Papa would always put in the right amount of water as the “master chef,” while I stirred the swine stew with a stick. Afterward stacking firewood beneath the vat, a fire was started to bring the swill to a boil for a certain period of time. Though the swill did not have an appetizing appearance, surprisingly, the smell coming from cooking the slop did not emit an offensive odor!
In fact, I remembered asking Papa the first time I ever assisted in collecting the swill, “Do the pigs really eat this stuff?” He said, “Yes, the hogs go wild over it.” I replied, “It looks awful to me.” There was always a stray milk carton or two from the elementary school scraps from Friday surfacing in the soup that needed to be removed while stirring the swill. Since hogs are omnivores, they will eat just about anything.
After it cooled down, we would take galvanized pales and dip them into the potpourri of slop and pour it over the fence into the wooden feeding troughs. The pigs squealed as they jockeyed for position around the feed trough, smacking their lips while looking up. You never heard so much commotion of squealing, grunting, and smacking from the hogs as when the swill was poured into the troughs; they went hog wild just like Papa said. Once they finished eating they returned to wallow in the mud. Since hogs do not have any sweat glands they cool themselves with mud or water. The mud also protects the hog from pesky flies and other parasites.
Since I didn’t work on the farm on a regular basis, unlike my cousins, I didn’t mind helping out; an extra pair of hands was always welcomed. Playing was considered a luxury for my near same-age cousins because there was always some kind of work to do around the farm with crops to tend to, along with farm animals to feed seven days a week: chickens, cows, horses, cattle, hogs, bird dogs, and even quail. Except for the crops, there were no weather-permitting duties around the farm. Sunday was considered a day of rest, except for having to feed the animals.
Come rain or shine, cold or heat; farm and ranch work had to be done. My grandfather never possessed a weather-permitting attitude. Come to think of it; I can honestly say that I had never heard him ever complain about having to do any of the myriads of things around the farm! I am sure he did, but I never got wind of it.
Wouldn’t it be great if we all shared a similar attitude that my grandfather had rather than using the weather as an excuse in avoiding that which needs to be done? Maybe if every Christian had the opportunity to work on a farm or a ranch they would better understand the importance of going and staying at it day after day. It’s no different in the Christian life from that perspective of being Christ-like 24x7. There are things that must be done whether we are in the mood or not, weather permitting or not, on a daily basis in service to God such as reading and meditating in the Scriptures, worshiping God, walking in the Spirit, doing the right thing, keeping from sin, being holy, praying, rejoicing, being a witness, helping others, and so forth. The problem arises when we learn to become weather makers, creating conditions that distract and detour us from the priority of loving God with all of our beings because weather conditions of our own making are disrupting this essential command in our life (Mk 12:33).
The physical weather can be disruptive to be sure, but it is limited and not protracted as the storms we create in our life. “It’s too cold; it’s raining; it’s too hot to step outside in this heat; it’s too windy (mess up the hairdo); or there is a “storm” coming are common excuses among believers. But this man-made weather which has always been a dream of man, “to control the weather,” enters into the spiritual realm and becomes a reality. Soon we realize that we can control the weather in our life that affects our service to God by a simple matter of choice. I will the weather of “I don’t feel good this morning;” so we will opt out of going to church and decide to stay home and watch TV church in bed that day, for instance.
It may be legitimate but somehow it becomes easier to do and more
practical. Or what about accepting little Johnny’s ballgame schedule where the
games are played every Sunday morning. The greater good is seen as supporting
our child in developing team skills. “It’s only twelve weeks or so depending on
the playoffs, and we will plan to get right back in church,” we reasoned. We
create our own weather that keeps us away from church life, but often there is
a spiritual storm brewing as a result of it, an unseen and dangerous storm that hits
unexpectedly.
Why do we allow our weather-making skills to influence or color our decision about whether we will serve God or not on any given day? We are clueless to see that there might be a spiritual battle orbiting around a decision to do something every Sunday. That should be the first clue that this is a spiritual conflict in progress that has the potential of keeping us and our family out every Sunday away from church life because of the weather generated by our own choosing. Once out of the loop, it becomes easier to remain outside the loop in spiritual matters, “Yeah, I know we should be in church, but...”
