Little Foxes

"Catch the foxes for us, the  little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom"  Song of Solomon 2:12, ESV

Vineyards and wine are usually  meant to represent celebration and rejoicing in the bible. In this case,  Solomon's beloved is addressing him. Even though this passage is addressing  the marital relationship, I firmly believe that it can be applied to all  aspects of life, not just marriage and sex.

So vineyards, in that sense, represents  those things in life that are enjoyable. The foxes then represent things  that are unpleasant or undesirable. Now, there are a lot of things in life  that are unpleasant, but we can not "catch" (or control) a lot  of them. At this point in my life, it represents anger, frustration, intolerance,  fear, insecurities, and such. These qualities are destroying my vineyard  one day, one event, at a time, and that is NOT acceptable.

Are you OK with these little foxes  spoiling your life? Do you let them run wild and ruing your relationships,  your marriage, your job?

Men and women have to catch their  own foxes. However, in the context of marriage, note that Solomon's beloved  asked HIM to catch the foxes "for us." It is the husband's responsibility  to do the hunting in this case, for the sake of the marriage, but what  are we hunting?

"For we do not wrestle against  flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against  the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces  of evil in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12, ESV

We are hunting demons! Those demons  that incite us towards selfishness, anger, pride, and every form of sin.  And how do we fight them? By reaching ever closer to Christ.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit,  and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Corinthians  3:17

Today I want to challenge you to  take a look at your heart. Do you see these forces at work within you?  Can you find any trace of selfishness, pride, anger, bitterness, or any  other form of sin there? If you are like everyone else I've ever met, you  would have answered yes to all those previous questions. If so, I encourage  you to reach out to God, ask Him for help in reaching ever closer to Him,  learning how to walk in his presence every day, in freedom!

Which comes First?

I came across the following quote:

"Day by day we should weigh  what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied  to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed." Albert  Schweitzer.

Which produced the question; "which  one comes first the thought, or the deeds?" To answer this question,  lets take a look a couple of scriptures.

"Keep your heart with all  vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life" Proverbs 4:23, ESV

"The good person out of the  good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his  evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his  mouth speaks." Luke 6:45, ESV

The famous sermon on the mount  is another great example of the importance of the heart's attitude. Most  of this sermon deals with sin and the attitudes of the heart. The actions  that are mentioned take a level secondary importance. Jesus equates anger  to murder, lust to adultery. So I would conclude that I agree  with Mr. Schweitzer when he says that we should reflect on how much we  sow onto the sinful nature and how much we sow onto the spirit (Galatians  6:8). However, I would disagree with the concluding statement that we should  pay more attention to deeds than thoughts. I would say that we need to  pay more attention to the attitudes of our hearts, and the deeds will follow  naturally out of that.

The most important things, as a  Christian, is my relationship with God, my intimacy with Him, being "a  man after God's own heart." Once my heart is close to Jesus, actions  will follow. If you don't agree, what do you think Jesus what trying to  say in this instance?

"Now as they went on their  way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into  her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet  and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving.  And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister  has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord  answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about  many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion,  which will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38:42, ESV