279. USELESS KNIVES AND SHIPS WITHOUT WIND

(The Information & Edification Series – Batch 8)

I heard Pastor Wayne Maynard of Shiloh Baptist Church state on an online radio programme (Caribbean Radio Lighthouse) last night, something that was very interesting but quite true.

To paraphrase him, he said that, if knives could talk, they may have been in a draw arguing with each other, as to who was the greatest. He said that one knife could be imagined telling another, “You are just a butter knife, you can’t do much. Look at how large and sharp I am!”

Yet, he said, that no matter how much they boasted about who they were and what they could do or who was more powerful than the other, unless they were placed in a hand, they would be useless.

They all needed to be taken up by someone, to put any of their abilities to use or else, they would all be powerless to do anything.

Similarly, in the Church, no matter what we think we know or the gifts and talents that we have and are tempted in our pride to fight and compete over, it is important to remember that they were given to us by God’s grace, for his purposes and unless the Spirit of God uses us and works in us, we would be useless in our own strength.

This reminds me of some verses in the Bible as follows:

• “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6)

• “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

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

• “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory…” (Psalm 115:1)

Many people who profess to know Christ as Lord and Saviour are at times, quick to forget this. In their pride and exalted view of self and earthly achievements, they begin to think that they are better than other Christians, that they are of some better class and so, create cliques in the body of Christ. Some of these people also tend to think that they can carry on, even if Christ is not in what they are doing, in their own strength and according to their own intelligence. They think that they can achieve results through their own efforts and by doing things as they see fit, talking about Jesus’ Lordship without really submitting to his way and by just doing whatever seems right in their own eyes and according to their own judgment, without really listening for what he would have them do and what he will say.

They forge ahead at times, with dead routine or the gifts and talents that they have been equipped with but they achieve nothing worthwhile, like a top spinning uselessly in mud because they have not relied on the Holy Spirit of God to make the difference.

They have become self-reliant, tradition and routine-focused and think that this is enough and that God should be pleased. After all they have done, when nothing happens, they are bewildered, not understanding why their efforts have yielded no fruit and why all that they have tried to do, has gone to waste.

Alas, many a times, they live lives of wilful disobedience to God’s clear and authoritative Word and yet, still continue on with routine, as if this should be pleasing to God. Yet it is not. God is not a pappy-show and he is not mocked. Whatever we sow, the Word of God tells us that it is that which we will reap.

If we sow disobedience, rebellion, pride, gossip, badmouthing, hatefulness and malice to our brothers and sisters (demonstrated in what we say about them behind their backs and how we treat them, despite how much we “talk” about love), if we create cliques in our hearts, esteeming some as more important than others, associating with those that we like, while avoiding others who we regard as nothing in the body of Christ or not at our level, if we continue on richly sowing other fruits of the flesh, how can we expect the Spirit of God to use us and mightily so? We may be full of ourselves but not full of the Spirit and so, all that we think we are and do, will be in vain.

Alas, if we are content, as those in a state of slumber, not to focus on really obeying God’s Word in its entirety but to pick and choose and to do as we please and then to rely on dead routine, self, tradition, regular and punctual service attendance, intellect or anything else but the POWER of God, we will always turn up empty, after all of our effort.

As Charles Spurgeon (deceased), once put it:

“Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind or chariots without steeds. Like branches without sap, we are withered. Like coals without fire, we are useless. As an offering without the sacrificial flame, we are unaccepted.”

(Written on 10th April, 2023)