Praise God for Dead Trees
March 13, 200915 CommentsI’m out in the yard today… remembering our God’s faithfulness!
A few months ago, I was wrestling through my weakness, trying to find a path that lead out of heaviness and into the light load of Christ. I had felt alone for sometime. Not ‘alone’ alone… I have a wonderful life! I have a wonderful wife! Tremendous friends and family, but I felt alone. I couldn’t hear the Lord. It seemed I had lost my ambition for Him. He seemed to have…left.
I tend to get fleshy in these times! I get quiet and selfish. Short and distant with my wife, snappy with my friends, and I busy myself so I don’t have to face the silence… so I don’t have to deal with my lonely heart.
And my heart is surely lonely because is craves Him. The Lord Jesus! It’s sometimes hard to see that in the moment, but when He finally responds, when my dry heart is quenched, when I wake up from a worldly slumber, I recognize what it was that I had been lacking…
But on this particular day, at the end of a particularly dry season, I had once again forgot the gospel and I felt cut off from God. I felt disqualified. That maybe I didn’t know or love Jesus… that maybe I had been fooling myself… and everyone else.
So what do you do in this kind of depression?
Naturally, you grab a chainsaw.
I tend to do a lot of my wrestling in a side room of our house looking out at a bunch of trees and other green things that are rare in these here parts, and, instead of pressing into the Lord when it is hard, I reluctantly gave in to the strong temptation to cut down this certain scraggly tree that had been begging to be firewood for over a year.
It was an old cedar tree, who’s branches were bare and twisted. The tree was discolored, and it looked like the kind of tree that if you pushed on it hard enough, it would fall right over. This tree was dead. An eyesore in it’s community of greenness.
So there I was. Chainsaw in hand, ready to take out some spiritual aggression on this old ugly tree.
The blade touched the petrified skin of the tree as I glanced up to plan for the fall…
And…
Wham!
The Lord spoke!
More than spoke. It’s like He was shouting as I stepped back and switched the chainsaw off…
And as I stared at the tiny cedar tuft at the top of this tree, I heard, “Don’t cut down this tree, Shane. It has living water running through its veins. It is not dead. It’s alive, and bearing fruit. It needs pruning and love and more pruning… but it is surely alive.”
“You are alive, Shane… there is holy blood running through your veins. I have not left. I will not leave. I discipline you because I love you. Starve the flesh, and feed the Spirit!”
He speaks…
And I am restored.
That old tree is still standing.
It has another tuft
So I, lead by the Holy Spirit, preached the gospel to myself for the rest of the day. Oh how I need the gospel! Pretty much just sang a song called “Embracing Accusation” over again… I think I might write it down and call it “Embracing Accusation Again.”
10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them…
…13Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ~Gal 3:10-13
Thank You Lord for trees!
To the praise of His glorious grace!
~Shane b
That was a great testimony. I remember Piper and CJ Mahaney preaching how important it is to preach the gospel to ourselves every morning. i went through a dry spell maybe 2 weeks ago, and yet I’m in Bible college, and I’d be on my knees begging God for new affections for him. he answered when i was faithful to share the gospel with a buddhist (pray for him, he’s seeking; name’s kevin), and after that, i’ve been abiding in God’s word and my affections have been renewed by His grace through faith that he would. you should try that sometime; if you go dry, just find someone to witness to, a stranger even.
“How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” – Isaiah 52:7
Glad you bared your soul today and shared what the Lord spoke to your heart about. What a glorious Lord we serve!!!
B,
This is a great encouragement to see that even in your times of struggle, God reveals Himself to you. It’s actually inspiring and comforting to know that even Godly and faithful men like you also feel the need for revival occasionally. Your ministry is one of the most truthful and passionate ones I’ve ever witnessed, and it is a blessing to see you pour out your gifts and blessings to all of us who absolutely love the music that God has blessed you with. It’s not to exalt you or lift you up, but everything that you do constantly glorifies His name. Your God-given humility is what keeps your works tremendously blessed and amazing. Thank you for showing what it means to be humble, and please, always stay humble because it is an extraordinary inspiration to me and millions of others.
With much love,
Sam Lee
That is an awesome testament to who God is and how He shows up.. I love being able to find Him in the smallest and seemingly most random things. It just goes to show how He works… that His faithfulness and mercy is new every morning and if we strive to seek Him, He WILL be found. Thanks for sharing, it was a great thing to read this morning.
Sarah
That is a great word!
I can’t remember the verse that talks about the “tree’s of righteousness”… Does anyone remember that one? I can’t seem to locate it.
We are planted firm and drink from the mighty waters of the Lord!
I’m encouraged to read of your struggles SB. SB experiences some of the stuff that I go through! And yet, I wish the ending of my story would be identical to yours. I’m such a wretch! I never did quite understand “Embracing Accusation”. When I finally listened to the song carefully, I wrote this something of what the song means to me. Here’s an extract (You’d have to be bored to finish reading it all!!):
When the Apostle Paul said he was the worst/chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), well, he hadn’t met me yet! I am the worst of sinners, I really am. And the devil does a good job of reminding me of it.
