The Broken Fence

This Easter made me think of a writing I did fourteen years ago about the old rugged cross verses our broken half-mended fences referred to as "our lives.". Here is that writing, along with a picture of an old gate my dad tried to mend the best he could using whatever he could find to do it. Our lives are represented by that old broken fence in need of repair, Christ is the carpenter sent not only to repair it but make it new. 

The Broken Fence

 

It's funny how old things can take on new meanings at any given time.  Like the time I was asked to make the props for our annual Easter play at the church. What an honor it was to be asked, as genuine excitement flooded over me at the chance to once more serve my Lord. My assignment was the Garden of Gethsemane on one half of the stage and an alley on the other. The director wanted a rock for Jesus and a garbage can for the bum in the play but my imagination was unable to stop there.

 

Picket fences made out of old weather beaten wood would look nice but what more could I add to them I pondered. Talking to my sister and mother they came up with the excellent idea that sent my inventiveness into full sing. They told me some grape vines and bunches of grapes to decorate the fences would be very symbolic and I agreed. The plan was to build 3to 4 small fences about 30 inches wide. Two of the fences had been built before the first play rehearsal. At the rehearsal as I watched the bum in the play act out his part I had an idea of making the picket fence on his side of the stage a broken down looking one.

 

Going home that evening I began working on the broken fence. The more I labored the more real it became to me, for that broken fence not only represented the bum in the Easter play but it illustrated me as well.  Just about finished with the fence I took notice of the song that was playing on the CD player I had going. It was Carman singing "The Old Rugged Cross." What a well loved song through many a generations since 1913, one that symbolizes so well Jesus and what He did for us.

 

It was at that moment that the Lord caught my attention as He spoke to me through the familiar words. I felt exhilarated as I saw that song symbolizing something else. A vision formed in my mind of how God looks at our old rugged fences as we look to the old rugged cross. As the song played through my imagination translated these well-known words into words Jesus spoke in His heart to me that first Easter when He died on the cross for my sins and for the sins of all others…

 

 

"On a hill not that far away I see an old rugged fence,

The emblem of suff'ring and pain;

Oh how I love that old fence, to Me it's the dearest and best

For it was for a world of lost sinners I was slain.

O that old rugged fence, may be despised by the world,

But it has a wondrous attraction to me;

After all, as the dear Lamb of God

I left my glory above to bear it on dark Calvary.

In that old rugged fence, so stained by the world,

Is a wondrous beauty to Me;

For 'twas because of that old fence that I suffered and died,

To pardon and sanctify it.

 

CHORUS: So I'll cherish that old rugged fence,

Till it's trophies at last it will lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged fence,

As I'm waiting to exchange it some day for a crown."

 

Love,

 

Jesus

 

Wow, that last line really did it as I thought about Christ waiting in Heaven for me to exchange my old rugged fence, "my life" for a crown made just for me. It doesn't matter how rugged the fence, how many the flaws, how nice the paint job, how weather beaten by the world. Christ sees past our fences into our hearts where His cross should be firmly planted.  Realizing that my fence in life could never compare to the "Old Rugged Cross" I began to ponder what it represented. Truly it illustrated Christ's love for us that He came here to die for sinner's like me. The suffering that Christ went through for me could never be compared either to the minor flaws in my "fence" that I might come across.

 

Memories of the times Jesus has come along to help me repair my fence came to mind. The nails I was trying to use just wouldn't hold, for Him it only took 4, one in each hand and foot. Quietly as I thought about those times I began to pray….

 

"Dear Heavenly Father thank you so much for being there to help me with my old broken fence. Through out my life You have sent many people down my road that have been willing to stop and help put up a board or two that may have fallen. It's a comfort to know that no matter how rugged it looks, how many boards are missing, how poor the repairs, how bad the paint job, you will see it as a wondrous attraction with beauty. Forgive me Father for the times in my life that I have tried to fix my own fence with nails that just wouldn't hold. May I adjust my focus not to the broken fence but the place you are preparing for me. A place of beauty that none can compare. I love you Father God, I'm forever grateful Lord that You allowed me to come to You just as I was. I didn't need to stop and repair my fence, if I had I'd probably still be trying to fix it. I never would have been able to get ready on my own. Thank you for loving me so much that I didn't need a perfect fence for You to come into the yard of my life, all I needed was Your cross. You're the greatest Father God, I love you!!"

 

"Do not let our hearts be troubled, Trust in God, trust also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."  John 14:1-3 (NIV)

 

 

© 2000 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

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Molting or Plucking

He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Psalm 91:4 NLT





Many times I have read this verse in Psalm 91 but for some reason this time around when I read it the word “feather” jumped out at me. I instantly thought of the days when people were tarred and feathered. Don’t ask me why but I did. Turning to Google I searched for information regarding this horrible act.




It was stated that back before the late nineteenth century people took it upon themselves to punish other people by tarring and feathering them when they didn’t do what they thought they should. For example a Skipper of a boat was once tarred and feathered by a group of women in Massachusetts because he refused to aid seamen in distress. Truly it was used as an act of physical punishment of unofficial justice and revenge. For a time it was a legal punishment used in England and later used in extralegal demonstrations in the American colonies and the United States until the late 19th century.




