02/06/2025
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.
Several 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, pull weeds, and thin the rows. 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 to make room for the vegetables that would feed our family. It was a painful process, and many plants had to die in the process, but one in particular bothered me.
Along the southern border of the garden was a wide row of Black-eyed Susan flowers. They were beautiful but grew profusely and would encroach upon the vegetable garden. It was necessary for me to hoe and pull many of them up as they grew 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 Susan flowers, we begin to waffle and have second thoughts. They are beautiful... but they also damage the garden's ability to produce a harvest. Some things in life keep our faiths from reaching fullness too, and must be abandoned, or eradicated, and some are like the black-eyed Susans that please us and can become cherished parts of our daily life. And they are painful to let go of.
I only pulled these flowers under the direction and supervision 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 tending our faith, we must trust 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 might feel pain and sorrow in the pruning, but in the end, when we look back on His handiwork, we see the perfection in where His hoe and shears have been, and the bounty they have produced. So, for the sake of our faith we bind our lives like sheaves 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
As hard as it might seem we must 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. There are things in our lives that must go so that our faith can flourish and produce fruit, but are we letting God direct us in removing them?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for purging my life of those things that you find distasteful, or harmful in some way to my faith. I ask that the smoke of your fire carry my impurities far away, and that what is left will be strong, pleasing to you, and a blessing to me. I know Lord that there are things in my life that I am reluctant to let go of, but I trust in you and give you free reign in removing them. Father, perfect me as you see fit. Though the process might occasionally be painful and the work hard, I can't wait for evening to come when in this, the cool of the day, I can walk with you and we can look back on what our relationship has become, the garden we have made together, and you can see just how much I love you for my life. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who perfects me measure by measure and draws me closer to you with every weed that is removed from the garden of my life, from the Eden you have made of me. Holy are you who thins one beautiful thing so that another might flourish. Merciful and full of grace are you who leaves just enough of every planting so that our garden can take perfect shape and become glorious, bountiful, and beautiful. Abba, hear me sigh in my pleasure as I look over your handiwork and appreciate you all the more. I pray that you are equally pleased with me, and who I have become through my obedience to your guiding hand. This is my prayer today, and always, Father, and I offer it to you in the name of your Son Jesus Christ my savior and redeemer. Praised be your name as I call our Hallelujah and claim Amen!
Amen!
Rich Forbes