Winter is a time of rest for the landscape.
Many types of trees lose their leaves, flowers no longer bloom (or even die back), and the grass becomes brown and brittle.
That seems like a good thing for the gardener. A season of rest, maybe some relaxation, even a trip to a warmer clime to take a break from our chores.
That’s well and good, but under that winter scene, weeds are doing what they do, germinating and preparing to burst forth at the first hint of spring’s warmth.
If we don’t turn the soil during winter, we won’t be prepared for our spring garden.
Spiritually we must be as the diligent gardener. Read in Mark 6:12 how we are to turn our spiritual soil.
“So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.”
Sometimes we say that people have turned over a new leaf.
Maybe our new saying needs to be, “He just turned over a new clod of dirt.”
That’s sounds comical, but for the gardener it makes perfect sense. When we turn the soil, we upset the germination process, and we defeat the weeds before they can begin to grow.
When we give people the opportunity to change from their wrongdoing to a better way of living, we’ve uprooted the sins already growing in their lives and interrupted the germination process of many more.
One caution: We don’t dump herbicide on our garden to eliminate the weeds. That will do it, certainly, but it kills all the good plants, too. We must be selective, adding our weed killer carefully, so we only remove the things that shouldn't be there.
Our call to repent should be the same. We must state our position judiciously. We can’t risk driving people away by dousing them with sin-i-cide.
Jesus taught in kindness, with welcoming words and good deeds.
Let’s be like Jesus and draw the world unto him.
Copyright © 2019 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.G.28.19f.vp.esv