My house is full of little things.  Some are useful; some not so useful.  Now that the cooler weather has come to stay there is one item (in fact many) that will come in handy when it’s time to light the woodstove (our main source of heat): matches!  The practical ones which stay on top of the mantle until needed come in a box which has rough sides so that match can be struck there to bring forth a flame.  But in a decorative tin on a shelf in my dining room I also have a tiny collection of matchbooks from places I’ve been throughout my life.  Most of them are from restaurants (several of which are no longer in business) but two are souvenirs from first trip to Israel.  It’s funny what little trinkets turn into collections of fun memories.  But as for the useful ones, I’m not sure how many boxes we’ve been through- but I know it’s a lot! 
            Have you ever watched a match ignite?  Without the benefit of modern photography it’s nearly impossible to see the actual moment when the phosphorous and other elements on the match head connect with the strip on the side of the box which gives it enough friction to light.  But looking at photos which have captured the moment is quite fascinating- at least to me it is!  The actual moment is most likely a millisecond or less, yet the result is instantaneous and the fire it causes spreads quickly.  One popular song began, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going…” (Pass It On), and this fact is born out in many a wildfire that was inadvertently started by a careless camper.  Matches are volatile and therefore a very apt illustration of one seemingly insignificant part of the body- the tongue.
            James in writing to believers who were dispersed across the Roman Empire wrote very strongly about the effects of the tongue (Js. 1:26; 3:1-2).  He likens the tongue to two different items.  First, he says the tongue is like a bridle which steers a beast of burden, and secondly it is like a rudder which directs a ship.  Both of these objects are rather small compared to the whole, but each one determines the path which will be taken.  James also states that the tongue is “set” among the members of the body.  The Greek word here indicates that whatever direction the tongue steers us stems from the body as a whole and James indicates that this is inherently evil.  The “evil” spoken of here is not that of some horror movie where evil is almost beyond stopping or the epic battle between good and evil in a fantasy novel.   It is instead related to injustice or literally “that which ought not to be”.   What evil stands in contrast to is truth which occupies a place with justice.  Whatever does not match God’s justice is not God’s goal for us and in the end what is wrong in man’s relationship to man, is also wrong in man’s relationship to God.  James completes his thought with two more examples.  The first, a fountain of water, is noted as only being able to produce one kind of water.  It cannot produce both sweet and bitter.  The second, a fig tree, only produces its own fruit.  It produces figs.  It cannot produce grapes.  What James is indicating here is that the tongue can only produce what’s on the inside of a man.  Whatever the tongue produces only reveals what is truly on the inside of a person.  And it is as hard to tame or control as a fire.
            Guarding the tongue is serious business.  Whether it is watching your temper, your language, your attitude or simply minding your manners, how well you control it shows to others the level of your Christian maturity.  James is not the first one to take note of this or to liken the tongue to a fire (see Ps. 12:1-4; 32:8-9; 140:3; Prov. 16: 24, 27; 26:20; Mt. 7:16; 12:34-37) and Jesus considered words spoken in anger akin to murder (Mt. 5:21-22).  In a day and age where there are few filters on what people say to one another, the area of the tongue is one that testifies what life in Christ is all about.  It seems that everywhere you go, a new voice rises to incite anger and unrest and sadly many times Christians get caught up in the thick of it.  What kind of witness does this bear to those around us?
            There is probably no better example in the New Testament concerning the tongue than Paul’s urgent plea for reconciliation with two women in the church at Philippi, Euodia and Syntyche.  Apparently their disagreement and the ensuing “whisper campaign” threatened to destroy the unity of this church.  Paul emphatically urges them to live in harmony with one another; not in tension (Phil. 4:1-3).  Likewise Paul urged Philemon, a master who had every right to publicly humiliate his runaway slave, to speak with love and concern rather than anger and judgment (Philemon vv. 17-21).  Like James, Paul says that words well-chosen achieve righteousness and that is God’s desire for us (Jas. 1:19-26).  What is coming out of your mouth these days?  Are you starting fires?  Or is your rudder set on God’s course?  Perhaps these verses will spur you on to use the tongue in a positive way (Ps. 19:14; Prov. 10:11, 19, 31-32; Rom. 10:14-15; Col. 3:15-17; Heb. 13:15).