This weather-permitting mentality could apply to anything, for example, supporting our kids playing sports, time on the lake fishing, hunting season, playing sports, motorcycling in the mountains, going to flea markets, attending festivals, or anything which so happens to fall on Sunday. All of those things are amoral until it keeps us away from corporate worship for an extended period of time (like every Sunday, for instance). It is akin to the attendance mindset of the Christmas, Easter, and funeral-only crowd. Such behavior reminds me of Esau who loved the physical qualities of the world but never the spiritual qualities of the things of God. You remember he was the one who sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for some food (Gn 25:32)? What priceless spiritual blessings are we selling for the temporary things of this world?
Isn’t going to church every Sunday, if at all possible, considered to be church overkill or religious fanaticism? It depends on who you listen to, Satan, self, or the Scriptures. This is about a love for the Lord that is illustrated in the walk. I realize walking into a church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than walking into the garage makes you an automobile. I realize there are those who attend I wouldn’t give you a penny for their spirituality, but this is between you and God. We will never stand before the Lord and say I didn’t go to church to worship you because so-called brother so and so is the biggest hypocrite in the church. Really, where do we go that there are no hypocrites? On our best days, we are all still hypocrites. Thank the Lord for grace!
But where is the passion to worship, to give to something back that is worthy and bigger than us, to congregate in the assembly of the saints for praise and worship to the only One worthy of it, to fellowship, to observe the ordinances of the church, to hear inspiring biblical truth live and in person, to feel the rain of spiritual blessings upon our life, to bathe and bask in the purity and light of the Truth, to find mutual support, to share and pray for one another? It won’t be found under any generated weather of our own making or by anybody else. We rob ourselves of so many spiritual blessings when we opt out of going to church or participating in its functions. It is not fanaticism; it’s called being faithful often reflected in church life.
Man-made weather is a spiritual problem because it brings up the issue of priorities and those reasons for not being faithful in doing what should be done in the Christian life. Clearly, Christ does not have preeminence in our lives (Col 1:18). Weather permitters suffer from a classic case of being egocentric rather than God-centric, trying to tamper with spiritual laws that are tamper-proof. It leads me to the conclusion that there are too many of us acting like weather-maker Christians, not to say that any less is acceptable. Cafeteria-styled Christianity is increasingly becoming problematical with pick and choose and disregarding the rest. Like, “I want my fornication and faith, too!” It’s not going to happen without serious consequences.
There are so many options vying for our attention today that we begin living a life on a worldly whim, living life to the “fullest” on non-essentials to the faith that which does not promote godliness; their world revolves around self above anything else, including God. It hurts the sinful; it hurts the family; and it hurts the church family, but more importantly, it hurts the cause of Christ because it is faithfulness that gets the world’s attention as well as the fickleness. It is a no-brainer in determining which one advances the cause of Christ in the world!
Unfortunately, many of us serve God with a weather-permitting spirit, a combination of Esau-ism and excuse-ism. The real scary part is that we don’t even see anything wrong with it, and definitely, we don’t see another storm approaching our way because of our wayward ways! Should anyone point it out to us, we get all defensive and accuse them of being self-righteous and needing to mind their own business like I am doing here!
Serving God should never become weather permitting, physically or figuratively, because it is a lifestyle, not an option.
For example, take the tense of the verb translated in Gal 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit.” It indicates continuous action or a habitual lifestyle. Since walking is normally associated with progress, a believer grows in his spiritual life as he or she submits to the control of the Spirit (Eph 5:18; cf. Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 6:19-20). By doing so, we avoid flesh flare-ups (eruptions of our sinful nature). It is something that must be done on a daily or continual basis like being Christ-like; it is similar to living on a farm. Somebody has to get up in the wee hours and milk those cows and feed the chickens and so forth every day. They are only chores if we make them chores in our mind rather than a passion for Christ (Col 3:23; 1 Cor 10:31).
Turning a duty into a delight only happens when there is a love for Jesus (Jn 14:15). The difference between the worldly saints and the spiritual saints is the former loves to dillydally and feast in the troughs of this world doing his or her thing, and the latter delights in the Scriptures in order to do His will. Let us read of King David’s delight,
“I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart" (Psa 40:8).
“I delight to do my
will, O self, and my way [living on a worldly whim] is
within my heart.”
Note when the LORD spoke to Isaiah concerning Israel’s ways, “I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people [Israel], who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually …” (Isa 65:2-3a, ESV); it is because they pursued idolatry (literally and spiritually those things competing against the will of God) and heathen practices (the ways of the world) contrary to the Law. Many of us are guilty of being like Israel in the days of Isaiah in seeking the Lord superficially. There is no genuine pursuit of God and the things of God unless the weather permits.
