Spiritual Inspiration from a Pumpkin.

Since we are in the season of pumpkins, and since I LOVE pumpkins, I can't help but see some spiritual inspiration in them. Halloween is a time of celebrating and praising darkness. But the Bible says in Matthew 5:14-15, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. We are not to blend in with the darkness, but we are to stand out in the midst of it - to light the way for others. So, let's just imagine that we are all pumpkins. When you want to carve a pumpkin, you go to the pumpkin patch, or in this day and age, Walmart, and there are rows and rows of pumpkins to choose from. Some tall, some short, some skinny, some fat, some lopsided, and some with blemishes - that does kinda sound like us, doesn’t it? There are differences to the pumpkins, but for the most part, there's nothing very special about any of them. They kind of just all blend in together. Nevertheless, you pick out what you think to be your favorite one, and you take it home to begin working on it. This is exactly what God does with us. We blend in with everyone else in the world, before He saves us, but he sees something special in us, so He decides to call us out from among the other pumpkins. He CHOOSES us. And He "takes us home" to begin working on us. From that point on, after He chooses us, we are no longer like the rest of those pumpkins who are still just blending in with the rest of the world. 1 Peter 2:9 says, "But ye are a CHOSEN generation, a royal priesthood, an HOLY nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." So, as you know, the first thing that you do once you choose your pumpkin and take it home is clean it off. You don't want to try to shape into what you want it to be when it is still dirty on the outside. And God does the same with us after he chooses us and calls us out. He forgives us of our sin and wipes away our dirt and sin. 1 John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." He has chosen us, called us out of darkness and into light, and cleansed us from our sins. The next thing you do with your pumpkin is cut a hole at the top. Now, this is where the hard work begins - for both the pumpkin and the carver. Unfortunately, many Christians today stop before this next step even begins. They just let Jesus cleanse them from their sins, but they don’t let Him open them to the deeper things of God. Because it hurts. It hurts to let God take the knife and begin to cut away the dark things in our lives. Sometimes we don't want to give them up or we're scared that it's going to be too painful. But if we allow God to cut away those sinful things in our lives, He opens us up to a world of spiritual possibilities. If we never took the knife to the pumpkin, it would never be able to become anything but a plain old pumpkin. Just like the rest of the pumpkins at the pumpkin patch that it was among. Isaiah 64:8 says, " But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." It's not comfortable, but if we are going to grow to become what God wants us to be, we have to surrender everything over to Him and allow ourselves to be clay in His hands for Him to mold us into whatever He wants us to be. So after we open up the pumpkin, the next step is the nitty gritty part. We have to reach our hands into the sliminess of the guts of the pumpkin, and begin to remove all of the nastiness and all of the seeds. This part is nitty gritty for God as well. Once we have surrendered to God and allowed him to truly work on us even though it's painful, He then begins to reach into our hearts and begins gutting us. Pulling out the nastiness inside. Pulling out all of the seeds of darkness - seeds of bitterness, seeds of fear, seeds of doubt, seeds of envy, seeds of hatred, seeds of pride, and it goes on and on and on. This "gutting" process is something we like to call Sanctification. If we do not allow God to "gut" us, He cannot live in us. 1 John 1:5-6 says, "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." We might look all clean on the outside, but until we allow God to pull out the seeds of darkness on the inside, He will not have fellowship with us. 2 Timothy 2:21 says, "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, [and] prepared unto every good work." Once we do let God purge us of all darkness, He can finally use us for His good work. After all of the seeds and all of the slimy stuff have been cleaned out of the pumpkin, we can get to the fun part - carving the face. Once God cleans us out, He is able to live IN us, and His "fun part" begins as well. He doesn't just "gut" us and leave us empty. He replaces the darkness that He took out with His light. Then, He gets to start shining through us. Once we are cleaned out, and God's light is living in us, our countenance will change. He will give us joy. Romans 15:13 says, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Now we are a complete pumpkin! But we have to continue to allow God to work on us daily. We haven't "arrived". If we allow any of these seeds of darkness to creep back in, they start to cover up God's light in us. The more dim that light gets, the more ineffective we become as Christians until eventually, we're not just ineffective Christians, but now we're completely alienated from God. Because He IS light - and He cannot have any communion with darkness. Ephesians 5:8 says, "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." Are you going to blend in with all of the other pumpkins during this season? Stand out among the darkness. Don't partake in it. Light the way for others.

