02/06/2023
As I read Oswald Chambers this morning, I was touched by the message of offering ourselves to God, and then allowing Him full reign in changing us and perfecting our lives for His service. Chambers used the words of Paul to illustrate that we should present our old self as a drink offering and then allow Him to pour us over the altar.
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.”
2 Timothy 4:6 ESV
It is one thing to say that we want to serve the Lord and give Him our lives, but it is quite a different thing when we begin to smell the smoke and hear the crackling of the cleansing altar fire. There is pain associated with change; something must die that another may thrive.
A few years ago I made a large vegetable garden for my father in law. He loved to garden but had reached the end of his years and was unable to tend one any longer. I would go to his home nearly every day, and under his supervision, I would work the ground. What I found very quickly was that in order for the vegetables to thrive, the weeds had to go! I pulled, hoed, and sprayed as I destroyed the interlopers and made room for the vegetables that would feed our family. It was a painful process and many plants had to die, but one, in particular, bothered me.
Along the southern edge of the garden was a row of Black-eyed Susans. They were beautiful, but would encroach upon the garden. It was necessary for me to pull many of them up as they spread into the row of strawberries nearby. Our lives of faith are much like that garden, and we can easily pull the destructive weeds, but when it comes to the Black-eyed Susans, we begin to waffle and have second thoughts. They are beautiful... but damage the garden's ability to produce.
I only pulled the flowers at the direction of my father in law. He could see the damage they would do, and he knew just how many, and which ones, I should remove. In faith we hand this job to God. He will remove those things from our lives that we are reluctant to weed out. He can see order where we see only beauty or pleasure. We will feel pain and sorrow in the pruning, but in the end, when we look back on His handiwork we see the perfection in where He has been, and the bounty it produced.
So we bind our lives to the altar and turn them over to God...
“God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.”
Psalms 118:27 KJV
We let God purify us and remove those unprofitable parts that crowd out our faith. Chambers elaborated on this process when he wrote these words:
"The altar means fire - burning and purification and insulation for one purpose only, the destruction of every affinity that God has not started and every attachment that is not an attachment in God. You do not destroy it, God does;" - Oswald Chambers
The garden I planted for my father in law had begun as a gift to him, but in the end, and even unto this day, I realize that what began as a love offering to him became one for me as well. Our relationship that was tended between the rows of beans and tomatoes, had perfected us both in love. The pain of removing the Black-eyed Susans had bound us together in a lesson that couldn't have been taught any better.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for purging my life of those things that you find distasteful. I ask that the smoke of your fire carry my impurities far away, and that what is left will be strong and pleasing to you. I know Lord that there are things in my life that I am reluctant to release, but I trust in you and give you full reign over them; perfect me as you see fit. Though the process may be painful and the work hard, I can't wait for evening when in this, the cool of the day, I can look back on the garden, which is my life, and praise your name. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who weeds the garden of my life; removing every plant that doesn’t serve you, and which bears no fruit. Praised be your name for every sin you remove, even the handsome ones that I am reluctant to pull up. Wash me clean Father with the blood of your Son Jesus, and leave no spot untouched. Make me righteous, and perfect in Him. When my day of judgement comes, see only His image in me, and let every Black-eyed Susan of sin be gone, vanquished, and the garden of my faith prepared for eternity with you, and perfect in your eyes.
Rich Forbes