Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Battling the Beetles (and other pesky sins)

Image result for potato beetle

I’m a gardener, so I am well acquainted with the effects of The Fall. God meant what He said when He told Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you . . . by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Gen. 3:17-18). If you have ever tried to raise a garden then you know the battles against bugs, blight and baking sun can be tiring and frustrating.

The other day I went out to check on my potato patch only to find that I had been invaded by a farmer’s nemesis—the potato beetle. The little pests, no bigger than a pencil eraser, can wreck havoc on potato plants in just a matter of days. With a voracious appetite, all it takes is just a few to defoliate a plant faster than Agent Orange. Not to mention they reproduce overnight. I tried dusting my plants with pesticides, but the vermin have proven resilient. I have found that in order to save my plants, I have to go down the row with a plastic bottle and pick the bugs off one by one and let them fall into a solution of soapy water. Daniel—my 3-year-old son—likes to take a more violent approach by squishing their guts out with a stick and rock.

As I was performing this tedious task, I thought about the far-reaching effects of The Fall and how my battle against the beetles resembles the saint’s struggle with sin. Have you ever noticed how the Bible portrays this conflict like a tug-of-war? Paul writes in Galatians 5:17, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”

    Image result for flesh vs spirit

Just like my battle with the beetles, I have to be diligent in fighting my sin nature. The bugs never take a day off, and neither does the Devil, so neither can we. Jesus spoke of discipleship like this, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Did you notice that key word “daily”? There is no short cut to sanctification. We must exert spiritual sweat and fight through until we die or get raptured out of this world.

Just like my battle with the beetles, I have to be drastic in fighting my sin nature. There is no compromising, bargaining or truces with these buggers. They have come to kill, steal and destroy. Likewise, we cannot rationalize when it comes to sin. Taking up a cross daily, involves putting to death the flesh and its desires. Speaking on the sin of lust, Jesus advocated radical surgery, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matt. 5:29).


Just like my battle with the beetles, I have to be detailed in fighting my sin nature. Going down the rows and picking the bugs off one-by-one is slow and backbreaking, but it ensures that I don’t miss many. In our struggle with sin we have the power of prayer and confession. We ought not to gloss over our sins glibly, or ignore them, thinking they will go away. We ought to call the sin what God calls it—lust, anger, envy, lying, pride, coveting. One by one we must allow the Holy Spirit to pluck out the sins from our lives. The good news is that we have powerful detergent that wipes the record clean, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) -DM       

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