Friday, April 17, 2009

Separating the Wheat from the Tares

Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  Matt 13:43

 

It’s that time of the year.  It’s time to prepare for battle, to arm ourselves, to get tough, to go to war.  Our opponent is tenacious; he spreads like wildfire, and is difficult to eradicate.  My plan is to prosecute a war with extreme prejudice.  But once I have achieved victory, and killed all of those weeds in my yard, I’ll have a beautiful green yard, all summer long!

 

The fact is, there are certain things that need to be weeded out or separated.

 

    * Buy a pineapple;  you cut out the core and the skin. 

    * When some food in your refrigerator gets that ‘fuzzy’ look, you toss it out.

 

We separate good from bad, the useful from useless, the working from broken.  The issue many people have is that they don’t want to accept the fact that one day God is going to separate the righteous from the lawless.  “How could a loving God send anyone to hell” they ask.  My response would be “how could He not?”  Do we really want the evil and lawlessness of this world following us into the Kingdom of God?  It would make heaven no better than earth, only we would be living forever in a corrupted place.

 

God’s plan is just the opposite:  He wants a reality for His people that will be uncorrupted.  A existence of beauty, love, and harmony.  A place where we, as God’s people, will shine forth as the sun.

 

In His Service,

 

Pastor Clay

 

1 comment:

Matt Keegan said...

I've been thinking of a similar subject lately, one where the unrepentant vile person has his mouth shut up for good.

I also like to reflect on Isaiah 14 where satan gets his due, particularly those verses (16&17) which outline his ultimate fate:

"Those who see you will gaze at you, they will ponder over you, saying,‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness and overthrew its cities,who did not allow his prisoners to go home?'"

This is one of many future events I'm certainly looking forward to seeing!