House Re-construction

My wife and I have owned a number of homes over the years.  Most were older than I was, and it seems like something falling into disrepair happens at the most inopportune times.   

I have come to understand many spiritual lessons through experiences of owning and living in a house.  

Coming to faith in Jesus in a conversion experience is like transferring the deed of a property for God’s ownership.  Our physical, mental, and emotional being is no longer our own, but we have been bought with the price of the blood of Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:20).

At conversion, the Holy Spirit awakens our dead personal spirit, and comes to live inside our bodies (Romans 8:9-11).  Then the fun begins.  The process of transformation and sanctification are illustrated well by property ownership.   A number of places in the Bible speak of our body as a tent, temple, dwelling, or house.  Anyone who has lived in a particular house for a length of time knows that houses can take a lot of work to maintain.  Although houses are viewed as an asset on a financial balance sheet, tax collectors have come up with a method of depreciating their value over time because repairs and improvements are so expensive.  The older the house, the more surprises that may be found when trying to fix something.  Chipped paint may lead to broken plaster which may lead to finding a plumbing leak and so on.  For this illustration, when we “sell out” to God, he buys us “as is.”  Now the repairs are in his control, and in his terms of timing, methods, tools used, materials used, floor plans, space utilization, landscaping, outside buildings, etc.  .    

In the Bible, the ancient Israelites are spoken of as a “house,” where God dwells among his people.  In addition to a community meaning of “house,” since the coming of Jesus to the earth, the Bible also refers to an individual’s heart as being a “house”  for the Holy Spirit to dwell within.  

As individuals and as a community, the verses below indicate God’s people sometimes have a hard time maintaining their devotion to God.  God is faithful to grant them peace in their hearts when they remain faithful.  Christ Jesus’ temptation and suffering now provides full access to Father God and a way for our “house” to be made alive in him.   See the second chapter of the book of Hebrews for an introduction to the following quote.  

 

“Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.  He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.  Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.  “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

So, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
     do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
    during the time of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested and tried me,
    though for forty years they saw what I did.
That is why I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:1-12; NASB). 

A heart turned towards God, finds peace.  A heart turned away from God has no rest.  A believing heart turns toward God.  An unbelieving heart turns away.  Belief in God empowers peace.  Unbelief destroys any opportunity for us to experience peace in our body, mind, and soul.  At conversion, believing in Jesus begins a process whereby more and more measures of faith and trust (belief) is placed in Father God for our identity, provision, and protection.  We are still prone to complaining and blaming like the people of God described above, but now we have Jesus as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”  (see John 14).  

This process of change requires altering our beliefs.  Our beliefs must be brought into alignment with God’s “beliefs.”  This is done through surrendering possession of our house to God.  God now owns our heart, and we must cooperate with the re-construction he wants to do.  God may want to tear down a wall to make more space in a room.   We build walls of self-protection in our hearts that often damage our relationships.  God may want to strip old paint off the door frames of another room to expose the original wood.  We often make surface excuses to hide our imperfect perceptions, and we mask who God originally intended us to be.  God may just want to clean the junk out of some dark closets.   We hide things in places that become dark holes of disappointment and depression.   Just about any task of house renovation and maintenance can be likened to alterations in the human heart.  

The more re-making a house goes through, the more useful and beautiful the living space becomes.   The more  change in the right direction the more peace and rest that follows.   Room by room, piece by piece our heart is changed into a place of beauty and productivity.  A house foundation that is shored up and strengthened, will bear the weight of upward expansion, and also be better prepared for storms ahead (see the story Jesus told in Matthew 7:24-27).  Storms of life are inevitable and may take the form of relationship or business breakups, unemployment, pandemics, health problems, or some kind of injustice,  A heart transformed into greater wholeness, has greater capacity, resilience, and forbearance for these kinds of troubles.  

