As the spring outside moves into the year I too reflect on growth. It is a nice change from the dead of winter. I pick up a rake and begin to remove the dead…
… underneath is a small amount of green growth. This causes a smile to arise. By the end of an hour I have cleared the dead that winter left behind, but then realize what seemed to have died now has returned. As I feel this dry waste in my hand I realize it is just a shedding of it’s skin and when season change comes it springs up stronger, and taller, and more beautiful than before. This is how I want to be. Stronger, Taller and more Beautiful than before. Yet, age doesn’t seem to compliment us does it? Therefore I think of the Word and what He tells us: in the Blinking of an eye we shall be changed. Yea, this dead flesh shall rise anew!
Resurrection:
Revival from inactivity and disuse; “it produced a resurrection of hope”.
There is that word again… Revival.
Like the dead of winter when everything seems to stop I suddenly realize it was only a season of REST, or inactivity. This is a good thing. For while on the surface, to us it may have seemed dead, but under the soil this much needed rest served good for the purpose of that which could not be seen… active regeneration.
Regeneration:
Matt. 19:28 and Titus 3:5. This word literally means a “new birth.”
In Matt. 19:28 the word is equivalent to the “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21).
In Titus 3:5 it denotes that change of heart elsewhere spoken of as a passing from death to life (1 John 3:14); becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17); being born again (John 3:5); a renewal of the mind (Rom. 12:2); a resurrection from the dead (Eph. 2:6); a being quickened (2:1, 5).
This change is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. It originates not with man but with God (John 1:12, 13; 1 John 2:29; 5:1, 4).
As to the nature of the change, it consists in the implanting of a new principle or disposition in the soul; the impartation of spiritual life to those who are by nature “dead in trespasses and sins.” The necessity of such a change is emphatically affirmed in Scripture (John 3:3; Rom. 7:18; 8:7-9; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:1; 4:21-24). Source: Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary.
We as believers in Jesus will have our moments when we are as the Dead of Winter; yet I believe during this time we too are going through active regeneration. What may not be seen on the surface through our fleshly eyes will become noticeable in time. The season will pass and the evidence of underneath active regeneration will spring forth. Can we honestly say that which God has given to us in gifts to use for His purpose have no value?
NO!
For each gift God has given to us we must use to our best effort in serving one another; bearing one another’s burdens.
It is the flesh that opposes this use of gifts.
It is the flesh that opposes the lowly.
It is the flesh that uses reason to dismiss what the Spirit of Lord is asking of us to do ; due to what another has done in their selfish act which would lead to their own destruction.
I will give you an example:
You and I encountered an inheritance.
Let us say you had this wonderful idea to go into debt, due to the inheritance that was given to you and you thought you could or would be able to pay the promisory, because of the extra cash.
You then were caught up in your wickedness of lusting and suddenly things changed on a dime and you lost it all, but you still had this promisory note you had to pay back.
Let us say I was the wiser and held onto my inheritance just in case I needed it for that rainy day.
Do I look at you and say: well now you should have thought wisely and because you did not, why should I help you out?
This is flesh.
Flesh doesn’t want to hear the excuses.
Flesh doesn’t want to Bend.
Flesh wants you to feel the heartache so that maybe you might learn not to ever do that again.
Some people look at this as the person who failed in their reasoning of promisory debt would be taking advantage of the other person’s goodness to help them out. Yet bearing with them their burden doesn’t always remove them from their own responsibility to pay back what is owed. In Truth of the matter, for the debtor it would be wise in his thinking to not only pay back the debt in a reasonable time frame, but also not to expect more than what is due to him while the good heart is bearing the burden along side of him.
I would not be expected to pay your debt or help you pay a part of your debt, but I would be expected to help you in areas of NEED. And in so doing I would be expected to help encourage you through this reflection/examination of why you sold your inheritance to the devil.
This is what Spring’s Ressurection taught me today.
