Chisholm Project

This past Saturday morning, I finally did something that I have been meaning to do since we moved in last January: yard work. Don't misunderstand. We have a lawnmower, and we keep the grass/weeds cut. I even bust out the scissors and trim the nasty weeds that creep up against the front porch and gate. Jonathan thinks it is very funny that I use the scissors, but I will have you know that they are cheaper than purchasing a weed eater, and they have yet to require repair.

Anyhow... besides cutting weeds and grass, our yard goes unkempt. Neighbors are not very envious of Yard of the Month, and neither are we. We have had this mutual fence foliage that we shared with the Mexicans, and Saturday I got tired of scraping my car against it. I decided to make a journey to our local Chisholm hardware store, Dixie Hardware on East Park Av, which turns out is a very nice little place with lots of stuff and reasonable prices. I purchased some shears and gloves and went home happy.

For about 45 minutes, I neutered everything green that could be reached without a ladder, and then I made a nice pile of limbs and such on the curb.

The next morning as I was leaving for church I looked out my window at the curb, and I guess I expected a big pile of brown to be sitting there... but everything was green. Things looked just as fresh as though I had just done the chopping. And it all sort of bugged me that the limbs weren't dead yet, because they were no longer alive and attached to the root. So in my agitation, I started thinking; the thinking has subsequently led to this blog.

I think that there are an awful lot of times that I am like these dead-but-green branches. I know that there are hours and days and seasons of unfruitfulness in my life. My affection for God wanes, my brokenness over my sin is absent, and consequently, my life is full of bad fruit.

I am the type with a 500 pound conscience; when I err, I feel that my sin is being broadcast in neon lights on my forehead. I am naturally inclined to rationalize that I outwardly appear as dead as I feel on the inside. At this point of anxiety, instead of running to Christ, abiding in Him, and filling myself with Jesus, I instead try to cling on to all the appearance of green that is left in the lifeless branches.

Basically, I fake fruit.

I willfully prop my dead limbs up against the Vine and try to camouflage myself among the healthiness of other branches. Few people discern that I am ministering and striving and running the race in utterly self-focused, self-reliant pride and vanity, and the sham lasts until the branch turns brown. Maybe no one notices because they are doing the same thing. Then, someone spiritual says something about a dangerous fire; I realize that I am literally hell-kindling, and I finally run to Christ.

This is not a joyful way to live. It is stressful. It is stupid. It is injurious --even perilous-- to my soul.

I want you to see that it is indeed possible to fake fruit. God is not fooled, but man is. I want to confess that I have often done it in your sight, even through this dumb blog. I want to ask your forgiveness. I want you to assume nothing. I want you who are my friends to ask me if I am abiding in Christ. And when I say yes, I want you to say it again. "Are you truly abiding in Christ?" You might be snatching me from the fire by asking.

I love God for giving us a Bible that is so in-your-face true. He might have a lot of secrets and mysteries, but he isn't hiding anything from us that is crucial to eternal life. I am not sure how so many of us go years reading the Word and never being afraid for our souls. Jesus' own language in the Gospels promise us a number of fearsome truths, one of them being that dead, fruitless branches are not fire-insurable. Neither are joyless, loveless, peaceless "Christians" who esteem themselves more than God's glory. They are cut off by the Vinedresser, and cast into the flame. (Jn 15:-5-6) It is a truth that we need to approach and digest everyday.

I leave you with another Bible passage with a similar message. I pray that God will use it to help us examine our fruit, and help me to never fake mine.

Abide in Christ!

"... the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness:'Prepare the way of the Lord,[a] make his paths straight. 5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low,and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

7He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

10And the crowds asked him, "What then shall we do?" 11And he answered them, "Whoever has two tunics[b] is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise." 12Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" 13And he said to them, "Collect no more than you are authorized to do." 14Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages."

15As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16John answered them all, saying, "I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Luke 3: 2b-17