Our blueberries have not been particularly bountiful the past few years. I remember years when over the three or four weeks we were picking, I had enough for four or five pies, two or three dozen giant muffins, blueberry pancakes at least twice, and a dozen jars of jam, and still put fifteen full quarts of berries in the freezer for later use. This year I didn’t have enough for one muffin. If blueberries are antioxidants, we may start rusting soon.
When the blueberries are thin I really hate sharing them with the birds. It would not be so bad if the birds would pick one limb or even one bush out of the twelve we have. But they flit around pecking a blueberry here and a blueberry there. Once a bird has pecked a berry just once, it is useless to us. Yet there is still enough in the one berry for several more pecks if the bird would only take them, and then he would not need to peck so many others!
Satan does the same thing to us. How many faults do you have? How many weaknesses do you fight on a daily basis? If you are a faithful Christian, maybe only a few by now, certainly less than when you started out. But you know what? Satan doesn’t need to totally ruin you. He doesn’t need to turn you into evil personified. All he needs to do is make you satisfied with just one little fault, only one little thing that you need to work on, because the fewer pecks he makes into your soul, the more likely you are to be satisfied with your progress. You will look at yourself and say, “I’m doing pretty well. This one little thing won’t hurt my soul.” And so you give in, you make excuses, you say to yourself, “That’s just the way I am, and after all, it’s not that bad. I haven’t killed anyone lately.” This is not to minimize the need for grace, just the attitude that says, “I’m satisfied where I am.”
So we become a bush full of pecked blueberries, too ruined for those around us to nourish their souls, but not ruined enough for us to think we really need to do something about it. Is that why the church isn’t growing? Is that why we no longer have any influence on our neighbors? Is that why our children are falling away and the future looks so grim?
Pecked blueberries are useless. When Satan sends a bird to peck at you, beat him off with a stick if you have to. One peck can cost you your soul.
But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin which he has sinned he shall die…I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord. Therefore turn and live, Ezekiel 18:24,32.
Dene Ward
When the blueberries are thin I really hate sharing them with the birds. It would not be so bad if the birds would pick one limb or even one bush out of the twelve we have. But they flit around pecking a blueberry here and a blueberry there. Once a bird has pecked a berry just once, it is useless to us. Yet there is still enough in the one berry for several more pecks if the bird would only take them, and then he would not need to peck so many others!
Satan does the same thing to us. How many faults do you have? How many weaknesses do you fight on a daily basis? If you are a faithful Christian, maybe only a few by now, certainly less than when you started out. But you know what? Satan doesn’t need to totally ruin you. He doesn’t need to turn you into evil personified. All he needs to do is make you satisfied with just one little fault, only one little thing that you need to work on, because the fewer pecks he makes into your soul, the more likely you are to be satisfied with your progress. You will look at yourself and say, “I’m doing pretty well. This one little thing won’t hurt my soul.” And so you give in, you make excuses, you say to yourself, “That’s just the way I am, and after all, it’s not that bad. I haven’t killed anyone lately.” This is not to minimize the need for grace, just the attitude that says, “I’m satisfied where I am.”
So we become a bush full of pecked blueberries, too ruined for those around us to nourish their souls, but not ruined enough for us to think we really need to do something about it. Is that why the church isn’t growing? Is that why we no longer have any influence on our neighbors? Is that why our children are falling away and the future looks so grim?
Pecked blueberries are useless. When Satan sends a bird to peck at you, beat him off with a stick if you have to. One peck can cost you your soul.
But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin which he has sinned he shall die…I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord. Therefore turn and live, Ezekiel 18:24,32.
Dene Ward
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