Dog poop on your shoe Stuart L. Brogden, 11 Sep 2004
Mowing your lawn is like life. You are walking along, in your personal space, pushing a lawn mower doing a good work. In fact, its closely related to the good work God gave Adam before the fall Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
But there are mine fields in the back yard especially if you have a dog just as in life. You can be going along, doing your job, thinking everything is just fine. But if you have not paid careful attention at every step, you may have put your shoe into a pile of dog poop. If you noticed this, you may drag your shoe sidewise, on its edge, and hope that walking through the grass as you finish mowing will clean it up. And you forget about it as tend to your chores.
Or, you may be unaware of having stepped in the what your dog left behind. Happy are you in your work and when you finish, you put away your tools and go in the house.
You may not notice, but the dog poop on your shoes has worked its way deep into the crevices and cracks in the soul of your shoe. And it leaves small bits of itself everywhere you walk, even though you may not notice it.
Maybe your wife will see the tracks youve made and gently point out your error. Maybe nobody else is home and you settle in for the afternoon football game and, after the nachos and coke, you notice a smell that is not cheddar cheese.
In a panic, you tear off the offending shoes and try desperately to clean up the carpet and erase the tracks of where you walked with the dog poop in the souls of your shoes. Then you take the shoes outside and try to get the offensive material off. But scraping with a stick only gets the surface debris. Walking around with dog poop on your shoes has pushed it into the grooves and pockets of the souls. Digging and poking with a stick wont get it clean.
What do we do, then? We grab the water hose and squirt a high pressure, cleansing stream of clean water at the dirty shoes. The water clean enough to drink works into the grooves and crevices of your shoe souls and lifts the dirt and poop out and carries it away. Sure, theyre wet but once your shoes dry, they will be good for service once again.
Walking is used in the Bible to describe life, for pagans (Mark 7:3 5 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?) and believers (Colossians 2:6 7 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
As you go through life, you step in sin you put your foot right into it. You may notice your miss-deed and attempt to clean it up. Or, you may not notice it or may think its no big deal not worth bothering with cleaning up. But as you walk, the stain of your sin works its way deep into the cracks and crevices of your soul. And as you interact with people your wife and kids the debris and stain on your soul rubs off on them, damaging your relationships. You cant get cleaned up on your own. By working to cleanse yourself, you will only make the superficial part what others see of your being clean. The only way for you to become clean is to submit to the washing of the spirit of God, humbly confessing to your Creator and accepting His forgiveness.
Titus 3:3 7 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
And being justified washed clean by the Spirit of Holy God we should walk in obedience, which is the new life of Christ in us.
Romans 6:4 we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
But how does one do this? Not of our accord or goodness or strength of will.
Galatians 5:16 25 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Philippians 4:4 9 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
Let me assure you that it is the Apostle Paul who bids you imitate him. Each of us provides abundant evidence why we are not the example but the recipient of this verse.
Last month, during the last couple weeks leading up to the Promise Keepers conference, several guys who had signed up to ride the bus, cancelled. A couple had work conflicts crop up; some simply changed their minds. I grew angry with the guys who simply changed their plans didnt they know how hard I had worked to arrange the bus & hotel? Didnt they know they left empty seats which had to be paid for anyway? And then I grew anxious would we fill up the seats? Who else would cancel or drop out?
No man must go to PK or perform any other religious duty but men should do what they promise. Thats what got my goat. My anger and anxiety were sinful. Some of my anger, no doubt, was at myself; for some of these guys many men in every church are as I was 11 years ago: in pursuit of Earthly pleasures with passion, while simply allowing spiritual growth to take place if things fell into place.
When we didnt sell those seats, I sent an email to a few guys, asking them to pay for the seat they dropped; no malice and no further mention would be made. One man, who Ive known for several years, replied reminding me of my poor attitude when we last spoke on the phone as he told me he was canceling and told me to never communicate with him again. He had lost any respect for me he had. I was hurt.
I dropped my guard, walked in disobedience, and proved once again that I cannot live the Christian life on my own. My anger was easily noticed by my wife, my kids, and my dog. We each must be open to correction and look to God and His Word for encouragement and instruction to not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:9 10.
The Spirit of the living Lord convicted me of my sin and I wrote this brother a letter no return address asking for his forgiveness and explaining my long battle with anger.
He replied, I had a strong hunch that the letter without a return address was from you. I must say, I opened it with some trepidation, not knowing what words would be within. I want to thank you for your letter. I was too quick to judge you, and I ask for your forgiveness as well. I feel rather foolish over this whole thing.
We must demonstrate our belief or it is nothing but religious talk. God commands us to seek reconciliation with one another, not run from conflict or sweep it under the rug. Matthew 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. How can we ignore this teaching when we think upon the cross of Calvary?
I am an example of this truth every man will fail and disappoint himself and others at one time or another. While men can inspire and lead, only Christ never lets us down. When I fail to point a man to Christ, I fail as a leader. When I fail to follow Christ, I fail as a man. Each of us needs a few others to remind us and correct us when we fail. This brother who returned my anger was Gods tool to humble me. Hebrews 3:12 13 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.