Thorns and Briars

     I love walking in the outdoors, enjoying the natural creations of God. There are so many beautiful plants to behold. Every where I travel around the world, I discover new plants that I have never seen before. One of my favorite places to visit is the Wilhelma Botanical Gardens in Germany, which contain over 6000 species and varieties of plants! I love most of the plant species, however, there is one group that I do not like to run into; it’s the thorns and briers.

     Thorns and briars have been around since the time of Genesis. Because of Adam’s sin, God said that Adam would have to eat of the ground. Genesis 3 also tells us that God cursed the ground and said that it would bring forth “thorns and thistles”. Adam had to deal with them in his time and we are still fighting against them today!

     I recall my dad telling me a story about the briers. He had just received a brand new hunting jacket and was out in the woods deer hunting. He was walking through a really thick area and had snagged his new jacket on a brier. He was carefully working to free his jacket, without damaging it, when he heard a grunt behind him. He turned around just in time to see mother hog charging at him. Knowing the ferocity of a mother hog with little ones, he quickly found a tree to climb, leaving portions of his new jacket on the briar!

     It is almost impossible to get rid of the briars. They spring up all over my backyard. I cut them back to the ground and they keep coming back. I have noticed something unique about the briars. They go through a change sometimes during their early life. When the briars first start growing, they appear to be like many other types of “friendly” vines. The young briars are soft and pliable. Their “stickers” are soft and bend easily. If one didn’t know better they might be tempted to just let the briar vine grow. The young briar is not a threat to anyone, but sometimes during its life it goes through a transformation. The briars stem and stickers become very hard and will snag any clothes that come close to them or scratch any bare skin that touches it, and dead briers becomes even more brittle and painful!

     There are things that Satan brings into our spiritual lives that are similar to the thorns and briars. At first these things seem innocuous and insignificant. We usually notice them in our lives but don’t bother to address them, because they are so small; but as time goes on they can transform into something very dangerous to our spiritual lives. Sometimes these are temptations that we think we can control, but they grow until they are controlling us and cause us to sin. Other times they are just small deceptive things we say, that over time cause us to tell multiple lies.

     In my early career I had a friend at work that started to get involved with a girl, just to “help her out”. I warned him that he should only help from a distance, but he would not listen to me. In the end she became an enormous problem that he could not get rid of. When he finally forced her to move out of his apartment, she returned to throw rocks through his windows and almost got him fired from him job by her hundreds of phone calls to his company. He thought that he could keep the situation under control, but it ended up controlling him!

     So the next time you hear that inner voice telling you that you should not do something, obey God’s voice, do what is right, and you will not be entangled by the thorns and briars of Satan!

When the Strong Fall

     As I was taking my daily walk through the woods today, I came across a large tree that had fallen over, possible taken by disease. It was sad to see such a majestic tree lying on its side with its roots thrust strangely up in the air. I started noticing other trees that had fallen.

       

There was a large elm tree that was snapped off about three foot above the ground, broken like a small twig, probable by a very strong wind.

I found a massive cedar tree that was blow over. It was still living although most of its roots were exposed. As it fell it knocked over numerous other smaller trees that were under its canopy.

I saw another cedar tree that was bent over right at the ground. Strips of bark and wood splinters were sticking out in every direction. If a tree could feel pain, I’m sure that this would have been an extremely painful injury! I recalled seeing a fallen sequoia tree in Yosemite National Park. It must have been over 25 foot in diameter and several hundred feet long. It roots dwarfed the people standing next to them. Some cataclysmic event must have happened to fall this giant of the forest!

I also recall seeing a healthy hackberry tree, in our front yard, get struck by lightening. A great ball of fire came down the trunk of the tree, literally blowing the bark off the tree. The tree was dead in just a few days.
     Seeing these fallen trees reminded me of how sad it is to see a strong Godly person fall, or be overtaken by some type of sin. Sometimes these people recover and are restored back into the kingdom of God and sometimes they never recover. Quit often when a strong person falls, their fall causes many others to fall with them.

     Numbers 16 tells us of Korah who was a member of 250 princes who were all famous in the congregation and men of renown. Korah led these princes in a rebellion against their leader Moses. Moses tried to reason with them but they would not talk with him. God allowed the earth to open up and swallow them up including their houses and goods!

     In II Samuel 24, King David did evil by numbering the children of Israel. Joab, David’s captain of the host, tried to stop David, but Joab was unsuccessful. God was angry with David and sent a pestilence upon Israel and smote seventy thousand people. David’s heart smote him after realized his sin, and he was repentant. God forgave David and David continued to serve as king of Israel.

     In I Corinthians 9, the apostle Paul, one of the giants of the New Testament Church, tells us that he disciplines his body and trains it to do what it should, lest he falls (or becomes disqualified). If someone of Paul’s stature is concerned about falling, how much more should we be on guard lest we slip and fall from God’s grace.
     Knowing that some will fall, God gives us instructions on how to treat a believer who has fallen. Galatians 6 tells us: “if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
     Be on guard lest you fall out of favor with God, and remember, if you do fall be quick to repent and get back in favor with God!