Wednesday, April 17, 2019

A Weed Is Still A Weed By Any Other Name

“And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” – Mark 4:7-8

When I write these devotions, I am not writing to the unsaved person.  That person has no spiritual capacity.  They cannot understand spiritual truth.  Martie and I met with the realtor who will be listing our home in Alabama.  Before I spoke to her about the house, I asked her, “Are you a Christian?”  She said , “Yes.” I told her that it was important for me to know so I could speak to her about the spiritual context of the home sale.

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.” – 1 Corinthians 2:14

Someone who is not born again by the Spirit has 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. My primary audience are 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.  That is not to say that the Spirit could not or would not use these words as seed or water on the seed should the unsaved person be on the path to their salvation.

In John 6, we learn that many disciples who were following Jesus reached a point where they stopped following Him.  So long as we walk this earth, we must suffer the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit.  It is our old, sinful nature that encourages us to limit our devotion to the Lord. When Jesus goes to places where we are unwilling to go, we settle in to a place of compromise. We have reached the limit of our trust and willingness to give up those natural things that we hold dear.  Those things that define our life and relationships.  It doesn’t happen suddenly like a clap of thunder and bolt of lightning, but more subtly like the weeds that grow up amongst the flowers.  Easily ignored when there are only a few small weeds. But one day, the flower garden, unattended, will be taken over, seized. Those few small weeds will have multiplied and have become dominant, choking out the flowers and their beauty, robbing the flowers of their sustenance.

My guess is that most Christians really do not intend for that to happen.  They thought that they could manage their sin, the desires of their old nature.  Our old nature cannot be managed, it must be crucified and left for dead.  Another thing 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 sin always causes separation from God, a quenched Spirit. The issue of sin is not its size.  Like leaven, sin’s presence eventually affects the whole loaf.  We will try to convince ourselves otherwise in an attempt to justify our sin.  Do not be deceived. Loving God with your all leaves no room for anything else.  And if it has already happened to you.  You need to pull some weeds.  How? Confess and repent.

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