Ann H. LeFevre, M. Div.
https://www.annhlefevre.com; Olivetreeann@mail.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/annhlefevre; https://www.facebook.com/ann.h.lefevre

            My husband Jeff was holding a conversation with our friend Tom a while back concerning all those wonderful aches and pains that come with getting older.  But Tom had found some relief from them with the purchase of a new pillow.  He was absolutely convinced that this pillow had made a huge difference in the way he was sleeping.  It was enough of an endorsement that a few weeks later when Jeff saw a display of them he got one.  You may have seen the infomercials featuring Michael Lindell, the creator of “My Pillow”.  The company was founded in 2004 with Lindell and 5 employees sewing the pillows by hand.  Today the Chaska, Minnesota based company employs 1500 people and has sold millions of pillows.  It is not surprising to me that in today’s rushed and stressful way of life that people are constantly looking for a restful night’s sleep.  Perhaps that’s what is so appealing about “My Pillow”.  It lives up to its advertising for most people and for Jeff it has done the same.
            On the opposite end of the spectrum, no one would think to use a stone as a way of achieving a good night’s sleep or a place to rest one’s head.  But it is the image portrayed in Gen. 28: 10-22.  Jacob has cheated his brother Esau out of his birth right and his blessing from their father Isaac.  He has left the easy grazing and water supply at Be’er Sheva and is on his way to seek refuge at Uncle Laban’s in Haran. It’s not an easy trek by any means but with the threat of a hot-headed brother bent on revenge it is one that Jacob is making quickly.  Jacob exhausted and at a safe distance from Esau, decides to rest for the night.  Although most artistic depictions of this scene have Jacob resting his head on “My Stony Pillow” in reality he probably placed several stones around his head.  When you’re sleeping on the ground in the desert it’s safe to say there are a few creepy crawlies who are out and about at night that you don’t want crawling on top of your head!  Stones are a good deterrent.  What follows is a heavenly vision which prompts Jacob to proclaim the area sacred and to set up a “standing stone” in remembrance of the event.
            Jacob is not the only person in Scripture who while on the run finds rest and an encounter with God.  Elijah is fleeing the angry and vindictive Jezebel after his amazing showdown on Mount Carmel against her false prophets (1 Kin. 19:1-18) and after some rest, he too encounters God.  Jesus also valued rest and promised to give it to His disciples (Mt. 11:28-30).  This wonderful promise follows on the heels of a declaration of judgment against three popular and industrious cities in the time of Jesus: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum (Mt. 11:20-24).  In each of these cases, whether an individual who is on the run, or a city whose industry makes for a comfortable life, it would appear that the activity will result in rest.  Persecution will cease (as soon as I escape).  I’ll be able to take a vacation (when the work is done).  But Jesus claims neither of these things will bring rest.  On a deeper, spiritual level, there is only one way to find rest.
            The author of Hebrews continued this train of thought when he approached the subject of rest in chapter 4 (Heb. 4:1-16).  The believers he wrote to were still worshipping in the Temple and following the sacrificial system as prescribed in the Mosaic Covenant.  Apparently they assumed that this system was THE way to “rest” before the Lord.  But there is nothing permanent in the sacrificial system.  Each offering, each sacrifice only supplies rest on a limited basis.  Simply put, there are not enough sacrifices to pay for the penalty of sin.  The writer uses two examples to illustrate this principal.  First he recalls the incident at Meribah where the Israelites argued about water with Moses and tried God’s patience (Ex. 17:1-7).  The second illustration also draws from Israel’s history as Joshua leads the people into the Promised Land but must conquer it before they can “rest” (Jos. 23:1-13).  Each one of these illustrations involves work in order to accomplish the goal but the “work” involving the removal of sin is far more difficult.  In fact, it is impossible in human terms to completely remove it.  But, echoing the words of Christ Himself, the author points out there is a permanent, lasting, and perpetually superior way into the presence of God- Jesus Christ (vv. 14-16).
            It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we can work long enough or hard enough to earn rest.  After all most of us have jobs with paid vacations that reinforce this, right?  We can approach our faith the same way.  “If I’m good enough, put a tithe in the offering plate, say grace before meals, go to a Bible Study, watch my language, be nice to other people…”, the list goes on.  None of these actions will bring us the rest being spoken of here.  Like the believers who were basing their relationship with the Lord on the sacrificial system, we think our behavior allows us access to God’s ear and we’ll find rest.  If that’s what you’re doing my friend, then you are resting your head on the wrong pillow (Heb. 4:9-10).
