Choose Your Own Adventure

The next morning the brother came downstairs after having spent the night sleeping in the boys’ old room. He said to the farmer brother, “I’d like for you to come upstairs with me. I want to show you something.” They went up to the boys’ old room. The first thing they saw when they entered the room was a beautiful, eye-catching picture. It was a picture of the sea and in the middle of the sea was a ship.

Then he said to his farmer brother, I want you to lay down on the bed and tell me what you see.” He saw the picture. He asked, “How long have the boys had that picture?” He answered, “Since they were about three years old.”

If we think about Scripture long enough, if we delight in it and meditate on it long enough, we might just become godly people.

What I find fascinating about this text is that it takes the long view. No one decides to become a Navy man after seeing a picture once and no one becomes godly after reading the bible once.

The Word of God likens the person who chooses to follow God’s way is like a tree.

II. (Are you like) A tree or like chaff? Psalm 1:3-4

In her book Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus Lois Tverberg told the story of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbit Akiva was shepherding his flocks one day when he noticed a tiny stream trickling down a hillside and dripping over a ledge on its way to the river below. He noticed that beneath the ledge was a boulder with a deep impression which had been hollowed out by the drip, dripping of droplets that fell from the ledge.

The hollowed out impression was not made by a flood of water… it was made by the drip, dripping of water over a long period of time.

If we think tree, we are not thinking seedling. We are thinking a mature and fruit bearing tree. Trees don’t grow up overnight. Godliness presumes the long view.

Godly people are like a tree…

A. A Tree, Psalm 1:3

They are like trees… Psalm 1:3

They are like trees:

1. Rooted. Planted along the riverbank. They are rooted in and nourished the Word of God.

2. Fruitful. Bearing fruit each season. Their lives are characterized by the Fruit of the Spirit.

3. Flourishing. Their leaves never wither. The joy of the Lord is their strength.

On the other hand, the wicked are likened to chaff.

B. Chaff, Psalm 1:4

They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind. Psalm 1:4

The chaff is described as worthless and scattered. Apart from God our good works are all like wood, hay and stubble, ultimately:

1. Worthless

2. Scattered

Starting in July in western Kansas and eastern Colorado harvesters cut the wheat crop. Combines move in sync around a wheat field. The reel bends the wheat into the header where the cutter bar cuts the wheat stems. The stems holding the ripe heads of wheat are moved the combine where they cross series of shakers or in some cases rotors which separate the grain from the head and the stems. The grain falls through a screen onto an elevator that moves the grain up into the storage bin. And a conveyor carries the chaff out the back of the combine where a spreader scatters the debris in the wind. Worthless and windblown is the lot of chaff.