Though Israel was a nation called by His name, they acted like the Gentiles; they “did not ask” or “did not seek” and acted like a people that were “not called” by His name (Isa 65:1). Paul in his epistle to the Romans referred to this Isaiah passage to the Gentiles who did not ask, did not seek, and were not called by God’s name, but because of God’s grace and mercy, the Gentiles were given Gospel opportunity to experience salvation by grace through faith (Rom 10:20; 11:17).
When Jeremiah was perplexed over the persecution and suffering he endured because of his faithfulness to God (Jer 15:15), He discovered the bottomless well of spiritual resource and refreshment that sustained him through a very troubling ministry,
“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts (Jer 15:16, ESV).
I like the NKJV rendering, “Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.”
Weather makers do not ask for God, seek God, or even act like being called by His name. Does this characterize our spiritual life? The swill out in the world smells good, but it only has a taste pleasing to the hogs. There is no delight comparable to the Word of God. The natural man and the worldly believer gravitate to living hog wild, feasting on the swill of the world (cf. 1Jn 2:16). The things of this world will never produce joy and rejoicing of the heart because it can only come from a heart that is holy (cf. Psa 1:1-3, notice the happy man’s delight!). Living on a worldly whim or being a weather-permitting kind of person does not produce peace or happiness. Holiness is the pathway to happiness and peace. Separating ourselves from the truth of the Word only yields unhappiness and a lack of peace and contentment.
Is it possible to backslide as a son of the King to where we think and act like our former life before becoming a Christian (we ask not, seek not, and act not)? The answer is yes; see Eph 4:25-32; 2 Pet 1:9. The rub is how long this anemic spiritual condition will last?
Too long may indicate we never truly trusted Him in the first place, and if we are not chastened we can consider ourselves to be illegitimate (Heb 12:8). It has been said that a spiritual man or woman can no longer tolerate sin in the life than a foreign object in the eye. It is bothersome and creates an acute awareness that something is wrong. The only relief is getting the object out of the eye or getting the rebellion out of our life.
Weather-making or living on a worldly whim is spiritually unhealthy and may be indicative of a greater problem, never having experienced Jesus in the heart. Spending time on the farm as a young boy taught me some very valuable lessons to translate into living a responsible life. Looking back I can see the truth of it now, but just having a pattern to live a responsible life is not enough. We must do something with that pattern or guide to living responsibly.
The Bible is our moral and ethical guidebook. It tells us of the One who we should be like and about the way of righteousness, but what good is it in life if we do not follow its teachings? Having a weather-permitting attitude is neither beneficial in living on a farm nor living the Christian life; it is detrimental to both since so much is depending upon the right attitude and staying at it. Not everybody is cut out for farming and ranching, but all who are Christians are required to develop a Christ-like attitude and behavior that operates 24x7 according to the pattern sent down from God in the form of written revelation.
Years ago there was a catchy and clever saying in a “keep the kid occupied” pamphlet for kids from a global company in the fast food industry that went something like this,
The weather will never be permitted for a Christian to do what he or she must do on a daily basis in support of being like Christ 24x7. We all need to quit being weather makers and put on some spiritual overalls, roll up our sleeves, and just do what we are supposed to be doing every single day as revealed in His Word, keeping in the Truth and out of the troughs of the world.
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Why do we allow our weather-making skills to influence or color our decision about whether we will serve God or not on any given day? We are clueless to see that there might be a spiritual battle orbiting around a decision to do something every Sunday. That should be the first clue that this is a spiritual conflict in progress that has the potential of keeping us and our family out every Sunday away from church life because of the weather generated by our own choosing. Once out of the loop, it becomes easier to remain outside the loop in spiritual matters, “Yeah, I know we should be in church, but...”
This weather-permitting mentality could apply to anything, for example, supporting our kids playing sports, time on the lake fishing, hunting season, playing sports, motorcycling in the mountains, going to flea markets, attending festivals, or anything which so happens to fall on Sunday. All of those things are amoral until it keeps us away from corporate worship for an extended period of time (like every Sunday, for instance). It is akin to the attendance mindset of the Christmas, Easter, and funeral-only crowd. Such behavior reminds me of Esau who loved the physical qualities of the world but never the spiritual qualities of the things of God. You remember he was the one who sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for some food (Gn 25:32)? What priceless spiritual blessings are we selling for the temporary things of this world?
