SPIRITUAL DEFORESTATION

I got the cutest email the other day. Wish I could include it in this blog. I did forward it to some of you. It was titled "The Problem with Deforestation" and was a picture of a single, humongous tree in the middle of a lush meadow. One dog was "using" the tree, as dogs habitually, do, while there was a line of almost twenty dogs of all kinds and sizes lined up and waiting their turn! I thought it was hilarious.

As I looked at the picture again tonight, I thought of Proverbs 22:28, Living Bible, which commands: "Do not remove the ancient boundary marks. That is stealing." The King James Version uses the word "landmarks" instead of "boundary marks."

But isn't that exactly what we've done in our modern churches? Removed the ancient boundary marks, the ancient landmarks, the ancient signposts, the ancient guidelines or whatever you want to call them? And in so doing, we've stolen spiritual blessings from the younger generation according to the Living Bible paraphrase.

God doesn't change. His Word doesn't change. His requirements don't change. Malachi 3:6 says, "For I am the Lord, I change not." Hebrews 13:8 echoes that statement and says, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever." And the Living Bible adds in verse 9 of the same chapter, "So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas."

Surely, in the light of those Scriptures, I don't need to spell out how the church today had removed its ancient landmarks and how it has changed. In my mind, those changes are equivalent to the deforestation portrayed in that humorous email photo I spoke about!

If only God's people would "stand in line" to voice their objections the way those dogs "stood in line" to use that one, lone tree, I believe those ancient landmarks could be restored and God could once again have His rightful place in His house of worship.

Preacher's Kid