“Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Galatians 6:6-7 (NKJV)
“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”
These are the opening verses to a poem by William Wordsworth titled, “The World Is Too Much With Us”. It was written back 1807 and was addressing the normal hustle and bustle of everyday life that Wordsworth saw as making us lose our appreciation for the natural world and all of its wonder. He thought the world had become way too complicated and way too frenetic. He oughta see what that looks like here in the 21st century. Complicated and frenetic just aren’t strong enough adjectives.
However, it does seem that we, as a society, aren’t taking a few moments to stop and smell the roses. Au Contraire, instead we, as a society, are too busy growing roses so we can cut’em down, bundle’em up, sale’em by the dozen, and buy’em on the way home, so when we hand’em to our wives they will be impressed with our outward display of affection for them. The funny in this, is the roses, being disconnected from its rooting system, end up dying and man, instead of seeing the futility constantly buying a dozen roses to impress his wife (unless thou art dwellth in thine own doghouse, then it’s an apologetic action), takes’em out with the weekly garbage and the cycle begins all over again.
I’ll apologize if I make that seem that there’s a futility in the giving of roses to our wives (once my wife sees this, she’ll probably give me that discerning raised eye brow kinda stare that she does) because as husbands we ALWAYS should show our wives they are loved by us. But do a dozen roses on display really show our wives we are thinking about them constantly? Are we thinking about them constantly? If Ephesians 5:25-27 carries any weight with you then, yeah, you’re thinking of them constantly. BUT this would also imply that you’re keeping God in the very forethought of your mind. Correct? So…long story short (which isn’t easy for me), Is God in all your thoughts? Hmm…
“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you are disqualified.” — 2 Corinthians 13:5
Maybe the bigger question is what are you allowing to enslave your mind? Yeah, put it like that and maybe that’ll test your loyalty to the faith you say you have. Ya see, the world around us spends all it’s time thinking upon itself, how it can get itself gratified, and how it can exalt itself against the knowledge of God. But on the battlefield of our minds are weapons that are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds and allowing us to bring EVERY thought captive to obedience of Christ. Do we use those weapons of our true warfare or do we, metaphorically, buy God a dozen roses in an apologetic action and hope He accepts our offering in a way that almost borders on the first fruits of Cain? Hmm…
The world we live in is steeped in the pride of life, the lust of the flesh and especially the lust of the eyes. We see, every day, how the wicked are getting away with just about every atrocity known to man and every Christian is invited to partake in this mess but we’re warned about this. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.” (Proverbs 23:7) If we’re not careful, our time will be spent doing stuff that ain’t exactly on God’s approval list and where you’ve been invited to has taken you too far, cost you too much and has got you imprisoned longer than when you were first invited.
In John 15 Jesus prays for us to abide in Him. Why? “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Ya see, Christians need to stop and smell the roses, because we are the roses and we need to be careful that the world doesn’t cut us down, bundle us, sell us only to be tossed aside like the weekly garbage. This means we stay connected to The Vine because apart from that we do no good thing and probably smell really bad. Let’s not offer up to God like we have the mind of Cain, let us, instead, offer up to God what is truly God’s…ourselves. Amen?
Written by Chris Hughes: Chris is a child of El Elyon, a son, a husband, a father, has an education in Biblical doctrine and is a graduate of The Colony of Mercy 11/03. He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008. You can email him at cphughes515@verizon.net.
