Pleasant Valley Baptist Church

The Epistle of Jim

June 2004

I love the look of a freshly cut lawn. It is so crisp and clean with the grass cut evenly into a beautiful green carpet. Sometimes after mowing I will just stand back and admire the view.

But the problem is that within a week it needs to be cut again. It doesn’t matter how perfectly I might cut it, it must be cut again next week. It is the same in our spiritual lives. We can worship God and study His Word on Sunday so that our lives are neat, clean, and in order like that freshly cut lawn. But as the week goes on the grass grows. By the end of the week we may not feel very neat, clean, or orderly. We need another trim.

That’s why it is important that we take the time for Bible study and worship each week. We need the grass cut, the hedges trimmed, and the weeds pulled.

Oh yes, the weeds! Why is it that one day I can cut the grass and it is all looking perfect and the next day the dandelions have sprung up all over? I can cut them down and even pull them out but they still jump back up, growing much quicker than the grass. You have to be diligent to stay ahead of those dandelions because they spread so quickly.

Likewise, we must be diligent in our Christian lives to control the weeds of selfishness, pride, anger, and gossip. We need to continually work on these things to keep our "lawns" looking nice. How’s your lawn?

See you Sunday.