“Carol Character”

  

“Let’s come to him with thanksgiving. Let’s sing songs to him” Psalm 95:2

 Let us sing to the LORD Psalm 95:2 says.  It first mentions honoring God with song and doing so in community. Singing is not the only way to give honor and worship to God, but it is a chief and important way. Also, importantly, the exhortation is let us sing – that it should be done with the community of God’s people.

 

Today I’m in a dandelion notion as a sinful child of God. There are times in my “I” searching in vain to find my being as a human, some of the compassion our creator has, believing that we are just and that our indignation is righteous. I simply refuse to forgive “self”, as I response, overlooking enough to wrong the dandelion in my life. Ah as I ponder, What is a good heart? Is it essential as a part of our Christian life? Denying yourself before seeking the good of others before looking out for yourself. 1Corinthians 10:24

When I lived in Colorado I looked forward to walking past different neighbor’s houses. One particular neighbor kept his lawn perfectly mowed, with blooming flowers and healthy, shady trees. It was obvious that the neighbor worked hard to have a beautiful lawn. But one day as I was walking past my neighbor’s house, I noticed in the middle of this beautiful lawn one enormous yellow dandelion. It looked so out of place that it surprised me. Why didn’t his neighbor pull it out? Couldn’t he see it? Of course, it’s just one dandelion. And some people think dandelions are weeds. They pull them up from their lawns and throw them away. Dandelions are everywhere. And since we get used to them, we forget how reasonably unattractive they are. Dandelions remind us that conclusion is over and start is here. 

 But this dandelion bothered me so much that I wanted to do something about it out of blind metaphoric obliviousness. Should I go back and spray it with weed killer? Perhaps if I went at night, I could remove it secretly. The dandelion was on my mind as I approached my home. Walking into my house without even glancing at my own front yard—which was covered with hundreds of yellow dandelions! Is my ignorance, an adequate excuse for sin or misdeeds?" Are we, teachable, are we ready to learn?

 

“The prudent person sees trouble ahead and hides, but the naïve continue on and suffer the consequences” Proverbs 22:3

 

If by “excuse” we mean that because of our ignorance God will overlook our wrongs, then there are no adequate excuses for wrongdoing.

God commands us to repent of our ignorance and seek Him with all our hearts Acts 17:30; Jeremiah 29:13. The opposite of spiritual ignorance is wisdom, and we are told to seek wisdom above all things Proverbs 3:13-18. Fortunately, wisdom is readily accessible; the book of Proverbs personifies wisdom as a noble lady who is calling out to all publicly: “To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind. You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, set your hearts on it” Proverbs 8:4-5. Every time the Bible commands us to “listen” or to “hear,” God is giving us a chance to trade ignorance for His wisdom.

 

 

 When Adam and Eve were first created, they did nothing that was contrary to the perfection of God Genesis 1:27-31. They were created in a perfect state and remained flawless until they gave in to temptation Genesis 3:6-7. It could be argued that, having never seen death, they were somewhat ignorant about the severity of sin’s consequences. But that did not excuse their sin.

 

I’m not sure why we are able to tell people how to fix their problems so well, while we often have difficulty seeing our own. But we need to see ourselves clearly. We must approach our Heavenly Father with teachable minds. We must be willing to learn and change. As we do so, God will lead us by the hand. God gives us so many good things. But since these good things are around us all the time, we sometimes forget about them especially during times of trial. I know I do and sometimes the toughest and most discouraging trials are when we are called to obey God’s will when the fulfillment of His promise seems so far away. This is why we need endurance. Often, we forget to thank God for things like this the food on the table, the clothes we wear and the home we live in with the weeds. We expect these things to be there-just like the dandelions-and we forget to sing songs to him. Faithfulness during the time when the promise seems unfulfilled is the measure of your obedience and spiritual maturity.

 

It’s  good to give thanks to God he is our Father, and He loves His children Romans 8:15. He does not delight in punishing us but in conforming us into the image of His Son Romans 8:29. He does not tolerate excuses, including the excuse of ignorance; rather, He gives us opportunities to learn from our consequences so that we make better choices. He knows what each of us has been given and holds us responsible for what we do with it Matthew 13:11-12; Acts 17:30. We’ve all committed sins in ignorance, but God does not leave us ignorant 1 Peter 1:14. He has given us His Word to show us how to live, and He expects us to apply it to our lives and seek holiness, “without which no one will see the Lord”. Hebrews 12:14

 

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” If ignorance does not excuse fault, then feigned ignorance is even worse.

 

God Bless You And This Ministry!