The Mailbox

As I was studying in Exodus this week, God gave me many messages. I just love how He freely gives to those who seek. I am reminded of the verse Luke 24:48 "... For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: ..." I feel I was given these insights into His Word and need to share them with everyone. Here is one that He showed me...

 

The Mailbox:

Think of a nice, clean piece of land, grass covered all the way to the road, that has never been used. Then imagine someone purchases it, builds a house on it, and then puts their mailbox in front of the house. The grass is full, green, plush, and vibrant where this mailbox was placed.

Then the mail truck comes to deliver some mail. They come every day for 6 days and then don't on 1 day (Sunday). After 6 days of being driven over (even for this short period of time each day) the grass begins to wither. Imagine several weeks later, the grass is matted down and turning colors that show it is in the process of dying. Imagine several months later, the grass may no longer be there and dirt is in its place. Imagine a year later, the dirt has been worn down to form a hole. Imagine it rains and the hole floods with water and has difficulty draining and absorbing into the ground again.

 

God gave me these thoughts about that story:

 

We need to be in God's Word every day... DAILY...

 That patch of grass only had one day of rest and it wasn't enough to bring it back to its full potential. We go out into the world 6 days a week. We are "run over" with the sin in this world driving over us daily. If we only read God’s Word one day a week when we go to church, it isn't enough. We need to be encouraged and filled throughout the week too.

• Exodus 12:6 "Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord." - The Lord tells us to "eat unleavened bread" for seven days. Unleavened bread is sinless bread - Jesus is the bread of life (our sinless bread) - Jesus is the Word of God - we are commanded by God to eat of His Word for seven days (that's every day in the week). We are to read His Word DAILY.

• Exodus 12:9 “And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt.” - We aren’t just to read His Word, we are to do His Word (“a sign… upon thine hand”), memorize and study His Word (“a memorial between thine eyes”), and we are to tell others (“that the Lord’s law may be in thy mouth”).

• Exodus 12:10 "Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year." - Not only are we to eat of this Bread (God's Word - God's Son Jesus) every day of the week, but we are also to eat of it "from year to year". This tells me we are to continually stay in God's Word every day of every year.

 

We need this refreshing daily in order to live in this sinful world and shine Jesus’ Light for all to see.

 

Another thought God gave me about the mail box story:

We need to be more aware of how we treat each other and how we treat ourselves. In talking with others, we need to make sure that we tell them the truth but in a nice way with encouragement and advice, in a godly manner. In talking to ourselves, we need to remember to face the truth of our situations and the sin in our lives but don't beat yourself up over everything you have already been forgiven for. Learn from those mistakes and help others to learn from your experiences too.

 

We need the good with the bad…

The matted down grass that is turning colors and showed signs of dying is like when you continually tell someone how wrong they are and how much they have sinned in their life. If you constantly bring up their sins and grind them into them, they will eventually believe that they will never recover… they will show signs of dying. We know that without Jesus we will be doomed to die in hell, but if we only tell the lost how lost they are they will never see how they can live forever because we haven’t told them how wonderful, forgiving, and merciful our Lord and Savior is.

Don’t let the weeds grow…

People these days just want to hear the good things. They want to hear how wonderful God is and how merciful He is. They don’t want to hear how they have sinned and need to repent and be cleansed of that sin. They don’t want to admit that they have sinned. If we don’t make ourselves aware of those sins weeds will grow (more sins will come into our lives) and they will take us over.

Don’t criticize people, encourage them...

The saved person who was constantly reminded of their past sins (that have already been forgiven) will feel worn out (a hole) over time and will feel like they cannot grow (be of any use to the Lord and His mighty work). When that hole continued to be driven over, it created a hole and when it rained it filled with water that eventually couldn't be released on its own.

Don’t just go through the motions...

Think of the saved person who never read their Bible except in church and felt worn out, like something was missing (a hole) and eventually was filled with water and bogged down. Sin can get in when we don’t keep in God’s Word daily. That sin can grow and grow (the water in the hole could not be absorbed back into the ground by itself) until eventually they are flooded with sin. They were just going through the motions.

 

 We need to take the good with the bad (listen to what God is dealing with us in our hearts about and change what needs to be changed - more good will come when we correct our wrongs and follow His path for us), don't criticize others but encourage them by letting them know God is always there for us if we just call on Him for help, don't just go through the motions and let the weeds of sin grow in our lives (read His Word daily and stay focused on Him daily). The more we stay focused on Him the more we will see His path for us and the correct choices to make (whether what we wear, say, do, or how we act) and His Light will shine through us for everyone to see.