It’s Christmas morning 2017. I’m banging about already whilst the rest of the world is asleep. My daughter will have a few words for me when she wakes…
I thought I would go down turn the low lights on and make myself a light breakfast – toast and jam. Mmmm.
As I buttered and ‘jammed’ the toast I could smell a distinct soury vinegary smell . What’s that I thought. I couldn’t identify what it might be. Then I tasted the toast. Yuk. The blackcurrent jam clearly gone off. However when I turned the label to the light what I thought was jam, was beetroot chutney..!
I thought how interesting. It looked like .. but was not. (I’ve had that lesson before )The lights were dim in the kitchen and I just hadn’t seen.
As I chuckled to myself . I felt a nudge, a word stirring in my spirit. This is a word I must write by way of admonishment .
It is now nearing the end of January 2018. God has been good and has been revealing , pouring out and ministering truths. I have resurrected the experience and the piece. This is me. Not one morsel he gives me must fall to the ground .
I am thinking how God is also looking for the sweet in us ,not the sour. How he must grimace and be disappointed when he reaches for us and all he finds is that we are either not ready, or we are sour or bitter. I thought about the scriptures that talk about fruit.
Jesus cursed the fig tree when it should have been in season, but bore no fruit. (Matthew 21:19). In the parable of the vineyard (Luke 13:7 ) he Lord admonishes of the futility of keeping a fruitless vine in the ground. In another (Matthew 25:30) he speaks about the unprofitable servant(where the servant didn’t use what he was given)rather burying it. The servant did this because his heart right. He had a wrong spirit against his boss, the landlord, the owner. As a result , the little he had was taken away and painful judgement brought against him.
God wants our hearts to be right , for us to produce good things, to bring forth a pleasant taste and aroma. He expects us to multiply that which he has given us and not let it go off, go sour or bitter. Anything to do with Gods kingdom , advances multiplies and increases . It smells and tastes good. He wants us to humble ourselves, to receive from him – to eat the fat and drink the sweet, and in our season.
The only reason we give off a bad taste or aroma, often is to do with pride, sin, disobedience and rebellion. We live in a rebellious generation. There is a stench of sin going up into Fathers nose. We need to examine ourselves. Are we sweet (a pleasant thing) or have we gone off and become rotten or sour? Do people wince when we are around? Do we pour vinegar or gall onto Gods things or good things including his servants ? Is what we bring, manipulative of the senses, destructive, acidic or corrosive?
The prophet Isaiah brought a stern word in chapter 3 against the mincing daughters of Zion who thought they were sweet but there really was a bad smell .
On behalf of the Lord he said:
“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes,
walking and mincing as they go,
and making a tinkling with their feet:
…..the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of th(eir)head of the ….And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink ” (see Isaiah 3:16 and onwards).
This word came from something quite innocuous on a day of celebration. God uses the foolish things to instruct and sometime to confound. I believe He is a good God. I believe that he wants to reveal things to us and from his word. I believe He wants us to to taste and see that he is good , to have choice to have fun celebrate, but he also to warn us about our heart state, our condition , the dangers of surfeiting (that word just popped – it means gorging or living to excess because we can ) . He wants to warn us about what is really important.
I pray that the Lord will be merciful to us and give us time to see ourselves (and where we need to) to humble ourselves, to turn, to bring forth a sweet savour to Him and to others. He wants us to be children who walk in the light; to stop gorging and drinking vinegar but taste of his vine.
I pray like David that he will renew a right spirit within us. That all our days will be fruitful days and light will shine upon our ways.