Some may find this difficult to believe, but one of the best ways to discover where our heart needs transformational healing and re-construction, is to allow ourselves to feel the pain of our inner hurts.  Just like a house may look a bit messy from demolition work before re-construction can continue, cleaning up the messes in our lives is somewhat necessary before beauty is restored.  I can speak from my own experience that every corner cleaned up is one more step to sweeter rest of soul.  More on the role of pain in the recovery process may be found in the article called Pain Evangelism as Discipleship at:  

http://authoredhersh.blogspot.com/2018/09/pain-evangelism-as-discipleship.html  

Applying answers to some questions like these may help facilitate house re-construction.   Where might there be some unbelief in my life?  What specific lie(s) might I be believing?  What is the truth that will turn me towards God?  What might I be holding onto (or hiding) in my house hoping that God’s re-construction won’t come to this closet/ cabinet/ room?  What am I thankful for that God already began (or completed) to make my house a better place to live?  Am I giving God praise for the good works he is doing?

Be blessed with re-construction.     

 by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry

Gardening the Soul

Evangelism is commonly thought of as an activity of saving souls.  A conversion experience is wonderful.  God reveals himself to the heart of a person and the person responds by believing in Jesus as Savior.  But what’s next?   Jesus must become Lord (Master) of our life through a journey of discipleship.  The journey involves continuous heart change as we learn to relate to Father God like Jesus did while on earth.  Becoming a follower of Christ looks a little different for each person, but the more radical the transformation, the closer the walk becomes with God.  

Therefore, saving souls also involves gardening souls.  God plants a seed of love in the soil of each of our hearts as a part of our humanity.  A revelation of truth awakens the seed to its surroundings of the soil (conversion experience)  in which the garden filled with plants (our life) can flourish and fulfill its God-given purpose for being.  Being “saved” is not just the opening of the seed into a sprout, but includes the entire life of the plant until harvesting occurs.

The example of a physical garden may help understand.  My wife and I have been growing a vegetable garden each summer for years.  We usually grow things like tomatoes, peppers, turnips, radishes, onions, carrots, beans, melons, squash, lettuce, and potatoes.   Each season of growth brings new revelation of spiritual application, and the fundamentals are always the same.  The soil is prepared, the seed is planted, natural elements such as water and sunlight call forth the sprout, the plant matures into the type of plant imprinted by the seed, fruit (vegetable) grows according to its kind, and the gardener harvests and enjoys the “fruit” fit for harvesting.  

There are numerous environmental  conditions along the way that factor into the productivity of the garden.  Beginning with the soil itself, providing and maintaining the correct balance of nutrients can be a challenge.  For example, some plant varieties tolerate more nitrates and fertilizer elements.  Some like it more sandy than clayish.  The amount of water and sunlight can also affect whether some types of plants grow well or not.  Then there are the weeds.   Oh, the weeds!  Pulling weeds is necessary all through the growth season.  Some types of weeds are more annoying than others.  Bugs are similar.  Some bugs attack the leaves for their own food.  Some attack the roots and stems of the plants.  A gardener has a challenge of figuring out the best environmentally-safe ways to protect the plants from destructive forces like weeds and bugs.  The harvest can also be stolen by birds, deer, ground hogs, rabbits, or other animals trying to grab a quick dinner for themselves.  Extreme or harsh weather conditions (eg. wind, hail, or drought) can also disrupt plant growth and harvest.   

Many spiritual parallels show God’s hand at work in our lives (garden).  God as the Gardener plants the Seed of the gospel of Jesus Christ into the soil of our hearts.  Jesus himself tells a “garden story” of 4 different types of soil receiving the seed (see Matthew 13 and also a previous article Sowing To Harvest http://authoredhersh.blogspot.com/2019/05/sowing-to-harvest.html ).

 All through the growth season the garden must be watered, weeded, and protected against the intruders like animals, insects, storms, and thieves.  All through our lives God is our Provider and Protector.  God provides our spiritual food and water, and protects us from the enemy’s theft to “kill, steal, and destroy” (John 10:10).  He heals our afflictions (physical health), binds up our wounds (emotional health), liberates us from captive unbelief (mental health), and sets us free from the imprisoning circumstances holding back healthy growth and harvest (Isaiah 61:1).

