The Plumbline

When I first moved to my neighborhood about 26 years ago, I was surrounded by cotton fields on the north and south sides of the subdivision, equestrian property to the east, and a newer subdivision to the west.  Today, I am surrounded by all manner of growth, from houses to shopping centers and even a new fire department building.  The last of the open lots has just been subdivided and it will soon be occupied by shiny new houses.  As they were plowing up the land around me in various phases of development, one of the things I noticed was the increase in ants, those really big and hairy spiders, cockroaches (those big ones which come out of the storm drains), and even a few rodents here and there.  Field mice were almost never seen in the housing area, but they had no where to go but find a new home while all that heavy equipment plowed up their happy haunts.  Unplowed fields have a tendency to be the gathering places for all manner of disease-carrying, rather ...

7  When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. (Hebrews 6:7) We have previously studied the various types of soil that a farmer might come across in his journey to bring forth a crop.  There might be rocky soil that is able to bear some crop, but then it soon withers because of the lack of both nutrients and the heat of the day scorching its tender roots.  The soil could be hard, unyielding to the seed sown, easily snatched away by scavenging birds or carried on the wind.  Regardless of the type of soil, it has to be "tended" in order to bring forth a crop.   Yesterday, we looked at the idea of renewal - the process of something being made new or refreshed.  The process of renewal for the one who farms is often a process of plowing the earth - turning over the soil time and time again until it is "fit" for the reception of the seed.  In the plowing process, renewal occurs because that soil is...