Transformed
There the house stood, buried in a dense forest of decades of neglect, there was a house somewhere in amongst the dense undergrowth, large trees, and even ivy grew up trees, and was crawling out through and under everything. Great trees grew up hard against the house, just missing the spouting, which had rotted and fallen off years ago, and then large limbs grew up, way up leaning over on the roof, drinking up the sunshine and trying to get away from the dense undergrowth around, and hiding even more the house in a sea of green mature trees, saplings and small shoots struggling up from the carpet of mulch from decades of leaves falling, twigs and branches, that fell and decomposed where they lay.
The concrete driveway quickly disappeared into a dense mat of mulch from decades of leaf litter, and the garage door was obscured by a large trunk/branch, and a massive and mature Ivy that grew all over the roof of the garage, totally obscuring it from any view so that you would not think that there was even a building present as it was so well hidden under the choking mass of Ivy. Time had not been too good for the home, but its bricks were sound, and the tile roof protected it, though the forest was pressing up to the windows, obscuring the view, and shutting out the sunlight.
And then it happened, in rolled a motley crew of enthusiastic blokes, armed with chainsaws, loppers, pruners, wheelbarrows, trimmers of about every type, a chipper, a skip bin, a big truck and so the din of noise began, each person specialised, and before you could cough, they had formed interlocking and interacting teams, each looking out for the other, downing tools to help other as required, and the forest started to give way. Small stuff went first to even get the chipper in, and then the saplings came down and disappeared through the chipper, finally the large trees started to come down, branch by branch, limb by limb, so by lunchtime there was cleared space, but waist deep branches lying everywhere on the ground.
Time to send a load to the tip, so the truck was loaded and sent, small stuff was continually gobbled up by the chipper and became another mound, which was soon barrowed up and piled into the skip bin, another truck load and things were getting better. Firewood sized limbs were piled high on another trailer for a better use than dumping. By mid-afternoon, the sun was streaming in windows that had not seen this much light since who knows when, new life was abounding everywhere. Even the lady walking down the street past the property got halfway past and froze, turned and stared, there was actually a lovely house where once there was nothing but dense undergrowth. She stared long, backed up and looked long down the path from the mail box, and the path was actually visible now, where once was dense undergrowth, she stared long and intensely at things she had never seen before, there actually was a lovely house on the section, and not some neglected bush reserve.
So how is it with your life, are you buried under the cares of this life? Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” As the ole saying goes, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” looking at you, are you overgrown with the “cares of this life” or has the Re-Birth, infilling of the Holy Spirit, confession and forgiveness of All your Sins, meant that God’s working in your life and your active participation, has chopped down and removed the cares of this life. In the parable of “The Sower” foot-paths, stony ground, and weedy ground, choked out the Eternal Life of the believer, is it choking out your very existence?
All the willing enthusiasts pulled together, they had one goal in mind, a finished task, there were no agendas of selfishness, of Me and I, just get the job done, working as a team, and process well that which is standing right in front of you. In the parable of “The Jericho Road” there were travellers, who did not want to get involved, they cared only about themselves, in the Parable of “The Wedding Feast” All the guests were too busy with the cares of this life, to even turn up, how is it with you and I when we see a problem or get a call from a friend?
James 4:17 “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin.” How so easy is it to “pass by on the other side” and to attempt to look the other way, and neglect those in dire need around us? 1 Corinthians 12:13-18 “For the body is not one member, but many. But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” Ephesians 2:21-22 {MSG} “Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day – a holy temple by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.” Are you letting God use your talents, to pitch in with others, but most of all, Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
