The Weeds and Iris

          When we moved to Virginia, one of the things I did do was to plant a lot of iris flowers. I like the iris a lot and I have always been amazed at the amount of colors that there are from black to white and everything in between. I have several different kinds in my yard and one clump of plants in a spot that has grown over in ivy and choked out the flowers. The ones on my patio wall have also succumbed to weeds. O, the plants are still there and the leaves come up and are healthy and green, but the blooms are becoming smaller and smaller each year. If they were to have some care they would come back to their original beauty but the body is a little weaker and doing the required weeding and transplanting just has not taken place. I recall one time in West Virginia that I was thinning out the iris plants and through a small piece of rhizome on the trash pile. I was surprised that one day I looked at the trash pile and saw a beautiful yellow iris growing there. All it needed was a little care and it came back to life. John 14:3 says, “ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

         There are a lot of “purist” type people who are always anxious to point out how we have messed up the church. The believers of today have been influenced by the world to the point that we have created what we might think of as being what God intended. We have however, found out that our intentions are not the same as God's intentions. We have built cathedrals that require centuries to complete filled with stained glass and majestic organs with powerful music that resonates throughout the structure vibrating the very stones of the building. Our theology has also succumbed to the whims and ways of the world to the point that many are worshiping the creation instead of the Creator. There are those that are pointing this out to us and trying to make the pendulum swing the other way. The Pharisees were an example of pendulum swinging. They became very good at tithing, witnessing and praying. It almost sounds like they were good church people but the Lord Jesus Christ made it known that they were just like a painted up tomb with no life inside. I have learned that I can take a rhizome from my Iris flowers, take it out of the weed bed, care for it and plant it in good soil and it will bloom bigger than ever before just like it was meant to bloom. In the past 2000 years, we have seen a lot of things take place in the church, which is not the building, but the people themselves. We are the church. What will it take to get to what God wants for us. One thing for sure is that the Lord Jesus Christ will come back for His Church as promised in the scripture for today. The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is a message that can be found in many parts of the Old and New Testaments. It is a beacon of hope that assures us that things are really going to get better and will end up greater than we can ever imagine. There will come that day when there will be a new heaven and a new earth and it won't be the result of anything that we will have done here on earth. God does it all. I look at the conditions of the world and the church and it reminds me so much of my iris bed. The blooms are choked but still there. Praise God today that there are no surprises to Him, but He has His plan that will be completed just as the Bible says it will take place.