Ann H. LeFevre, M. Div.
https://www.annhlefevre.com; Olivetreeann@mail.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/annhlefevre; https://www.facebook.com/ann.h.lefevre

            The year was 2016 and it was my birthday.  But on this particular birthday, I was the one who was giving a gift, not receiving one.  My youngest granddaughter was totally into the “Frozen” phenomena like many little girls were at the time.  My niece, an aspiring actress, had a job playing “princesses” for a party company.  So I had hired her to come dressed as Elsa (one of two main characters in the Frozen story, and perhaps the more popular of the two) to surprise my granddaughter.  Our family was chatting and enjoying each other’s company when there was a knock on the door.  “Oh, Lucy, I think that knock is for you,” I said, “Could you go open the door?”  She was a little hesitant so her mom took hold of the handle while Lucy waited.  My camera was up and ready and the look of surprise on Lucy’s face was priceless!  “She’s REAL!!” she exclaimed as Katie/Elsa stepped through the door. 
            My house is full of doors.  I’m sure yours is too.  I decided to count them today and discovered that including my furniture and appliances I have 50 doors in my house!  And for the most part (excluding a knock on the front door) I know what is behind each one of them.  The most common word for door in the Old Testament is a word (pehtah) which can refer to an opening, an entrance, a door, or doorway.  It could apply to tents, homes, or even caves where there was an unobstructed entrance into an enclosure which also allowed this word to be used metaphorically as well.  We find an example of this very early on in Scripture in the account of Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:1-8).  Most of us are familiar with the story.  Adam and Eve have two sons.  Cain, the older, becomes a “tiller of the soil” while his younger brother, Abel, tends to flocks.  At some point each man determines it appropriate to bring the Lord a sacrifice.  Cain approaches this quite casually and grabs whatever is handy from the harvest (v.3) but Abel takes this more seriously and brings the finest of his herd with a fat portion (the tastiest and most desirable part of the meat- v. 4).   The Lord is pleased with Abel’s sacrifice but was disinterested in Cain’s (v. 5).  We are not told how these men knew one offering was preferred over the other, but we are told how it affected Cain.  The NASB says his “countenance fell” and that he became angry.  The Lord challenges this behavior and basically tells Cain, “If you do what you know pleases Me, you won’t be downcast and angry”.   The Lord then reveals to Cain that “sin is couching at the door and it desires you, but you must master it” (v.6-7).
            Cain is presented with two choices.  The first is to do what he knows is right.  The alternative is to allow what is “at the door” to enter.  The allusion here indicated by the word “couch” (rabas) is that of a wild animal which is lying down, either at rest or stalking prey.  Sin is at rest, just outside the door of Cain’s heart.  But its desire (tsoo-kay) is for him like a wild animal which desires to eat.  This word is the same type of longing that lovers have for one another.  That kind of longing is not always a healthy one and that is certainly the case here.  Cain must “master” this- a word which means to rule, reign or have dominance over.  Cain must tame the beast.  Sadly, as one commentator noted, Cain does not respond to the Lord’s guidance.  Rather than allowing the reprimand to lead to contrition, it embittered him toward his brother.  Cain allowed sin to master him by opening the door to it.  Kenneth A. Matthews wrote, “In this account we learn that sin has a pervasive power that seizes occasion to enslave its victims (Rom. 3:9; 1 Cor. 15:56; 1 Jn. 5:19).”  Paul echoed this struggle in Rom. 7:14-25 emphasizing that the only hope in mastering sin is Christ Himself.  Matthews concluded, “Cain’s refusal to deal rightly with his sin permitted his anger to fester into murder.”  It was a tragic ending to something that could have easily been corrected.
            And that is usually the outcome of sin, isn’t it?  We think that some little indiscretion, a miss-step, a lax of attitude, a burst of anger with a quick, haphazard apology, an undetected wrong, can be overlooked or not held against us.  But with each “little sin” we have cracked open the door.  We have given over our freedom to a master other than Christ and before we know it, we’ve become “dinner” for the beast (1 Pet. 5:8).  But we do not have to open the door to it.  Through the power of Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit, we can tame the beast (Rom. 8:1-8; 1 Cor. 2:10-16; Eph. 5:18).  The Church at Laodicea thought they had their sins covered.  They thought their wealth and beauty masked the stench of sin hiding underneath all the glitz and glamour of their city.  But they didn’t fool Christ.  Neither do we.  Jesus admonished them that He was standing at the door knocking (Rev. 3:14-22).  And I believe He is often knocking upon our “door” as well.  The question is, who are we letting in?
