Preface: The following was posted on November 2 of last year....and I will leave it here for just a little while:
It would be an understatement to say that every year I watch the leaves on the trees change color....for particularly in our own yard I note the times they change color and any other changes to the norm that might occur. The biggest maple in our yard at one time used to be glorious in its golden brightness. In fact there were two trees that grew so close to each other that it appeared as one huge tree....and people would walk by in the fall and just gaze at the color.....but one tree since had to be cut down.
Anyway....this year.....and last year also......that tree has been losing its luster.....and many of the leaves would just die and fall on their own before the rest of the leaves even changed color. The yard this year has had a continuous covering of brownish dead leaves. Yesterday morning I was woken around six AM by rain hitting the window at almost a ninety degree angle. Two tornadoes had touched down in our county. After the storm I knew that all of the dead leaves would have been blown off the tree....so in the afternoon I mowed the lawn picking up all of those dead leaves.....and here this afternoon.....the Lord's Day....there is still not one leaf on the lawn....and the tree itself is totally still green.
So what is there to think about on an occasion like this other than the glories of Christ? A few times in the last day I would stand on our patio and look at the tree and the yard....all the dead leaves removed....few to fall until the tree changes color....and think about a winnowing that is surely just ahead for the church....where all those who are not secure in Christ will drop off on their own or be blown away by the great difficulties that are ahead....whatever God has determined that turmoil to be?
We in the church are as Christian and Faithful walking through Vanity Fair in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress....being enticed by even those in the church to join in the festivities. One could not even pick us out in the football games being played today.....the Lord's Day....as our football passions are as strong....or even stronger in the Bible Belt....as anyone's.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been so compromised that preaching cannot stray beyond that which the people will permit. It is no longer a 'wicket gate' that one must pass through....for one can simply come down the escalator into the sheepfold. There is a cross....but no blood....warnings....but only to America and not the church....literal truths....where nothing is to be added....and nothing detracted....but only in the Constitution....not the Bible.
The latest storm has come and gone....the trees are green....but about to turn a glorious golden yellow....the extent of which we shall see...but beautiful even in these years of floods and droughts that have taken their toll on the pigmentation processes. These tornadoes were a surprise....with no warnings other than a cell phone alert to go to the basement....but God has given us ample warning....over decades.....and increasing in their intensity....that as we continue to...."sow the wind".....we will indeed...."reap the whirlwind."
Hosea 8:7
