America is a garden laying beneath spacious skies lighting up and nurturing the amber waves of grain. The purple mountain majesties cast their shadow across the broad and fruited plain. It’s a sight to behold!
God has indeed shed His grace on this land that I love. But like every garden, when not properly tended, the weeds overtake it. You’ll never see a field of weeds get overtaken with beautiful flowers or fresh produce. But any garden, untended, will always produce weeds that overtake and choke out the good.
We see it now splashed across television screens, as a shot heard round the world choked out one of America’s finest. Oh, how we loved that flower that carried the fragrance of Christ.
But it was cut down.
The garden in which it grew has been slowly overtaken by the weeds of anti-Christian, anti-God, Marxist, socialist, even communist ideology.
We will mourn the untimely loss of this courageous warrior for Christ, but then we must boldly step forward and weed out the garden.
Charlie was doing that. He would pull the weeds of demonic rebellion right out of the minds of tens of thousands of young people, through simple dialog, asking questions, challenging assumptions, sharing the gospel, and loving his antagonists.
We must boldly take back the responsibility of tending to this beautiful garden we call America, and we must do it NOW.
It’s incumbent upon us to engage the culture, root out the lies, expose the works of darkness and prepare the garden for the emerging generation. Tending the garden has always been our duty. Before God gave Adam a wife, He gave him the job of cultivating and keeping the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15).
Did you catch that? Adam was to cultivate the garden so it could produce, but he also had the responsibility of keeping (guarding) it.
Our forefathers in America did a pretty good job of cultivating this garden we call America. It came from nothing, but with diligent cultivation it became the city on the hill, sending forth the light of the gospel more than any nation before it. (Matthew 5:14)
It is our job now to keep what was handed to us, and if we don’t attend to that, our American garden will be completely overtaken by weeds.
Weeds are destroyed when their roots are exposed to the sunlight. That is our job. Go to the root of the matter and overturn the lies and falsities with truth.
If you don’t feel able or equipped to do that, get equipped – or be taken over by weeds. It’s that simple. Let your light shine in the public forum.
Be bold. Be brave. Be loving. Be vigilant. You could even say… Be like Charlie!
Because he who tends the garden gets the city!
(Special thanks to Dan Smithwick of the Nehemiah Institute who shared this analogy with me over the weekend!)
I totally agree with this. If I didn’t put the weeds out of my yard the weeds would overtake my grass. Weeds will overtake the grass but the grass will not overtake the weeds. The same is true in life.
Thank you Jim! Appreciate you posting a comment!
[…] When we realize that September 23rd came and went without a rapture, there is no place for gloating or “told you so”, etc. I’m hoping the church will put on its big boy britches and be about the business of tending the garden God gave us while we still have the freedom to do so! (See yesterday’s blog!) […]
Thank you, Michael.
So perfectly stated for today, and the days going forward.
I’ve seen Charlie’s work on SM pages today that surprised me, some even shocked me. The impact is real, the movement is well-rooted, and the harvest will be long and fruitful.
Be like Charlie~in gratitude!🙏💜
Hi Bea… You are so right! Thank you for posting your valued comment!
May the sounds of 10,000, x 10,000 voices rise up to replace Charlie’s that was silenced!
Amen Tim!
Amen
Great post, Michael! May God continue to fill your mind with great insights and strength to share them with the Body of Christ!