God also determines our identity.  Just as each kernel of corn produces a corn stalk with an ear of corn, God creates individuals with a unique stamp of gender, ethnicity, and personality.   Corn doesn’t grow on a tomato stalk, and tomatoes do not grow on a corn stalk.  As each seed produces fruit of its own kind, God created diversity into the human race so that the variety add spice to life.  Sometimes a whole garden (field) is planted together for the purpose of harvesting at the same time.  God puts his people together in families and organizations to accomplish his purposes together as one.  

In order for the garden to produce a good crop, it takes a lot of effort on the part of the gardener.  Sometimes sacrifices have to be made to complete the seemingly endless tasks of watering, weeding, protecting, and providing for the best garden conditions.  Here is where this metaphor trips up many people.   They take the work of the garden seriously and try to do all it takes to produce good fruit (behavior).  Tending the garden and producing results as a “good Christian” may include behaviors like loving God, loving others, keeping the ten commandments, sharing the gospel, fulfilling the great commission, resisting evil, praying for one another, and so on.  

Does God call us to do these tasks?  Be careful not to answer too quickly.  The answer to this question, for me, has changed over the years, and it keeps changing.  I now think the answer is, maybe.  A better question might be, “How does God ask us to do these tasks?”  Of course there are “commands” in the Bible, but God does not require us to accomplish them in our own strength and willpower alone, as one extreme would teach commandments.  The other extreme would ignore or replace the commands with their own.  

I believe clarifying ownership will help answer these questions.  We grow up in a broken world and our garden is not in the best of condition.  We realize we need help (Savior) and surrender our life to God.  At conversion, the ownership of the garden changes.  We are no longer the gardener for our own soul.  God becomes the Gardener of our soul.  In business terms, we are no longer running our own business, but working for a new Master.  We remain a partner to carry out some tasks, but we discern and follow the orders of the new Owner.  It becomes a lifelong process of learning our new role.  Our calling is now to cooperate with production, rather than produce.  We yield ourselves to the growth (gardening) process, but responsibility for the results is not on our shoulders.  

Does that sound freeing?  It should because that is what transformation and sanctification is all about.  It is healing to our soul.  It gives us peace and rest because that’s what Jesus said it would do (see Matthew 11:28-29).  The gospel of Jesus is a gospel of being freed (from sin) and being made ever more free (from the burden of sin).   

Well-intentioned preachers often present the message as “Come to Jesus, and change yourself into a person of service to God.”  As I’ve come to see it, a more true message is, “Come to Jesus, and surrender yourself to a lifelong process of change from the inside out, making you more and more fit for service with God.”  

The first message places the emphasis on performance and self-effort and it fosters self-righteousness.  The latter not only recognizes that God is the one who changes hearts, but commits to ongoing change for deeper cleansing.  The former often views storms and struggles as a nuisance, hindrance, or even a sign of unbelief or sinfulness.  The latter sees difficulties as opportunities for God to show himself strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) and develop us into lasting treasures for his glory.  The former only plants in the garden, but the latter adopts gardening as a way of life.  

My prayer is that each person reading this will invite God to be the Gardener of a lifelong process of soul saving gardening.    

If you are struggling because you were led to believe Jesus would take care of all your problems (but the problems still linger), take hold of your heart and give it to the Master Gardener.  Working through relationships (marriage, family,, or cohorts), health concerns, unemployment, pandemic, and other life challenges are part of the gardening process.  Jesus already accomplished all of the work of the garden.  He invites you to cooperate with him in shepherding your soul into the beautiful garden you were meant to be (Isaiah 61:3).  

 

Note:  To read more on how this works, also see Pain Evangelism as  Discipleship   http://authoredhersh.blogspot.com/2018/09/pain-evangelism-as-discipleship.html .  

 

by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry