Comments on: Praise God for Dead Trees

By: David Bennett

David Bennett — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:19:11 +0000

thanks for sharing.. and the transparency.

By: John Mark Folker

John Mark Folker — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:11:46 +0000

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!

By: Karli

Karli — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:42:22 +0000

So good. So true.

By: Craig S

Craig S — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:10:29 +0000

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

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:31:48 +0000

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…”)

By: Kaysie

Kaysie — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:44:13 +0000

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…

By: TJ

TJ — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:49:50 +0000

Thank You for that Word from the Lord Shane!

Isaiah 30:15(paraphrase) says… in quietness and trust is your strength…

By: Andres

Andres — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:27:33 +0000

Thanks for sharing. I desperately needed to hear that.

By: Trish Ramos (Fish With Trish)

Trish Ramos (Fish With Trish) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:21:54 +0000

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.

By: Mwindula

Mwindula — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:41:10 +0000

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.