"Deep Roots"

When was the last time you looked around at your circumstances and asked God the Creator to reveal himself to you? The revelations of God are as endless as He is infinite. Recently I found myself understanding more about my relationship with Jesus while I laid border stones and planted flowerbeds.

As I started to work the ground, I encountered deep roots and as I pulled out one root I found another and another. These roots were deep and they weren’t coming out without a fight. As I worked, I was reminded of Hebrews 12:15, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

Once the soil was workable, I had to dig trenches before the stone could be set into place and then the trenches had to be leveled so that the stones would line up. The first stone set into place was the cornerstone with each stone laid in line with it. The trench was lined with a thin layer of leveling sand that was tapped down to fill in the low places. To make the stones fit; I tapped each one into place with a rubber mallet and then used a level to ensure they were in line with the first stone.

After several hours of labor in the heat, I tried to hurry the job up a little but before I knew it, my stones were crooked! I found that if one stone was even the slightest bit unleveled with the first, it wouldn’t show up until I laid the third or fourth stone. So I had to go back to the cornerstone as my reference point and make sure each of the stones after it was perfectly lined up.

Saying all of that, when was the last time we labored this hard on our hearts until our thoughts were in line with Christ? Have you checked the depths of your heart only to find bitter roots growing there?

Keeping with the illustration, we need to get rid of every bitter (harsh, hostile, resentful, merciless) thought which like a root when kept alive will choke out the good that is planted in us. Surely we know that if we nurse merciless thoughts, we can’t expect God to show us mercy. James 2:12-13, “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!”

Not only so, we need to make sure we don’t allow those bitter roots to extend into the generations after us (our children and grandchildren) so that the roots choke out the good planted in them. We need to lay every stone—every thought—in line with the Cornerstone who is Jesus Christ. If we allow just one thought to be slightly “off” or out of line with the Word of God, we end up laying crooked beliefs that produce actions which are not pleasing to God. In taking our thoughts captive, we must pound them down so that they are level with the Ruler who is the Son of God. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

We need to be willing to make our hearts workable so that we bear good fruit. As said in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. “ We need to fill in the low spots and level down the high spots with the Word of God which like sand is abrasive at times but is able to keep us on the straight and narrow path. In doing so we can trust the Word, which says “The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness.” (1 Sam 26:23)

Planted in the house of the Lord,

Mandy Wakefield

“Yard work for the heart”

Jesus doesn’t just wait for catastrophes in our lives to speak to us, however we usually wait until we have a catastrophe before we try to hear from Him. He wants to speak to us in every instance, even when we are doing yard work. Luke 11:10, “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

When I lived in Lafayette, while helping a friend mow the lawn, I started studying the ground below me. Although the grass was bright green, the ground beneath it was uneven and the soil was littered with rocks and trash. The city had recently replaced water pipes in the neighborhood and to fix the mess they made, they literally dumped some dirt and later sprayed rye grass seed. It was a quick fix that required no cultivating or tilling to restore the yard to a workable condition. I was immediately reminded of the parables of the soils Jesus taught in the gospels (see Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8).

Since I’m not a grass “theologian,” I had to look further into the matter. Interestingly enough rye grass is a fill-in for dense (impenetrable) forming sod. It’s a “throw and grow” that can be sown without tilling and without destroying any of the permanent ground covers already in place. It is easily grown in all kinds of soils and climates except the very hot and very cold. It’s good in the cooler weather, but in the summer sun it burns up as quickly as it grew. Most of the time it does not remain long-life but dies out depending on the location and temperature. IT’S A LUKEWARM GRASS! (Check out Revelation 3 to see what Jesus says about being a lukewarm Christian)

Even worse, it’s a Pharisee grass, it looks good on the outside, but underneath it is full of trash. Matthew 23:25-28 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Jesus started teaching me about the “soil” of my heart and the “seed” that has been growing there.
When Jesus found me, my heart was full of trashed soil that grew mostly weeds (sin). Like this yard I was mowing, my heart had been a place in need of repair that the world dumped unusable soil onto propagating a garden of iniquity. The Pharisees of the modern day churches threw out lukewarm seed onto my heart telling me I could be a Christian if I believed a certain doctrine and if I followed a set of religious rules. So even though I had the outward appearance of a highly religious person, like this rye grass, these religious rules were just filler seed. Although they sprout fast and looked good, they didn’t change the condition of the heart and when the Son comes out, they will burn up! It wasn’t until I realized that I was going to have to lose the appearance of godliness and actually labor at working the soil that I would reap a harvest of righteousness.