In the first verse, Shane says that the devil constantly reminds us that he who sins, is “cursed and gone astray”. He, the devil, sees to it personally that we are reminded of the terrible sins we commit and whispers in our ear, “You will never be good enough, You love sin, You love it so much and that is why you continue to do it, You don’t really love the Lord, He deserves better than you.” In essence the devil “steal[s] and destroy[s] all our hope[s] of being good enough”.
You know what? “He is right”!
Now listen to the voice of the defeated Christian, he says, ‘you know what?”If the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine”(Romans 6:23).’ He begins to listen and believe the lies of the “father of lies”, He begins to torture himself by engaging in self pity. He begins to condemn his very self. The devil can even take a break from condemning him and he’ll pick it up right where the devil left off.
There’s a paradox here, I say the devil speaks the truth when he whispers those lies in our ears. You ask how can the devil be “telling the truth” and yet be lying at the same time?
Well its simple.
The devil speaks the truth when he sings that melody constantly in our ears saying, “cursed are the ones who cannot abide (Genesis 3:17-19, notice here the curse pronounced upon Adam because he could not abide, Romans 5:12)” the commands of our God. In fact, its “an age old song”, A song “of how [we] are cursed and gone astray”, he sings the verses “so conveniently BUT HE HAS FORGOTTEN THE REFRAIN!”, he forgets the rest of the melody, he forgets the rest of the story, he forgets the rest of the song.
In other words, the devil tells a half truth and a half truth is a lie. He forgets the refrain which is-
“JESUS SAVES!”
Amen, Praise the Lord, Hallelujah! Jesus Saves!
No matter how many times I sin, no matter the frequency of my sin, no matter the variety or the magnitude, If Jesus has saved me, I am innocent! I have been set free, I no longer have chains around my feet, and no matter what the devil tries to say, I A-M I-N-N-O-C-E-N-T!
I have been Justified, I have been made right before the God (Romans 3:23 & 24)! I may sin but I am not condemned. That night when I asked God to forgive me and come and make a home in my heart, to change my heart of stone and give me one of flesh, that night God, not only forgave my past and present sins, but my future sins too, Jesus, that great high priest died for them all! Amen, Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!
I forget this truth so often. The opposite extreme is just as bad. That of abusing this forgiveness of future sins. For me the last few lines of the chorus confused me for a while but I think I get it.” I cannot gain salvation, embaracing accusation.”
As Christians we cannot serve God effectively and get to heaven intact if we embrace the devils accusation. We will be wallowing in self pity if we embrace the devils accusation and sometimes we think by doing this maybe God we forgive our sin. By engaging in self pity God will see how bad we feel about our sin and forgive it, but we cannot gain salvation embracing accusation. That’s not how its done. We have to get on our faces every time we mess up which will be, for some of us, everyday, and repent. Salvation cannot be gained by embracing accusation, in fact it cannot be gained at all! Salvation is not do, do, do, Salvation is done, done done!
Mwindula.
It’s comforting to know that even when our feelings are up and down the Word of God stands true and remains consistent. Thanks for sharing, brother.
Thanks for sharing. I desperately needed to hear that.
Thank You for that Word from the Lord Shane!
Isaiah 30:15(paraphrase) says… in quietness and trust is your strength…
This is exactly what I needed to hear tonight… thank you.
Last night I began my journal entry describing how I feel like a winter tree — sometimes I think I am dead and unfruitful, like nothing will ever change, but God reminded me that inside every winter tree is LIFE.
Thank you for reminding me to preach the gospel to myself. Jesus is the life within me. God bless…
Thanks. This entry along with a song by Lecrae (“I’m Praying for Ya”- similar theme of struggle with feeling distant from Jesus) have been of encouragement to me today.
As this is my first comment on your site, I also feel compelled to say “thank you” in general; my wife and I have danced, sung our lungs out, and worshiped to your music for years now; and our 2 and 4 year old sons love the “Cowboy Song” (“Power in the Blood” – It is especially precious to hear Josiah (our younger son) sing along… “Pow, Pow, Pow, Pow…”)
Thanks so much for being real, SB. It is encouraging to read your thoughts and to see you coming through the dryness and loneliness. It is a reminder to me that I’m not alone in my struggles – that others have similar experiences and come out alive and strengthened. Still fighting… CS
So good. So true.
That reminds me of parable in Luke 13 about the Barren Fig tree. The man that checked over and over looking for fruit from his tree and never found it and wanted it to be cut down. But the gardner stood in the gap and said leave it for another year and I will give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. I am always reminded about what Christ did for us on the cross. God is like the man ,with us being the dead and dry fig tree, saying its not producing fruit so it should be cut off/down. But Jesus Christ, being like the gardner, stood in the gap for us, a dead/dry tree! Man he is so Awesome!
thanks for sharing.. and the transparency.