This is a true story.
We live in a subdivision, and grow gardens in our back yard. Along the chain link fence we have grown pole beans for years and they have done very well. Last year, and the first part of this year, our neighbor on the northwest side of us had a lawn service spray and fertilize his lawn. It looks very nice. Even some of the over-spray came onto our yard and the grass looks very nice next to the property line. After planting the beans (they take about 8 to 9 weeks to start producing beans) we noticed that there were no beans being produced. From day to day, we would look at the plants and wonder why. We began to notice that as soon as the blossoms appeared they would shrink up and vanish, even though (at first) the bean plant looked very healthy. After a time, one by one, the plants would die off for no reason, as it seemed. We talked with the neighbor, and he agreed not to use the lawn service next year, because the herbicides they used killed off things like dandelions etc. If there are no blossoms on most plants, there is no cross-pollination, and then there is no seed produced for the next year. Within a bean itself, the seeds are produced.
We go to church and call it service when God is serving us. We go to church to experience the Holy Spirit, when we should be bringing Christ and the Spirit of God with us before we even walk through the front door. The music is great. The air is permeated with good smelling perfume. The apparel is explicit. The tone of voice is welcoming, and the preaching is pleasant to hear concerning the promises of God through the Salvation offered through Christ Jesus. We hear the beckoning to be born again, but the congregation is not taught how to blossom and grow the fruit God would have them to produce. And next year it is the same thing. Numbers may grow, and the church appears as flourishing, and truly blessed by God, but that is done with programs and attractive influences outside of the people that are the church.
Satan sprays his herbicides in the wind, for he is the prince and power of the air. It looks good to the carnal eye, but doesn't bear any fruit.
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
We live in a subdivision, and grow gardens in our back yard. Along the chain link fence we have grown pole beans for years and they have done very well. Last year, and the first part of this year, our neighbor on the northwest side of us had a lawn service spray and fertilize his lawn. It looks very nice. Even some of the over-spray came onto our yard and the grass looks very nice next to the property line. After planting the beans (they take about 8 to 9 weeks to start producing beans) we noticed that there were no beans being produced. From day to day, we would look at the plants and wonder why. We began to notice that as soon as the blossoms appeared they would shrink up and vanish, even though (at first) the bean plant looked very healthy. After a time, one by one, the plants would die off for no reason, as it seemed. We talked with the neighbor, and he agreed not to use the lawn service next year, because the herbicides they used killed off things like dandelions etc. If there are no blossoms on most plants, there is no cross-pollination, and then there is no seed produced for the next year. Within a bean itself, the seeds are produced.
We go to church and call it service when God is serving us. We go to church to experience the Holy Spirit, when we should be bringing Christ and the Spirit of God with us before we even walk through the front door. The music is great. The air is permeated with good smelling perfume. The apparel is explicit. The tone of voice is welcoming, and the preaching is pleasant to hear concerning the promises of God through the Salvation offered through Christ Jesus. We hear the beckoning to be born again, but the congregation is not taught how to blossom and grow the fruit God would have them to produce. And next year it is the same thing. Numbers may grow, and the church appears as flourishing, and truly blessed by God, but that is done with programs and attractive influences outside of the people that are the church.
Satan sprays his herbicides in the wind, for he is the prince and power of the air. It looks good to the carnal eye, but doesn't bear any fruit.
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
