Thorns and Thistles

Yesterday, I looked up from my desk to see a man standing at my office door. When I invited Paul in, he sat down with a heavy sigh and over the next half hour told me a story of sorrow that stretched back 30 years. His most recent misfortune included a fall that broke his foot, which made him unable to work, which led to his eviction from his apartment, which caused his girlfriend and children to be in a shelter, which made him feel even worse about himself. His eyes were full of sorrow as he told me that he had 'cussed God out' and he wanted to know why his life was going so badly. There were the obvious reasons for his difficulties - an old conviction for assault on a police officer that led to a stretch in prison, bad choices about jobs, and substance abuse. It would have been easy to just throw the whole mess back on Paul's head. "You're just reaping the harvest of the seeds you've planted along the way." But, that wouldn't have been exactly just, nor fair. To be sure, Paul is responsible for choices that have led to his sad life, but he's also living in a world that is held in the grip of sin, enslaved by Satan.

While he was talking, the tragic words of God to Adam, recorded in Genesis, scrolled through my memory. "Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:17-19, NLT)

God informed Adam that his sin had opened the door to the work of the Destroyer and that from then on, all of humanity would struggle to wrest a life out of the earth, only to face death! Paul's life is an example of the results of the curse of sin in vivid colors! More than blame or even an explanation, the man needs a Savior and friends. Don't we all need the same?

The result of our sinful disobedience to God's laws - sorrow and death - have been taken away by Jesus Christ. The Word says, "Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it." (Galatians 3:13-14, The Message)

What a remarkable promise. The rich blessings of God, first promised to the father of the faithful, Abraham, are now available to all men and women, who by faith receive them through Christ Jesus.

Is your life full of 'thorns and thistles,' your best efforts frustrated by failure? Are you struggling to make life work, fighting with an increasingly overwhelming sense of futility?
Look to Jesus! Take life from Him.

Ask Him to be your Redeemer, the One who buys you back from the slavery to sin into which you were sold. Then, seek friends among those who are His and together begin to build the Kingdom of God, and living under the New Covenant (agreement) which leads to eternal life, not to death.

Don't accept a life full of weeds! Take your inheritance as a child of God.

Here's a word from the Word. Believe it, receive it, live it by faith.
"...before Christ came ... we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father." (Hey, Dad!) Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir." (Galatians 4:3-7, NLT)
___________________________________

Jesus! What a friend for sinners!
Jesus lover of my soul!
Friends may fail me, foes assail me;
He, my Savior, makes me whole.


Hallelujah what a Savior.
Hallelujah what a Friend.
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.

Jesus! What a strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in Him;
Tempted tried and sometimes failing,
He, my strength my victory wins.

Jesus! I do now receive Him;
More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness;
I am His and He is mine.

Hallelujah what a Savior.
Hallelujah what a Friend.
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.

Our Great Savior - Chapman, J. Wilbur / Prichard, Rowland H.
© Public Domain CCLI License No. 810055