Flocculent

Being koi

What looked recently like a fresh and inviting frog pond, minus lily pads and koi, now looks like a boring old traditional backyard swimmable pool ~ as it should be!

Flocked

My pool got flocked, and the results are fantastic. I have to admit with some residual frustration, that my pool is a mystery, slowly becoming revealed chemical truth as time lapses, with the pool behaving badly year after year, or perhaps ... it is me ... murky me? Either way, I have something to write about because you and I both know, dear reader, how much I thrive on mystical metaphor. There is always something to learn, and I am not beyond being taught.

The algae that happily proliferated into a thick stew was slimy looking. Is that how my soul looks to God when I allow sinister sin to fester, froth, and foam in my thoughts? 

The Bible is an excellent flocculent, with sinful wayward ways being drawn to the Truth filled clarifier, like green gooey algae that needs to be put to death. Lies, dear reader, need to be killed, in order for us to see clearly. 

Sin is disobedience, a turning away from what could save us from consequential sorrow, toward people, places and things, that threaten to coat the soul in slime, the ick that sticks. Consider these words:

Though physical death was mercifully delayed after a warning from God to Adam and Eve, spiritual death fell on them immediately, with curses that we currently live under as their progeny and fellow reprobates: 

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:17) 

They survived and suffered hard labour, in the child bearing places for Eve and her daughters, and in the fields for Adam and his sons:

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over them (Genesis 3:16)

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return (Genesis 3:19; 5:5)

Botox

Regardless of how many years we accumulate while roaming this earth, each of us are physically time stamped with a death date: no amount of botox, green drinks, weight lifting and running, will help us escape this reality. God placed us here, and God decides when and where to take us out!

Consider these consequences hinted at above that directly impacted how Adam and Eve interacted with God, each other, and their environment, following the consumption of forbidden fruit:

Openness was replaced with shame, boldness with fear, love with hatred. God drove the king and queen of creation out of His presence and barred the way to Paradise with hostile angels and fiery death. Their children manifested the bitter fruits of their sin in unacceptable worship, jealousy, murder, lying, and polygamy ... (I borrow heavily from The Reformation Heritage KJV Bible)

● Does any of this sound familiar, dear reader? 

● Can you see evidence of sin in your home, your place of work, in the marketplaces, hi-ways and bi-ways of life? 

● What about when you are watching TV or checking out social media? Are your eyes and sensibilities assaulted by what is flashed before you at break neck, or should I say, soul break, speed? 

● Is it evident to you yet, that we are dealing with cumulative, unrepentant, rampant and ravishing disobedience-to-God sin?

Immorality unchecked

The world is unsafe and unsavoury with immorality unchecked. I want to hide most of the time because while I believe in God, love Him and want to love my neighbour as myself, I see Cain everywhere I look, along with Lamech, one of many of his arrogant and murderous, wicked descendants. 

● What do you see, hear, and notice, dear reader? 

● Have things changed, since say, 2019? How about since 2001, or even since 1980? ● When was the last time you looked to your history and felt "safe" and that life was filled with promise and hope?

Let me pull you back into the Bible. God, all knowing, all powerful, knew that when He gave us the gift of freedom of will, we would be wanton with it, and this has been the case, isn't that right? Like any disobedient self-willed child, you and I have gone our own wandering ways, against the warnings from a father or mother that knew better and shared with us the dire consequences that await, following bad choices. This said, we must not despair, because the entire Bible is about God's glorious and grace filled redemptive plan, for those that see how damaging sin is, how it keeps us from Him and from loving one another, and want to change willful ways to obedient ones. 

We influence and impact one another. We green goo each others souls and when this happens we have to rely on an expert clarifier, something that breaks up the yuck party, allowing light into the murky places so we can see to the bottom. Things that lurk beneath murky surfaces cause trepidation, isn't this so, dear one? When we see clearly, we choose confidently, and this is what God offers in Truth.

Clarity

Jesus Christ is the truth, the life, the way ... if you find yourself mind muddled and you travel in worn out circles of despair, go seek and find Him, He is waiting for you on the path just ahead. 

It is His peace you crave.