Well it’s September and for the McKnight Family Homestead that means that our garden has been at the height of its production for about a month. This is our fourth year for having a garden, and we are getting a little better at it each year. Our kitchen has been busy canning spaghetti sauce and pickles. We’ve eaten our corn… what that raccoon left us… please don’t make me relive THAT painful memory. I did trap him and I hope he is enjoying his new location over by Jim Scott’s home. Just kidding, Jim!
I suppose one of the reasons that our garden has done well this year is because I have done more weeding than ever before. Now, I need someone who is a Garden-Guru to explain a rather perplexing reality to me. Why is it, that if I accidentally step on a 4 inch corn stalk, or a bean vine, or even if I brush too hard up against a pepper plant… that those crop bearing plants are crushed and killed, never to produce — BUT, I can tromp on weeds, whack at them with a hoe and spray them with weedkiller… and probably even blast them with a nuclear weapon… and they still survive? What the world!
Confession time… I have mumbled a few unkind things about Adam BECAUSE IT’S ALL HIS FAULT! Come on! I mean, I have a particular type of weed… I don’t even know what it is… but I think it could serve as a natural foundation anchor in a hurricane zone! Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn’t pull those things out! Weeds in a garden bed are unwanted… they are never ending… they are damaging to flowers and plants… they are inevitable. But they must be removed for the garden to produce at its best.
Jesus once told a parable about a farmer who sowed seed for his garden. Some of the seed fell on the pathway and the birds ate it, some of it upon rocks and the sun scorched them, and then “other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.” Matthew 13:7 When he explained the parable, Jesus said that the seed represented the “word of God”. God’s word only took root in the soil of a prepared heart. The teaching of the parable? Preparing the soil of your heart to be receptive to hearing and applying God’s word to your life is essential to growing in Christ.
The seed in the parable fell in four different locations… but only one location proved to be fruitful. The other three? They manifest sin which hinders our growth. The temptations of the enemy (path), not taking the necessary steps to develop faith (rocks), and the lure of the ways of the world (thorns) keep many from truly understanding and experiencing the full Gospel of Christ.
Yes, those type of weeds… sin weeds… are dangerous. They are always lurking to hinder our spiritual growth, and if we are not diligent, they can choke us off from the working of the Holy Spirit in our life. They must be removed so that God can produce within us that bumper crop that is displayed when He reigns in our heart. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” Romans 6:12 So, refuse to let those sin weeds take root in your heart… pull them up. And if you can’t get Arnold Schwarzenegger to help, don’t fret it… Jesus is waaaay stronger than Arnold. After all he was the first to declare… “I’ll be back!”
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