Here again is the treasure I found hidden secretly away behind a bunch of shopping centers and congested streets. A real Garden of Eden, marked by a beautiful weeping willow tree.
When I stumbled upon this place that day, it almost took my breath away. It was as if that graceful tree was saying, “Welcome home, pilgrim. You found me. Enter into my ways. Learn my wisdom and enjoy my Kingdom of peace.”
What does it take for our inner man to become such a peaceful place? If you were honest with yourself, how many ropes of inner conflict pull at you every day?
Most people I know have an inner tug-of-war going on most of the time. They don’t like where they are, either spiritually or physically. They don’t have what they want. They do not have what the Bible calls true contentment… inner peace. This blog site is about every one of us finding our willow tree and taking a seat, breathing in that wisdom, and finding soul satisfaction. There is a different way of living. It’s out there, and it is real.
Now the tug-of-war is very telling. The good news is, if you still have that inner battle, there is still hope! If that battle has ceased then it means one of two things. One being very bad, and the other very good. Our goal is for our spirit man to become so strong in Christ that he breaks that rope and ties up the flesh with it! The tug-of-war ceases! Peace at last!
However, the bad news is, if the flesh wins the war and uses the rope, your conscience dies. You may have stopped the inner war, but evil has won, and you’re the slave of darkness. You may enjoy it for as long as it last, all the pleasures of the flesh, but the wages of sin is death, and judgement day comes with eternal regret.
I watched a tug-of-war the other day that reminds me of some people. I even got pictures of it. You see, I have a Master Plan. As I spoke of in the previous article, I want to travel America in my golden years, enjoy bike riding and camping in various places, and visit Salt Churches. The only problem is I don’t have the money to do so yet, so I had to come up with a long range plan involving a few very strategic steps. Here are some of the first steps of the Master Plan.
1.) I have a junk minivan sitting next to my house. It needs to go! And it will bring in 150.00 in salvage price.
2.) Take part of that money and fix the radiator of my broke down 1996 Honda Civic and sell that car.
3.) Then with that cash in hand, along with extra cash earned being a professional dishwasher, I take my 1990 short bed, Dodge Ram and trade or sell to acquire a long bed truck with 6 cylinder. I need the better gas mileage, and the longer bed would help too. I have a very creative plan on how to fix that bed for camping and travel.
The first step went into motion when I got my first dish washing job. My orientation is completed, and my computer work almost done. I’ve earned some money already, but the real job starts in 3 days.
Second step happened just yesterday, the broke-down, beat-up, old minivan! It turned into a real tug-of-war! That thing had really gotten set in its ways! (See pictures below.) It had set for two years or so. The front wheels rolled, but the back wheels would not!
That minivan put up a real fight, but a fight it was destined to lose because the beast on the other end of the rope was much stronger, and highly trained! Those rear tires clawed at the ground the whole way out! But it was to no avail! The man pounded on those rear tires with a sledge hammer! They still did not break loose! The van continued fighting, kicking and screaming the whole way out!
The driver thought the wheels would break loose once they hit pavement, but that is when the screaming started! They did not! Finally, he used the seat belts to tie the steering wheel into a straight position, let the front end down, moved to the rear and lifted. Now all the weight was on the wheels that rolled, and the brave battle was over. My wife almost cried as it rolled away.
Here’s the thing, most people eventually reach a point where either their flesh, or their spirit becomes the much stronger vehicle. The only question is, which will it be? Will our soul be the one kicking and screaming as we’re drug away by our flesh? Or will it be our flesh? When that inner rope breaks, which have we fed to be the stronger? Which have we trained? Which ends up tied helplessly in the rope? One is good, the other bad! Is our spirit man the minivan, or highly skilled tow truck?
I’ve been a researcher and teacher of God’s Word for most my life. I see things like this. I’m semi-retired now and able to spend more time teaching such things. I’m going on a journey of simplicity that is very wholesome for the soul. It is not your typical way of doing church, especially modern church. It does require thinking outside the box, but it is a journey feeding the spirit man, not the flesh.
I teach from under the Willow Tree. I hope you visit here on a regular basis, become part of the family, and if you still have that inner tug-of-war? I pray your spirit grows strong enough here to break all those ropes and tie up that selfish and hungry flesh forever! In Jesus powerful name, Amen.
In one of the pictures you can also see my Dodge truck. I’m still several steps from selling it, and I will miss it, but it simply is not the right vehicle for what I now feel calling in my soul. Next step, besides washing lots of dishes, is get the Honda running and sold! We’ll see how that goes.
Sitting under the Willow Tree 