As I found out it was an act of revenge and people taking the law into their own hands. What a praise it is that the feathers that the Lord covers us with is something that is totally different. It’s not an act of punishment, revenge, or unofficial justice. It is done for our protection out of love to create a shelter or hiding place for us. It’s not done to label us a bad person but to show how much God really cares about us.



With the Lord instead of being tarred and feathered as we really deserve because of our sins we are covered with feathers out of love. One feather at a time the Lord’s love covers over us. His faithful promises are our armor and protection. We get the choice to keep those feathers on us and snuggle into them or pluck them out one by one. Plucking them out by our attitudes, actions, and choices we make in life.



Recently our chickens have been losing their feathers on their backs. When asked what could be the cause of that, many people told us they are molting. It something chickens do once a year as they lose their old feathers and grow new ones. One chicken farmer asked us right off, “Do you have a rooster in with the hens?” When we answered yes he knew immediately the cause of the lost feathers was the rooster picking on the hens.



Its one thing to molt once a year to get rid of the old feathers in order to grow the new but a totally different practice to pluck them out ourselves. We need to ask ourselves, “Which are we doing? Are we molting or plucking. Are we getting rid of the old in order for the new to grow or just simply eliminating the blanket of protection God offers us through His promises.



In Romans 12:1 we are told to renew our minds, other scriptures tell us to get rid of the old sinful practices we once did and take on the new attitude of Christ. It’s a practice that needs to happen more than once a year. We are the ones who get to choose whether we will accept God’s shelter in the feathery comfort of His soft promises or pluck out what we don’t want to hear and try to build our own feathered bed to lie on.



Try as we might it will never compare to what God has to offer us. Molting or plucking? I’d rather molt if it means getting rid of the old in order to make room for the new, the new in Christ.



Our hostess for this mini-series through Psalm 91 is Twinkle Mom who will be sharing on her blog, SunflowerFaith. Fly on over there and share with others what the scripture today means to you.

Renovated

"Without the renewed mind, we will distort the Scriptures to avoid their radical commands for self-denial, and love, and purity, and supreme satisfaction in Christ alone.” ~ John Piper


As the New Year begins the New Year resolutions begin as well. And because it’s January 10th they have already ended for most people. Just teasing! But it’s the truth isn’t it. It is for me anyway, guilty as charged! When it comes to the physical resolutions they tend to be quit smoking and start dieting. On the spiritual side we think of reading our Bible more frequently and serve the Lord greater.


Recently I heard one spiritual speaker talk about reading the Bible daily. One by one he listed the do’s and don’ts of reading the Bible. One of the don’ts was to DO NOT distort the Scriptures to make it read what we want it to read. There probably has come a time in most of our lives we have all done this very thing. Guilty as charged! Although it may give us a temporarily good feeling as we break our spiritual diet but it’s only momentary. It lasts about as long as that “need for chocolate” fix we are after as we break our physical diet.


The best solution is to renew our minds as we renew our resolutions. Dropping what doesn’t belong and keeping what needs to stay. This is done by setting for ourselves good reachable and obtainable goals that we strive for daily with the help of the Holy Spirit and self discipline.


It’s easy to join a gym or get on the “patch” to quit smoking but how do we renew our minds. To renew means to renovate, refurbish, repair, restore, mend, make good, and revamp. One day as I watched a remodeling process going on at an old business office I noticed them taking out lift-truck bucket loads of dirt out of the building. I thought maybe they were trying to dig a basement or a sunken waiting room or office space. Being a person who works around construction my husband informed me they were tearing out the old concrete floor as well as the old pipes and electrical wires to start over with their own layout.


That’s the kind of renovating, restoring, and revamping process we need to do ourselves spiritually. As we draw closer to Christ we should be taking out buckets full the old stuff that doesn’t need to be there and replace it with our own new wiring furnished by Jesus. We can’t make the mistake of thinking we can do it on our own and renewing with things we want dancing around in our heads. As if that ever worked! Guilty as charged, been there, tried that and it doesn’t work.


Things have a tendency to get into our minds way to easily that doesn’t belong. It takes a good look and a long commitment to decide to clean it up and replace it with things from above as Paul put it. Twisting the Bible to read what we want it to read only puts more of the wrong instead of right things into our minds.


Bottom-line is we are in charge of our own renovating process and it would do us well to read the Bible every day. To apply it to our lives, to use it to dispose of the old as we prepare for the new on an every day basis. Just as we would never renew a subscription to a magazine we didn’t like we need to stop renewing our subscription to the things that harm us spiritually. The Bible and its author is all the renewal we need to refurbish what needs to be in Christ, for Christ, through Christ for the benefit of all and to the glory of God’s kingdom.




Therefore, next time the Holy Spirit comes around knocking on your door asking you if you want to renew your subscription to the Bible tell him, “You bet I do and forget this 2 year, 10-year plan I’m going for all eternity!” Amen? Amen!!!!!!! I’m renewed, I am renovated!




Our host today is Urailak at LivingforGod . Run on over there and read and share with the others about today’s quote. Better yet for the New Year join us and be one of the Tuesday morning contributors to the quote of the week. We’d love to have you on board.