We’d love to see you this week at America’s Keswick. Dr. Charles Zimmerman is speaking Sunday night through Thursday night, and is speaking Monday – Thursday morning. You can also watch live at: www.americaskeswick.org. We’d love to see you. Check out our new website or call 800-453-7942 for more information.

There’s Always Gonna Be Weeds

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”  Galatians 6:7-8 (ESV)

Do you remember the day you finally dragged yourself to the foot of The Cross? Maybe someone gave you a helping hand like Simon of Cyrene did for Jesus but do you remember that day? How did you feel that day? Were you so sick and tired of being so sick and tired? Perhaps you were completely emptied of mind and of spirit? Maybe you were only 9 years old and you felt the Spirit prompting you to go forward after the alter call during Vacation Bible School.  Or maybe, like myself, you were face first in hardcore addiction when you heard a voice say…“This has to stop or you’re a dead man walking”.

It is not so much the matter on the how you got there but it being a blessed thing to know you at least got there. Amen?! Ya Know, some people don’t make it there at all and it should make the entirety of Christianity mourn but sometimes we are too focused on ourselves to take notice. Kinda like the way we behave when weeds pop-up in our gardens where, “He walks with me, and talks with me, and He tells me I am His own.” There are so many of us who believe that once we’ve accepted that we’re sinners, need Jesus and have said the sinner’s prayer that everything old in us is gone. I’m here to tell you to be careful with that thought because weeds happen and chances are you’ll be offended.

I had thought that once my life made the 180 degree turn from what I once was everything else was erased…that wasn’t and isn’t the case. Like many, once life became new blessings came but there were things that I had done in my past that had a consequence attached with them that most likely will last a lifetime. And when they rear their ugly head during my stroll in the garden I have to remember that I sowed things into the fabric of my life that others have chosen a position on. I have been told by those close that there will not be any forgiveness and there will be no forgetting. Once in a while I get reminded of that position by them and I do grieve it…for the moment only!!!

I have noticed that many who claim to be His children have much trouble with the same weeds popping up in their gardens and the offence by it happening is alarming. They say “How dare this happen to me, I’m a Christian!!” when they really are almost saying “God…you promised. No Weeds!” The heat of offence gets even hotter when they are reminded that Jesus, Himself said when trials come your way and not if. Especially when a behavior that hasn’t really been dealt with is continued with the same consequence occurring. In my case what I call letting off steam can come across as displaying anger and it can send people scattering away…when I really need them to understand why I feel so passionately about an issue. It’s been getting better but at times my weed of anger still shows itself in my garden while I think I am taking a blissful stroll with the Savior. >heavy sigh<

In John’s Gospel we find Jesus saying these words, “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Funny how Jesus states that abiding in Him will keep you at peace before He says the world will bring you troubles. If we truly are in Him as we stroll with Him in our gardens, those weeds should be an easy pull from the soil and not an offence that they are there at all. Weeds are gonna happen and we need to understand that the ground under our feet has been cursed since the fall of Adam and Eve. Once we get our focus off the weed and on the One who overcame all this nonsense we can sing, “And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known.” Amen? – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and is a weekly Freedom Fighter blogger

Daily Bible Reading: Proverbs 13-15

Think About This: “If you look at how flawed you are, you will upset yourself and interrupt the presence of God and His perfect work within you. The embarrassment you feel at seeing your own faults is a greater problem than the original faults.”—Fenelon

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 2 Timothy 4:18