Limited Range

Plants require specific soil elements lighting, sun, warmth, and water to grow best.  Some are specific to well drained, moist, sandy soil; while others require full sun.  Some plants want dark, shady areas and some want acidic soil or specific nutrients to grow best. When plants are deprived of what they “need” or prefer, they tend to shrivel up and die.

I considered how we, as a people, are a little like these plants.  We find ourselves in “our little corner of the world” and rarely wander out of our boundaries.  We require a specific kind of soil to grow in, or at least in which to remain “alive”.  We allow our boundaries and growth requirements to limit us to our abilities and talents God has given us.  We choose to not place our “roots” in uncomfortable surroundings for fear of failure, ridicule, or timidity!  We don’t trust God to help us move forward.

God is not limited to what we can see.  His space and time dimension flows well beyond ours of length, width, height or even time.  He is not limited to physical laws or physical senses.  He lives in eternity, in that which at this time, we cannot see.

During a recent conversation with a friend of mine, the idea of how we let “religion-osity” rule our world was discussed.  We get so caught up in the rules and traditions we’ve learned over the centuries since Christ walked the earth, we lose what the Bible says.  His Word clearly gives the directions for our lives, but we try to conform and fit in, if not with the “world’ certainly with those closest to us, even if it’s a skewed understanding of Doctrine.  By following our own creeds, standards, traditions and principles we are not gaining right understanding and acceptance of God’s laws. 

The Pharisees were rebuked by Jesus for exactly this.  They worked to be noticed by man, were hypocritical, didn’t speak the truth and turned people from the right way and even rejected the prophets.  Isn’t this what we are doing today?  Our world is filled with those who would twist, contort, water down, add to, delete or otherwise change what God’s Word says!

Using God’s Word as a guideline, we have to choose to follow or not follow someone we believe to be godly leaders if they are not giving us truth from God’s Word.  If we don’t know His Word because we aren’t studying, it is easy to become so comfortable where we are, that we don’t even recognize we aren’t hearing truth.  It’s like we have blinders on because we choose to not question ---and we are instructed to search God’s Word as truth, when someone speaks.  We aren’t just to accept it as “golden” without “proving it through His Word.”  If it’s not truth, we must not believe (or follow) the person who says he is a man of God.

He told us in the end days, many will be deceived.  So, I challenge you to know God’s Word; study it, be in fellowship with the Creator, so you are prepared should someone ask questions about the Word or challenge your faith in some way.  It is what God not only wants, but expects us, to do. Along with this we must remember, God’s truth is not limited and neither are we, when we are in Him!