Isn’t going to church every Sunday, if at all possible, considered to be church overkill or religious fanaticism? It depends on who you listen to, Satan, self, or the Scriptures. This is about a love for the Lord that is illustrated in the walk. I realize walking into a church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than walking into the garage makes you an automobile. I realize there are those who attend I wouldn’t give you a penny for their spirituality, but this is between you and God. We will never stand before the Lord and say I didn’t go to church to worship you because so-called brother so and so is the biggest hypocrite in the church. Really, where do we go that there are no hypocrites? On our best days, we are all still hypocrites. Thank the Lord for grace!
But where is the passion to worship, to give to something back that is worthy and bigger than us, to congregate in the assembly of the saints for praise and worship to the only One worthy of it, to fellowship, to observe the ordinances of the church, to hear inspiring biblical truth live and in person, to feel the rain of spiritual blessings upon our life, to bathe and bask in the purity and light of the Truth, to find mutual support, to share and pray for one another? It won’t be found under any generated weather of our own making or by anybody else. We rob ourselves of so many spiritual blessings when we opt out of going to church or participating in its functions. It is not fanaticism; it’s called being faithful often reflected in church life.
Man-made weather is a spiritual problem because it brings up the issue of priorities and those reasons for not being faithful in doing what should be done in the Christian life. Clearly, Christ does not have preeminence in our lives (Col 1:18). Weather permitters suffer from a classic case of being egocentric rather than God-centric, trying to tamper with spiritual laws that are tamper-proof. It leads me to the conclusion that there are too many of us acting like weather-maker Christians, not to say that any less is acceptable. Cafeteria-styled Christianity is increasingly becoming problematical with pick and choose and disregarding the rest. Like, “I want my fornication and faith, too!” It’s not going to happen without serious consequences.
There are so many options vying for our attention today that we begin living a life on a worldly whim, living life to the “fullest” on non-essentials to the faith that which does not promote godliness; their world revolves around self above anything else, including God. It hurts the sinful; it hurts the family; and it hurts the church family, but more importantly, it hurts the cause of Christ because it is faithfulness that gets the world’s attention as well as the fickleness. It is a no-brainer in determining which one advances the cause of Christ in the world!
Unfortunately, many of us serve God with a weather-permitting spirit, a combination of Esau-ism and excuse-ism. The real scary part is that we don’t even see anything wrong with it, and definitely, we don’t see another storm approaching our way because of our wayward ways! Should anyone point it out to us, we get all defensive and accuse them of being self-righteous and needing to mind their own business like I am doing here!
Serving God should never become weather permitting, physically or figuratively, because it is a lifestyle, not an option.
For example, take the tense of the verb translated in Gal 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit.” It indicates continuous action or a habitual lifestyle. Since walking is normally associated with progress, a believer grows in his spiritual life as he or she submits to the control of the Spirit (Eph 5:18; cf. Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 6:19-20). By doing so, we avoid flesh flare-ups (eruptions of our sinful nature). It is something that must be done on a daily or continual basis like being Christ-like; it is similar to living on a farm. Somebody has to get up in the wee hours and milk those cows and feed the chickens and so forth every day. They are only chores if we make them chores in our mind rather than a passion for Christ (Col 3:23; 1 Cor 10:31).
Turning a duty into a delight only happens when there is a love for Jesus (Jn 14:15). The difference between the worldly saints and the spiritual saints is the former loves to dillydally and feast in the troughs of this world doing his or her thing, and the latter delights in the Scriptures in order to do His will. Let us read of King David’s delight,
“I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart" (Psa 40:8).
The weather-maker
would say,
Note when the LORD spoke to Isaiah concerning Israel’s ways, “I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people [Israel], who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually …” (Isa 65:2-3a, ESV); it is because they pursued idolatry (literally and spiritually those things competing against the will of God) and heathen practices (the ways of the world) contrary to the Law. Many of us are guilty of being like Israel in the days of Isaiah in seeking the Lord superficially. There is no genuine pursuit of God and the things of God unless the weather permits.
Though Israel was a nation called by His name, they acted like the Gentiles; they “did not ask” or “did not seek” and acted like a people that were “not called” by His name (Isa 65:1). Paul in his epistle to the Romans referred to this Isaiah passage to the Gentiles who did not ask, did not seek, and were not called by God’s name, but because of God’s grace and mercy, the Gentiles were given Gospel opportunity to experience salvation by grace through faith (Rom 10:20; 11:17).