Ann H. LeFevre, M. Div.
https://www.annhlefevre.com; Olivetreeann@mail.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/annhlefevre; https://www.facebook.com/ann.h.lefevre

            I am not a very good gardener- at least not in the planning, cultivating and nurturing sense.  If it comes in bulb form, or you can plant it once and it takes care of itself from then on, I’m good!  So I think you would find it surprising that I have a small bag of Marigold seeds on hand.  Marigolds seem to be one of the flowers that do well in the decorative pots I keep on my deck.  After the blossom has faded, I collect the seed heads for next year’s “crop” and in the Spring I plant them back in the pots to bloom once again.  Whether you’re a master gardener, or a lazy one like me, every garden starts with the same components:  seeds, soil and weather (that is sun and water), and of course, a gardener.
            The psalmist claims in Psalm 1:1-3 that a fruitful garden (the garden being a metaphor for life) is accomplished when the gardener takes “delight” in God’s Word and “meditates” on it day and night.  The Hebrew word for “meditates” means chew.  The allusion is that in the garden of life one gets all the nutrients he needs by chewing on God’s Word.  It’s not hard to see the similarities here to planting seeds in soil which has the proper nutrients.  If seeds need to be in nutrient-rich soil to thrive, so does our soul and God’s Word is the soil we must be planted in.
            Jesus used another agricultural example to further illustrate this principle (Jn. 15:1-5).  In Jesus’ version a vinedresser is examining his vineyard and pruning off branches that aren’t producing fruit.  There are two harvests in Israel- one in the Spring and one in the Fall.  Gardeners prune in the Spring to encourage the branches to produce fruit.  But they also prune a second time in the Fall- after it has become evident that the branches pruned in Spring were fruitless.  The discarded branches ended up making some nice kindling, but that’s about all they did.  The branches that are generally cut off are those branches that appear to have the promise of fruit, but in the end do not produce it.  Those branches were sucking nutrients away from the good branches, so they needed to be removed.  Like the plants in the garden of Ps. 1, the branches which produce fruit on this vine are fruitful because they are connected to a nutritional source.  They are connected to the vine.  Jesus claims that in order for us to produce fruit we must be connected to Him.  He says that “apart from Him we can do nothing”.  I can’t think of a better illustration.  A branch not properly connected to the vine produces no fruit- we can see that!  If we are not connected to Jesus, we will not produce the fruit He desires.  What kind of fruit is Jesus looking for?
            You were probably thinking of the Fruit of the Spirit in Gal. 5:22-23 when you read that question.  That’s a great response!  But it would do us well to look at what happens if we do not “abide in Christ”; if we do not stay connected to The Vine found in the verses which precede the “Fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:19-21).   If any one of the things listed in those verses is evident in your life, it may mean that you are not connected to the Vine when it comes to whatever is causing it.  I know it’s easy for me to say, “Well, I don’t have to worry about idolatry, drunkenness, sorcery and all those things on the list attached to inappropriate sexuality”.  BUT I’m not completely off the hook.  What about envy?  Oh yeah- I deal with that sometimes.  Outbursts of anger?  It’s easy to find excuses for those!  Even the godliest of people will face some of the interpersonal/relational struggles on this list because the flesh is prone to all of those (2 Cor. 6:18-19; Gal. 5: 16-17).  So when Jesus does His Spring pruning on us, it’s then up to us to become a productive part of the vine by responding to it (Prov. 3:11-12; Heb. 12:11).
            However our Gardener has not left us to take care of ourselves.  By remaining or abiding in Him, by meditating on His Word as the psalmist suggested, we as His garden can produce the fruit He desires which has led me to think about the most necessary item if you are to have a garden at all.  Seeds.  We all know the Parable of the Sower.  Most often we hear messages on that beloved parable that focus on how the Gospel is spread and who responds to it.  But that is not really the point of the parable.  It’s really all about FRUIT.  Each one of those seeds falls upon the ground.  Each one produces a plant.  But not all of the plants thrive due to the place where they have landed.  Without stretching the parable’s limits to where it should not go, our focus should remain on the type of fruit each seed produced.  Jesus wants us all to be like the seeds which landed on the good soil.  He wants us to produce fruit.
            So my musings on gardens and seeds has caused me to look over my life and examine it to see if I’ve been a seed which fell into good soil.  Have I watered myself with God’s Word?  Am I connected to the Vine?  Have I produced fruit?  Lord, I pray the answer is yes.
Ann H. LeFevre, M. Div.
https://www.annhlefevre.com; Olivetreeann@mail.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/annhlefevre; https://www.facebook.com/ann.h.lefevre