, but one large cuckoo hatches. The cuckoo is two or three times the size of the thrushes. When Mrs. Thrush brings to the nest one large, juicy worm, she finds four petite thrush mouths, one cavernous cuckoo mouth. Guess who gets the worm? A full-sized thrush ends up feeding a baby cuckoo that is three times as big as it is. Over time, the bigger cuckoo gets bigger and bigger, and the smaller thrushes get smaller and smaller. When I was a kid, you could always find a baby cuckoo's nest. You walked along a hedgerow until you found dead little thrushes, which the cuckoo throws out one at a time. Paul teaches in Romans 8:5-8 that spiritually speaking, you've got two natures in one nest. The nature that you go on feeding will grow, and the nature that you go on starving will diminish."[8]
Making it Personal
With what is your life being fed? Are you mixing in healthy Spiritual nutrients, or unhealthy things of this temporal age? Are there any items that should be removed from your diet?
What things can you cultivate that will make you stronger, healthier Spiritually and permit fewer weeds?
What role does the Holy Spirit fill in this process?
Into the Word
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Philip. 4:8
Fill in the "whatevers" in this verse with some specifics. For example, list some "noble" things on which you can meditate.
Perspective 3
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Come autumn, when the pumpkins and squash are ripening on the vine, our routine is to rake up as many fallen leaves as possible, run them through the shredder, then package them into plastic bags for winter storage. The bags are piled in an out-of-the-way spot in the woods, near the compost heap. Then, come spring, we open the bags and have a ready supply of mulch for new plantings.
Mulch is the final step in protecting the garden against weeds. Once the initial weeds have been pulled, and the compost (if any) has been mixed into the soil and the seeds or seedlings planted, a protective layer of these shredded leaves is applied liberally around the area. This thick layer of organic mulch (which can be leaves, wood chips, grass clippings--even newspapers) robs the surrounding soil of light and oxygen, thereby depriving the weeds of these elements vital for growth. A garden plot with a blanket of mulch requires considerably less weeding than one without.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:10-17
In our Christian walk we need to first remove the obvious sin from our life--deal with it, get it out. Then we need to feed ourselves from God's nutritious word, encouraging healthy growth. Finally, we need to strap on our Spiritual armor to protect ourselves from inevitable attacks by the evil one.
Satan spies that freshly weeded, tilled, planted and fertilized patch of ground and he can't wait to get in there and mess it all up again. He has little interest in a weed-infested garden; it's already a part of his acreage. But let him find a piece of ground that's been worked and improved, and he'll soon be cultivating his weeds in among the good seedlings, trying to force them out.
The Christian is never more tempted than when he is on a Spiritual high. Satan's radar is finely tuned for those who have just experienced close communion with the Lord, and he's quick to swoop in and release his 'flaming arrows.'
"There are two spirits in the earth, the Spirit of God and the spirit of Satan, and these are at eternal enmity. It is the Spirit of Christ in us that will draw Satan's fire. The people of the world will not much care what we believe and they will stare vacantly at our religious forms, but there is one thing they will never forgive us--the presence of God's Spirit in our hearts. They may not know the cause of that strange feeling of antagonism which rises within them, but it will be nonetheless real and dangerous. Satan will never cease to make war on the Man-child, and the soul in which dwells the Spirit of Christ will continue to be the target for his attacks."[9]
Our defense against Satan and his weeds is a careful combination of offensive warfare and dependency on God. Even our offensive and defensive weapons are from Him. Ephesians 6:10 says to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power (emphasis added). The mulch in the garden of our life--along with everything else--belongs to the Lord.
David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands." 1 Samuel 17:45-47
In a healthy garden the blanket of mulch retains the soil's moisture, so that the seeds and plants don't dry out. It keeps the soil warm on cold nights and wet drizzly days. And when autumn comes, after the vegetables have been harvested, the mulch is turned into the soil where it becomes nutrient for the next year's planting.
Into the Word
I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Selah Psalm 61:4
2 Samuel 22:2-4 ___________________________ Psalm 32:7 ___________________________ Psalm 61:1-4 ___________________________ Psalm 91:4 ___________________________ Proverbs 2:7 ___________________________ Isaiah 31:5 ___________________________ Zech. 12:8 ___________________________ Matthew 23:37 ___________________________ John 17:6-19 ___________________________ 2 Thes. 3:1-5 ___________________________
Digging Deeper--Moving Higher | |
Making it Personal
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:14-17
Let's go over the items of our armor, making sure we understand what they are. For each piece, define it, then find Scripture passages that illustrate or further explain its use.
Belt Breastplate Shoes Shield Helmet SwordWhich pieces are defensive and which offensive?
Into the Word
Find Scripture references that explain how we are to both go on the offensive against sin and let the Godhead do our fighting for us.
Issue No. 55
June 1995[1.] A.W. Tozer in The Warfare of the Spirit: Developing Spiritual Maturity (Christian Publications, 1993), p49ff. (return to footnote 1)
[2.] C.S. Lewis, A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C.S. Lewis (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), p106. (return to footnote 2)
[3.] H.G.J. Adams. (return to footnote 3)
[4.] Charles Wesley (1707-1788). (return to footnote 4)
[5.] Palmer Hartsough (1844-1932). (return to footnote 5)
[6.] "The father of such thinking was 18th-century philosopher Jean Rousseau, who argued that humans, inherently good, were warped by society. According to [his] ideology, individuals were not guilty of anything; rather society was responsible for all the depraved things people did. In this century, Rousseau's concept of collective guilt enjoyed a resurgence of popularity since the 1960s, when it resurfaced on college campuses as a proscription against 'blaming' and thereby putting people on 'guilt trips.' Not e, more recently, the liberal media's penchant for explaining anti-social behavior in terms of bad parenting, racism, poverty, etc." (John Rosemond, columnist; from the Des Moines Register, April 23, 1995) (return to footnote 6)
[7.] Mary A. Lathbury (1841-1913). (return to footnote 7)
[8.] Stuart Briscoe, quoted in Leadership Journal, Winter 1995 issue. (return to footnote 8)
[9.] A.W. Tozer, The Warfare of the Spirit: Developing Spiritual Maturity (Christian Publications, 1993), p3f. (return to footnote 9)
[10.] Charles Wesley (1707-1788). (return to footnote 10)
[11.] John S.B. Monsell (1811-1875). (return to footnote 11)
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