Acorns anyone?

1 John 1:5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

In my front yard, I have two very large oak trees. Every two years they drop thousands of acorns in my front yard. There are so many acorns in my front yard every other fall, that it is difficult to walk in my yard without slipping on the acorns. Not only that, but if I do not remove the acorns from my lawn, thousands of little oak trees will begin to take root and grow choking out my lawn. If I do not care about my lawn or about slipping on the acorns, then I can just leave them there. But if I want my lawn to be healthy and I do not want to slip up every time I walk out my door, then I must go through the process of removing the acorns.

This is a tedious process. Mowing the acorns does not work and using a normal rake only scatters the acorns around. I have found that if I use a rake that is only about eight inches wide with teeth that are very close together, I can get all of the acorns raked to the bottom of my yard. Once they are all raked down to the street, then I must pick them all up and put them in the trash to be carted away.

I have a problem though. If I wait until all of the acorns have fallen, then some of them may begin to take root. But if I rake as soon as they begin to fall, then more acorns will fall in their place and I will have to rake again. The only good way to get rid of the acorns is to check every so often during the fall and get rid of what is there. If more acorns fall later, then I need to go back and remove them again. It is almost a continual process. Every time that I think that I have them all, more acorns fall and I am out there again, removing them.

And so it is with sin in my life. If the Word has truly taken root in my life, I must be willing to check every so often to make sure that there is nothing that might be preventing the Word from flourishing. Sin can creep into our lives and create pitfalls that can trip us up if we are not careful. If we do not examine ourselves frequently, this sin could take root and choke out what God has intended to grow there.

If we claim that we have not sinned, we are like the man that is oblivious to the acorns falling in his yard. He has no care for his lawn and no care for the potential dangers of tripping on the acorns. This man will not have a lawn but his yard will be full of trees and he will not even know it.

Okay, so let me speak plainly. If we claim that we have not sinned, then the Word of God has not truly taken root in our lives. We are not yet walking with Christ and sin (even though we claim otherwise) is what we have chosen to worship. I urge you today to examine your life for sin. It is a tedious process. You will have to repeat it often. Once you have removed the sins, throw them away and don't look back. This will allow God's Word to grow you into the person that God has always intended for you to be.

Peace, Bruce