When Jeremiah was perplexed over the persecution and suffering he endured because of his faithfulness to God (Jer 15:15), He discovered the bottomless well of spiritual resource and refreshment that sustained him through a very troubling ministry,
“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts (Jer 15:16, ESV).
I like the NKJV rendering, “Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.”
Weather makers do not ask for God, seek God, or even act like being called by His name. Does this characterize our spiritual life? The swill out in the world smells good, but it only has a taste pleasing to the hogs. There is no delight comparable to the Word of God. The natural man and the worldly believer gravitate to living hog wild, feasting on the swill of the world (cf. 1Jn 2:16). The things of this world will never produce joy and rejoicing of the heart because it can only come from a heart that is holy (cf. Psa 1:1-3, notice the happy man’s delight!). Living on a worldly whim or being a weather-permitting kind of person does not produce peace or happiness. Holiness is the pathway to happiness and peace. Separating ourselves from the truth of the Word only yields unhappiness and a lack of peace and contentment.
Is it possible to backslide as a son of the King to where we think and act like our former life before becoming a Christian (we ask not, seek not, and act not)? The answer is yes; see Eph 4:25-32; 2 Pet 1:9. The rub is how long this anemic spiritual condition will last?
Too long may indicate we never truly trusted Him in the first place, and if we are not chastened we can consider ourselves to be illegitimate (Heb 12:8). It has been said that a spiritual man or woman can no longer tolerate sin in the life than a foreign object in the eye. It is bothersome and creates an acute awareness that something is wrong. The only relief is getting the object out of the eye or getting the rebellion out of our life.
Weather-making or living on a worldly whim is spiritually unhealthy and may be indicative of a greater problem, never having experienced Jesus in the heart. Spending time on the farm as a young boy taught me some very valuable lessons to translate into living a responsible life. Looking back I can see the truth of it now, but just having a pattern to live a responsible life is not enough. We must do something with that pattern or guide to living responsibly.
The Bible is our moral and ethical guidebook. It tells us of the One who we should be like and about the way of righteousness, but what good is it in life if we do not follow its teachings? Having a weather-permitting attitude is neither beneficial in living on a farm nor living the Christian life; it is detrimental to both since so much is depending upon the right attitude and staying at it. Not everybody is cut out for farming and ranching, but all who are Christians are required to develop a Christ-like attitude and behavior that operates 24x7 according to the pattern sent down from God in the form of written revelation.
Years ago there was a catchy and clever saying in a “keep the kid occupied” pamphlet for kids from a global company in the fast food industry that went something like this,
“Whether
the weather be cold,
or
whether the weather be hot,
we’ll
weather the weather,
whatever
the weather,
whether
we like it or not.”
This sounds sort of like farm
life to me, 24x7, but what a catchy expression for a spiritual mindset and work
ethic! I wished that serving the Lord was like the natural urge of hunger and
thirst, but that would be a natural desire. Serving the Lord is the most
unnatural thing to do because service to Him is in the supernatural realm.
Hungering and thirsting for righteousness must be cultivated and worked; it
doesn’t come from the natural impulses of the flesh. How can we stand before the
Lord one day and say, “I would have been more like You, but the weather wasn’t
permitting.”
Sadly this is for many “believers” the lifestyle of a weather permitter, no time for Jesus. You know the
One they want to spend eternity with but not while on earth! They want to be
instantaneously like Jesus in heaven without effort but no time or energy for
that on earth. Such a mindset will have a rude awakening one day (cf. Lk
13:27).
The weather will never be permitted for a Christian to do what he or she must do on a daily basis in support of being like Christ 24x7. We all need to quit being weather makers and put on some spiritual overalls, roll up our sleeves, and just do what we are supposed to be doing every single day as revealed in His Word, keeping in the Truth and out of the troughs of the world.
Weather making is dangerous because when we attempt to control the
weather because we think we have a better idea of how to control the eco or ego
environment than the Creator (Col 1:16, 17), it always winds up with unintended
damaging consequences, long after the unknown storm passes. The biblical
forecast is that we should be living life with a passionate desire to please
Him, with or without weather permitting. Does it rain where you live?
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb 10:24-25, ESV).
“Don't wait for six strong men to take you to church.” <><
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb 10:24-25, ESV).
“Don't wait for six strong men to take you to church.” <><
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