The tree of life

When I was just a little “whipper-snapper” 8 or 9 years old, I had a school friend who lived on a farm, nothing very unusual about that, New Zealand’s economy was, in the 1950’s almost entirely agriculturally based. I was allowed to visit the farm whenever I wanted to; that usually meant a three-mile bike ride each way, often two or three times a week, after school. Occasionally I was able to stay over weekends or for a few days during summer holidays. When I consider how fortunate I was to be able to do this, especially in light of today’s paranoid and politically correct society, I cherish those wonderful memories.

On one unforgettable occasion, we witnessed a raging summer storm, complete with thunder and forked lightning. At the height of the storm, a gigantic Eucalyptus tree, less than a hundred yards (meters) from the house was struck by a bolt of lightning, splitting the tree from top to bottom, and despite the torrential rain, setting it on fire. The smell of ozone from the atmospheric oxygen ruptured by the massive electrical discharge, combined with the pungent, oily smell of the eucalyptus to produce a strong aroma. The tree burnt for days, and as it was the only one in the paddock, no one even attempted to put the fire out. This event was definitely the highlight of our summer holidays.

Over the ensuing years I passed by the farm several times, and each time I noticed that the old “lightning tree” was slowly rotting away to nothing. The fire blackened and tortured trunk had long ago been cut down, leaving only a 6 foot (1.82 meters) high stump in the ground. Someone had made an attempt to pull the stump out of the ground, but gave up, leaving the remnant lurching on a drunken angle, with much of the root system exposed.

I had occasion to travel via the farm recently, and after an absence of more than 6 decades I was surprised to see the stump still there. I was even more surprised to see that the tree that I saw destroyed in 1959 was growing again! There, for all the world to see was a single trunk about 12 feet (3.6 meters) high growing out from one edge of the stump. Dead for more than 60 years, brought back to life by who knows what forces…

Our Lord is in the restoration to life business... countless millions can attest to His rejuvenating powers, I can, and most likely you can as well.

He promises new life to all who care to ask.

It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. Romans 8:11-13 The Message.  

 

If we live by, and for the flesh, we will die, albeit slowly, but we will die. It’s only through living by the Spirit that we can mortify or humble the deeds of the body. Those who live after the flesh are already dead; they just don’t know it… sadly many don’t even care. They will eventually die a second death, if God’s grace is prevented from intervening in this life.

Rest assured, if God’s Holy Spirit resides within… so does Jesus Christ. He dwells in our heart by faith. Grace in spirit is our new nature; the soul is alive to God. Regeneration by  Holy Spirit brings a new and divine life to the soul, though, this side of eternity, in an enfeebled state, a mere shadow of the promised life to come. We who have chosen this “spirit life” can rest in the knowledge that our sins, rather than us, have died. In their place flows new life, fed by an invisible umbilical cord connected directly to God’s awesome throne of grace!