Food for Thought

I have been fungi hunting this week and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Friday as I walked through Coppice wood I came across this

now I have no knowledge of fungi so I had not a clue what it was going to turn into and not being able to contain my curiosity I returned Saturday and found this.

I had no choice but to go back on Sunday despite the fact that it was raining and to my horror I found this,

I guess I knew it would be eaten as I had seen it covered with flies the day before I just didn't realise how quick it would be.

Coming home I thought about Jonah and how he had sat under the shade of a plant that the Lord had provided as he waited for God to destroy Nineveh (Even though they had repented and God had been merciful to them as far as Jonah was concerned they should get their just deserts) Jonah was more concerned about the death of the plant than he was about the souls of the people in Nineveh.

Yesterday I saw the warning signs I knew this plant would not survive, God was concerned for the souls of Nineveh and He is still concerned about lost souls today and we shouldn't be sitting in judgement waiting for them to get their just deserts we should be warning them of their coming destruction if they do not seek God's mercy.

Another thing that struck me about this plant was how healthy it had looked, it was growing tall and strong. All through our Christian walk we have to be aware of dangers and pitfalls and not just assume that we're alright it can't happen to me because I pray everyday and read my bible and I'm always at church for every meeting. We cannot earn God's salvation and mercy it is given freely to us by His grace and we must continue to walk with Him and follow Him and not set off at our own pace with disregard to His warning and teachings.

It isn't long before our spiritual life starts to get eaten away when we let pride, grumblings, gossip etc in to our lives. The poor fungi could do nothing to stop itself being eaten, but we can do something about our spiritual life being eaten away by things ungodly. We must rely on God and stay close to Jesus daily, God cares about us all and we should show the same care by warning others when we see something wrong. God has promised we will be blessed when we help a brother over sin, or a fall.

Mature Christians should also be aware of those who are young in the faith and prone to being misled, there are so many false teachings about just waiting to lure the young inexperienced Christian, we who are rooted and grounded deep in God should help and encourage the young in their study of the scriptures and in their spiritual growth, we wouldn't leave a baby and toddler in the natural to it's own devices and expect it to bring itself up, so we should not just leave a baby in Christ to bring themselves to spiritual maturity but prayerfully seek the guiding of the Holy Spirit to help them.

Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Ephesians 6:11