But Praise Be unto God who looked below the dense surface and weeds and saw deeper to soil that was workable! He began to test the soil of my heart to see if it could be made usable. In fact, like “miracle grow” for the heart, I have been born again! 1 Peter 1:23-25, says, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever."

Regularly, we should look to see what has been sown into our hearts and shovel out what doesn’t belong there. If we haven’t tended to our hearts in a while, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to till our hearts and make the soil usable. Then we need to spread the “weed and feed” which is like the very Word of God, and when used properly has the power to get rid of the weeds and cause us to grow spiritually. Like weed eating we need to reach the hidden areas and make the crooked places of our hearts straight. And with daily watering of prayer and worship, God can make the Word richly planted in us grow.

Christ’s yard girl,

Mandy Wakefield

“Submission impossible”

(It is important that you have the music for Mission Impossible going through your head as you read this!) I just read the book The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace and it truly blessed my soul. Well of course after it rightly convicted me, since I haven’t yet become trained in submission and actually it is not until recently that I have become remotely familiar with the concept. Ignorance is certainly no excuse. This is further evidence that if you seek Jesus, He will get you the truth, leaving no stone unturned. It is no surprise then as I was talking with Jesus about my lack of submission when the words “submission impossible” came to my mind (the music and everything!). My God surely has a sense of humor. Some people, especially anyone who knows me, might look at my life for the past 23 sassy years and say that submission is impossible, but God’s word tells me out of the mouth of Jesus himself in Luke 18:27 "What is impossible with men is possible with God." Hallelujah that means there is hope for me and for every person in Christ!

Actually it is God’s will and His perfectly designed plan that all of creation submit to the authority placed over it with the end being when Jesus hands the kingdom to God the Father once everything is in complete submission to him (1 Cor 15:24-25). God is so good to us that he even explains it more than once in His Word so we can be sure to get it right now. 1 Corinthians 11:3-4 explains our roles so well so that there will be no question as to who does what, “Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. “ We are further encouraged by Peter, in 1 Peter 2, since he himself was married, he understood first hand about both the husband’s and the wife’s roles.

Whereas Christians agree we are to submit to God and the world generally agrees that children must submit to parents, like the rest of the bitter herbs (God’s word) we don’t like, we just convince ourselves such submission was for that time period and adjust the teaching as needed. (Immediately I am reminded of the wedding vows “to love and obey” which were controversial to the point that they have been watered down or just eliminated to suit the situation or rather keep women happy). Unfortunately, as evidenced by my former attitude, the understanding of submission has become twisted so much so that the woman’s role in life no longer resembles the role designed and described by the word of God. It is even considered “in style” for women not to submit to men, especially a wife to her husband, and I believe that with this malignance has come the ever-increasingly popular movement of men not submitting to bosses, and children not submitting to parents or teachers. (Good example of a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.)

Lately I find myself saying out loud, “I think I am suppose to submit now.” I encourage you to examine yourself and if need be enlist yourself into a “submission boot camp” where you train yourself in godly submission. There are times I think it is “submission impossible” and it would be easier for me to ride on top of a moving subway train in an underground tunnel filled with fire rather than submit. Yet the idea of pleasing the Lord by embracing the role He has designed for me and by the power of the Holy Spirit it becomes “submission possible.” Undoubtedly Jesus is our Submission Super Hero as he was able to submit even unto death making this statement to the Father, his authority, “Not my will but yours be done.”

“Submitten with Jesus”

Mandy Wakefield