Over and Over and Over Again.

My sweet friend sent me this verse this morning, and it couldn't be more on-spot for what I needed to hear: Psalm 103:8-9 ~ "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." [HOWEVER] "He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever." God is such a MERCIFUL and gracious God. As a loving father is with his children, he is so patient with us as we "grow up" in Him. We make a mistake - He lovingly draws us back to Him with open arms. Just as an earthly father sometimes has to discipline his children in order to save them from making the mistake again, our Heavenly Father sometimes disciplines us to show us the consequences of doing things that he clearly told us to stay away from. But in the end, He never turns His back on us. Once we have been disciplined, and he shows us where we went wrong, He is just waiting for us to return to Him to make it right. Over. And over. And over again. He is plenteous in his mercy and in his second, third, tenth, and fiftieth chances. However, just as there comes a point in time where an earthly father has to just turn over his child if he or she refuses to listen to his instruction, God must do the same with us. Sometimes we just never learn. Being plenteous in mercy does NOT equal being a doormat. God will NOT be our doormat. Someone that we take advantage of again and again. How would YOU feel if your best friend betrayed you, felt sorry about it and asked for forgiveness, so you forgave them. Except, after you forgave them, they continued to betray you over. And over. And over again. None of us would put up with it. We wouldn't count them worthy of our friendship. Thankfully, God's not like us. He gives us chance after chance after chance. But even God does not allow Himself to become a doormat. He will not always chide with us. The word "chide" means to strive (to exert oneself vigorously as in opposition or resistance, to try hard) or to contend (to strive in rivalry, to compete). God FIGHTS for us. Every second. Every minute. Every day. He CHIDES. Exerts Himself vigorously in resistance against the enemy on our behalf. But we are not exempt from striving ourselves. God will not continue to chide, or COMPETE with the other idols in our lives. He loves us more than anything we could ever imagine. For real. No cliché. But He is a jealous God. Just as a jealous husband will not stick around if his wife refuses to give up the other men in her life, God will not just allow us to have other "men" in our lives and still pour out his mercy upon us every day. Let go of your idols before it is too late. God works with us. Over. And Over. And over again. But He will not allow His mercy to continuously be poured out on those who take it for granted and play games with it. God, help us to realize the true essence of your mercy. Not to take it for granted. Not to use it as an "Out of Jail Free" card for continuing in sinful living. Help us to appreciate Your patience when we make a mistake, not expect Your mercy when we CHOOSE to sin.

Do What I Would Not - What I Would Not - What I Do.

Romans 7:15 - "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16 - If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 19 - For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 - Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 24 - O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" **These verses have always intrigued me. After reading them, I am persuaded that Paul was the first Dr. Seuss. Sounds like one of his rhymes, don't you think? But he couldn't have been more right on with this one. What's the use in knowing good, if we don't do it? Why do we desire to good, but don't? Why do we hate evil, but do it anyway? One answer - WE. ARE. SIN. So many times, I feel just like Paul. I want to say, "O wretched woman that I am!" We need God to DELIVER us from our bodies of death. There is nothing good about us. We are nothing apart from Christ. Why do we think that we can "make something of ourselves" when He is not in the middle of it? It's impossible. We are wretched. Without him, we can't get anything right. Even the simplest of circumstances turns to chaos when we try to take it into our own hands. We think we can handle it. But we can't. Without Him, we are sin. We are wretched. We are trapped inside of our carnal residence, and we will continue to give into its desires until we allow God to have EVERY part of us. Every corner. Every hidden spot in our fleshly home that we don't like to share. God, deliver this wretched woman from the body of this death.