Fall appears to be here to stay, that smell of it in the air, the crispness that forewarns the coming of fallen leaves and colder weather.

It has always been my favorite time of year – I am sure one of the reasons is that my allergies are no longer controlling my days.  But I love the smells, the changing colors, the clear and boldly blue skies that accompany fall.

I used to hunt, haven’t in years, but I still enjoy the woods this time of year.  To me it is special.

The garden is still producing.  Carla has a couple of large pumpkins that she will share with neighbor kids.  Still getting garden fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. not quite as flavorful as earlier in the year, but still much better than the ones sold at stores.

Days are shorter.  I can leave the curtains open now as the sun doesn’t hit the windows like it does in mid-summer, heating up the living room to an unbearable temperature. 

I realized a couple of days ago that I have a much better view of Mt. Hood as I sit in my chair – sometime during the summer the spruce tree that grew between us and the mountain had been cut down.  I appreciate that!

2  Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

When we came up to Deed’s house yesterday, we could hear Josh working down at the barn.  When we went into the house and started talking to Deed, who was working us some nectarines, he came in for a cold drink. 

I held my hand out to shake his, he looked at his hand and did what most people do when they have dirty hands, he looked at it wiped it on his pants and said something about his hands being dirty – I didn’t much care, we shook hands.

Later I thought about that gesture.  It brought to mind something I had heard before – something like ‘I would rather shake the dirty hand of a man whose hand is soiled by honest toil, than a man’s hand that appears clean but is dirty by dishonesty.’

We all make mistakes, our minds and bodies are like that clay pot, subject to the pressures and vileness of the world that would hammer without to break us down within, and often place cracks in our veneer.  It is easy to stray from the wisdom of God when we use man’s wisdom to succeed.

Steven, one of my children, commented on the return of a certain preacher that had been publicly ostracized for sins, which he had preached against but which he was committing in secret.  Steven was surprised at how willingly people were now listening to him despite his fall.  We both came to the conclusion that it is because Christians are willing to forgive – it doesn’t mean that his testimony isn’t tainted and that he must always have that in his background when people listen to him – he betrayed God’s trust to Him and the trust of those that he preached to – so he will have that question mark hanging over him for the rest of his ministry.  Yet, he admitted his sins, he requested and was forgiven, he did as the church commanded by staying out of the pulpit and focusing on his redemption and was following God’s guidance.

We don’t know if he has or will revert to those demons that persecuted him and to whom he yielded – we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but we can only pray he indeed has forsaken the things he has done and is truly looking to God to help him.

Many felt upset and angry – as they should have – over his betrayal.  His clay pot had been severely damaged.  The world, of course used him, as they do other Christian leaders’ fall into sin, as an example of the hypocrisy of Christians and how we fail to live up to the very precepts we say we believe in.

Yet, no one, is perfect.  Christians want to be, we want to be like Christ, we want to show His love, His Grace, His life in ours.  We want to say, as Paul said, In Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Yet, we falter, we fail – and even if we think it is a good cause or a way to draw interest to God, we can find ourselves doing things that are not of God.

One such time (among the many I have failed God) comes to my mind when I think of how fragile we can be if we take our eyes off of God.

One of the things we would do at Vacation Bible School is hold a penny donation contest, boys against the girls.  To begin with we used to place buckets on the altar and have the kids come up and place their money in the buckets.   But it took time to count and we couldn’t announce the winner until later in the day.

To help build excitement and get a quicker determination of who won, I had asked one of our Elders, who was a master carpenter, to build a scale for the contest; similar to the scales of justice.  We would have buckets hanging from the arms so the children could place their pennies.

When the buckets were empty it balanced perfectly, as I said he was a master and these scales were used for many VBS’s thereafter.  We made sure there were plenty of pennies available since some would bring other change and of course a dime doesn’t weigh as much as ten pennies.

(I just now realized that it could have been taken by some of our congregation as money changing – one of the things Jesus abhorred were the money changers in the Temple – men he chased out.  Unlike them we gave an honest measure – still, it is interesting that I had not thought of the similarities until now.  No one complained, and I don’t think we were wrong, but do have to give it some more thought.)

To help encourage the contest I represented one sex, another man represented the other.  We had some gaudy ties we wore and if our team won, we got to cut off some of the tie of the loser – the kids loved it.  To help build suspense and fun, we agreed that if the amounts were ever equal the Pastor’s tie was to be cut.

In the ‘spirit of fun,’ on the after the kids went home on the next to the last day, I asked the Elder to do something to the scale that would allow me to ‘fix’ the results and make them balance.  Then we would reveal what the actual measurement was later (can’t remember if my intent was to cut the Pastor’s tie first or just reveal the subterfuge before cutting it.)  I knew it would garner a great laugh and everyone would enjoy it.

What I didn’t count on was the Elder.  He did what I asked.  However, he told me this was wrong, I am sending the wrong message to these kids.  I can’t say he was calm in the way he said it, he was upset, not yelling, just upset.  He was right.

I listened to him, we gave an honest weight.

Now, if that weight had been for payment, or for something more ‘serious’ I would never have thought about fixing it.  It was a little thing that really didn’t matter, it was just for a laugh and building camaraderie – yet, as he pointed out, it did matter.

It is often the little things that first trip us up.  I am sure the aforementioned preacher didn’t start out as he ended up.  He allowed little things to creep into his heart, things that ‘really didn’t matter all that much.’  Yet, in the end he was found out and held in disgrace.

We are earthen vessels, subject to the world’s ideas and desires.  It is only through Christ, through God’s Wisdom, the Holy Spirit’s leading – and those that would remind us that we must walk a very straight path – that we can keep that vessel from being destroyed.

We must not think, even for a minute, that we are above sin and have no need for God’s guidance.  We must remember that even a little trick, if not honest, can lead to larger more dishonest tricks and even that little trick gives the wrong message to those that are entrusted to us.

A man’s hands only become dirty when he starts to do a job, it becomes dirtier as he continues – let us make sure the dirt on our hands is from honest labor and not from following the ways of the world.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again