A Weed Is Still A Weed By Any Other Name

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Abide in Me… —John 15:4

 

“In the matter of determination. The Spirit of Jesus is put into me by way of the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I then have to build my thinking patiently to bring it into perfect harmony with my Lord. God will not make me think like Jesus— I have to do it myself. I have to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). “Abide in Me”— in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is. […] It does not matter what my circumstances are. I can be as much assured of abiding in Jesus in any one of them as I am in any prayer meeting. It is unnecessary to change and arrange my circumstances myself. Our Lord’s inner abiding was pure and unblemished. He was at home with God wherever His body was. […]  We have none of the serenity of the life which is “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).”  CHAMBERS

 

I am not writing to the unsaved person.  That person has no spiritual capacity.  They cannot understand spiritual truth (1 Corinthians 2:14 “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”) and have absolutely no ability to live in obedience to the Word of God.  They cannot hear God? They cannot abide in Christ because they do not belong to God’s household. No, I am writing to those who bear the mark of God, the Spirit of God sealed upon their hearts.  I write to those who have professed faith in Jesus and have, at one time, committed to follow Him.  In John 6, we learn that many disciples who were following Jesus reached a point, they stopped following Him.  For Christians who struggle with their faith, that most often is a matter of the heart. It doesn’t happen suddenly like a clap of thunder and bolt of lightning, but more like the weeds that grow up amongst the flowers.  Ignored, there are only a few small weeds, but one day, the flower garden has been taken over, seized, the few small weeds have become dominant, choking out the flowers and their beauty, robbing the flowers of their sustenance.  Few Christians intended to allow that to happen.  They thought that they could manage their sin, the desires of their old nature.  You old nature cannot be managed, it must be crucified and left for dead.  Something about weeds.  Some of them have a flower that would lead you to believe that they are harmless … and not a weed at all.  And so it is with our sin.  It may seem harmless but it always causes separation from God, a quenched Spirit. The issue of sin is not its size.  Like leaven, its presence affects the whole loaf.  Even if we try to convince ourselves otherwise in an attempt to justify our sin.  Do not be deceived.  And if it has already happened.  Confess and repent.  CHARLEY