Rootstock or New Creation
Double-take. I walked out my back door and noticed leaves on the rosebush we thought was dead. My beautiful red rose had appeared dead in the fall, but we never dug it up, and what I thought was a piece of pink paper caught on the thorns was a pink rose.
I don’t know much about roses, but I know one type is sometimes grafted onto the rootstock of another. The rootstock had lived through the winter and the true nature of the rose was now coming out. Much to my surprise, within a few weeks a red rose opened up giving me red and pink roses on the same bush. It was unusual and kind of pretty, but neither looked as healthy as they should. Both were small and sickly.
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are given a new nature. The Spirit of Christ comes to live within us. The problem arises when our old nature, our sinful nature, decides to show itself. There is a place inside me where the rootstock hides, now and then showing its true colors. They are things I thought were surrendered to His control, the inner self I thought was hidden.
We all have that hidden rootstock. It may even be pretty to the world, like my rose, but it shows me for what I am, a sinner saved by grace, still bearing in my body the sin nature needing the touch of the Master’s hand. I am, after all, a work in progress. Those two natures living side by side will never be as healthy or beautiful as they would be if only the new natures God controls existed without the other to sap its strength and beauty.
We are fortunate to have a loving God, who works within us so that, in the end, He can present us clean, a spotless and a perfect work of His wise and loving hands.
What sinful thoughts and desires do you struggle to hide from the world? What do you fear popping out and revealing that you aren’t all you seem to be?
Let God take care of your sinful rootstock, and replace it with His beautiful, thriving new creation able will bless others and show His love to a hurting world.
Rewards of Persistence
The Sound of Silence
Lessons I learned when silence forced me to listen to God.
2MefromHim Devotional
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
Believe God
I felt alone, shaking with pain, anger, and doubt. Three weeks following my father’s sudden death, God seemed silent and very far away. I struggled to sleep at night. My whole world seemed to have turned inside out.
I’d seen death before. As a nurse I stood at the bedside of many dying people. I once listened with my stethoscope while a tired heart beat its last. I remembered my grandparent’s deaths, the early deaths of cousins, but this was my dad. This was closer by far.
God knew we would struggle with doubts. He placed answers in His word for us to read, comforting words to still our fears and calm our hearts. He doesn’t run from our questions, He answers them enough for us to trust.
Paul writes that we are not to grieve as those who have no hope. The writers of scripture were humans too, and they needed reassurance as much as we do today. The writer of Hebrews says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
When Jesus spoke of going to prepare a place for us, and said not to let our hearts be troubled, He knew what we needed. His word is full of promises to never leave us alone, to never forsake us. We may not always feel God’s presence, but His word tells us we can trust all the time.
Look back on your life and think about the good times and the bad. Write down how you’ve seen God work in the past. Keep a record for when you need to be reminded.
Take your fears and lay them before God. One by one, name them and give them to Him. Write them down and tell Him to take them all. He will. It may be moment by moment, day by day, year after year, but God is faithful to do all He said He would. He wants us to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is faithful.
Trust Him, not your own understanding, but God’s promises. It helped me. It will work for you.
Fire and Snow
Red, white, green, and gold fireworks shot into the New Year’s sky in the valley below our mountain home. We watched from our window, enjoying the display, and grateful for the snow which made it possible. Our drought-ridden state is rife with fire danger, even in the midst of winter. The covering of snow provided our protection. They were beautiful to see, but carry a danger all too real.
As I thought about it, I realized the contrast between the danger of fire posed by the beautiful fireworks, and the safety and purity of the “whiter than snow” protection the Lord Jesus gives to our lives. The world is full of things which appear on the surface to be beautiful, but in reality, pose a serious threat to our lives and well-being. The dangers of sin are often attractive. We are tempted to dabble in things, but if we get too close, they will burn and stain. Satan is referred to as beautiful and appealing to men, but his way is the way of death and destruction.
When David wrote Psalm 51, he was suffering the conviction of his sin with Bathsheba. His lust led to adultery, murder, and the death of the child they conceived—a crimson stain he could not remove by himself. As he confesses his sin to God, he says, “wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”
Isaiah’s prophecy carries the same message. Sin is not something which can hide forever. Once found out, it shows scarlet and crimson, staining our lives in ways we are powerless to escape, much like the brand on Hester Prynne’s cheek in Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Our only hope of cleansing is to confess our sin and commit our lives to the Lord who promises to cleanse us from the stain of sin, leaving us “white as snow.”
What hidden sin stains your life today? What do you fear will be found out and destroy you?
Just as the snow provided protection from the danger of fireworks in a dry, parched land, Jesus promises to remove the stain of our sin with the washing of His own pure blood shed on the Cross when we are powerless to save ourselves.
Begin your new year with confession, accept His cleansing, and face the future with security for all eternity.
The New Year: Peace on Earth?
