Darning the Damage from Darnel in Our Souls and Community

Darning the Damage from Darnel

in Our Souls and Community

By Tim McCoy

In our small group last Sunday one was moved with compassion to think that some people grow up where much evil has been sown in them, around and against them, while life is easier and freer for others.

Matt 13: 23 - 30. ‘The kingdom of heaven may be com-pared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was  asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel* all among the wheat, and made off…Jesus said, Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall  say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.” ’

*13:26 Zizanion, a kind of weed referred to as “darnel” or “tares,” has poisonous seeds but looks like wheat in its early stages of growth. Yet it is easily distinguishable at harvest. The sower of evil is "the devil" (verses 25, 28, 38-39) (diabolos: the accuser, deceiver, liar, and be-trayer, one who is against all that is true and righteous. Satan's sly nature is   revealed in his choice of the darkness for doing his            diabolical work, sowing what is evil among the good.

Darnel or Tares in our soul.

In our lives we have had bad experiences, bad con-clusions based on faulty facts, imperfect motives, and sins committed against us as well as evil thoughts so our minds by the world. Haven't you prayed, “Lord take this anger or hated away from me? Or Lord why can't this temptation be taken away”?

It's a mystery but God allows these subtle tares to co-exist in our hearts until he has matured the fruit He has planted becomes ripe and mature enough to over-power and become easily distinguished from the fruit of Satan. In Hebrews it is written. "For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of right-eousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil."

Our life maturity is based on growing in the ability to distinguish the in-fluence of both tares and the wheat within ourselves (not just seeing evil influences in the world around us). When we begin to see them, we can confess our faults and ask prayer and help to be healed (James 5:17). Jesus is a gentle shepherd, and if he only dealt with judgment and condemnation of sin where would we learn mercy? From Jesus we learn humility, mercy and patience, and in the church is grace to free us from evil within us.

The power of confession

Romans 7:  For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it... I see in my body war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my body. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

1 John 1:7 If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin…9 If we confess our sins he will forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness.

So within or without, God is patient for His fruit to distinguish itself and for us to purge ourselves through His discerning Spirit and the mirror of God’s word. God give us grace to be patient with ourselves and others while we confess our faults and pray for one another to be healed in love. Then we shine as light in this world.

 “Although the tares hinder the wheat, yet they make it the more beautiful to behold”. 

Loving His Word

Loving His Word

By Richard Lineberry

No one can rise to spiritual maturity without a love affair with God's Word.  The Word is almost a synonym with the Christian message and remember that the Word is not just words on a page but the person of Christ manifested to us to demonstrate all that God is.

The Word purifies us by exposing good and evil and giving us power to chose the good. Through this Word comes faith to believe that our sins are forgiven and life becomes new through Christ's resurrection.  The Word is the agent of  spiritual rebirth.  In our sinful condition,  the needed change in our hearts to receive and give love is so great it requires a supernatural change on the inside that only God's Word can accomplish.

This Word must be HEARD.  We must open our hearts and minds to the Word's entrance.  It is possible to ignore and disregard it. The Word must not only be heard but HELD ON TO. It must be digested inwardly. We must hold it the forefront of our minds. In this way its power is released and we experience love.

The Word must be ACTED UPON if we are to fully  comprehend its worth. When we hear Him speaking deep within us. Sometimes it seems He speaks things that impossible for us to do but His Word comes complete with grace which is the power to do and become exactly what He prescribes.  Through acting on His Word we can do great things. The obstacles of the past can melt away as we learn what it means to follow Him. As we do this a new spiritual freedom comes that we had always longed for.

Finally, this Word within us longs to be spoken outwardly.  Every believer needs to share the Word that is within us with others.  Often that is just a simple encouragement we may give to others. If we ask, God will give us opportunities to speak to those that need to hear it. This is the Christian message that we receive this word of life and then give it away to those without.

I AM NOT A LEGO

I AM NOT A LEGO

By Dwight Cunkle

Recently I took two grandchildren to the LegoLand Movie. I think I enjoyed it much more than they did. It surprises me how much humor and truth is written into children’s cartoons that only “adults” will “get.”

What profound truth struck me from the movie?

Thankfully, our God is not like  “The man upstairs” in the  movie who is the “creator” and has ultimate “control,” but is unaware of mischief going on in Lego-Land. Our God came in the flesh and revealed himself as a personal and good God.

The different realms of Legos (Frontier, Castle, Pirates, etc. are all connected by mysterious passage ways (like the way C.S. Lewis has Aslan send the children to and from various worlds). The few who become aware of this realize they can affect what happens in the various realms for good or evil.

As I read Scripture this morning I contemplated God as Lord of the various heavens, the earth and things under the earth. Jesus humbly entered all these realms and ascended Victor but we are limited by time and space, except in spirit.

I pray God open our spiritual ears to listen with His ears and find his heart. We need to humbly enter into the “realms” of others and listen with them for God, following Jesus’ example. Our goal is to live fully in divine life and love in our daily life:  entering fully into all our times and places, bringing his life to those around us, always thanking God because He is working his glorious will in all realms.

Phil 2:3-11 In humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Look not only on your own interests but on the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.