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Winter is not forever....

Started by Roscoe, February 01, 2012, 12:48:50 AM

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Roscoe

...

Song of Solomon 2:11-13

11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over [and] gone;
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing [of birds] is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines [with] the tender grape give a [good] smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

   
Tonight I want to talk to you for a little while on the subject of when winter is past. Some people love winter, and the cold weather and snow that it brings, but most people do not prefer it over the spring of the year. Last year, we had a cold, bad winter for this area. We had ice and snowfalls, and alot of dreary days.
  Winter brings dreary days. Days that are gray and overcast and blustery. Days that the wind will blow and seem to cut right through you. Days that will make you want to curl up inside with a good book and a bowl of soup. Days that the last thing you wanted to do was go outside.

   In the wintertime, drive around and look at the areas of pasture land, or the fruit orchards. The grass is all dead and brown. There are no flowers. Even the trees look bare and dead, shorn of their leaves, standing naked for all to see. Winter seems to make everything look bare and bleak. When bad weather comes, people tend to be "cooped up" in the house and all kinds of crankyness shows up.

   As a police officer on the street, I dreaded winter and summer for the job. In winter time, it seemed everyone was upset and irritable. While I never tracked it, it seemed to me that our domestic disturbances went up in the winter,no doubt influenced by the lack of ability to get out and do things outdoors. In the summer of course, everyone was out celebrating and partying..

To some degree, as Christians, we are affected by a Spiritual Winter. Everyone of us has times in our lives that we wonder if God remembers we exist. We have times in our lives where we seem to fail God daily, hourly, even. Days that seem to stretch on forever, where we can't feel God even when we know He is there.

    I've had times in my life where I sat in services with everyone shouting and worshiping God, and it was obvious that God was in the house. Yet, I felt nothing. Nothing. It was a spiritual winter in my life. Times when I would try to pray and my prayers didn't seem to get three feet off of the ground. I'd feel overcome with doubt and despair, and wonder "God why have you forgotten me?"  I'm talking about days that I felt like throwing in the towel so to speak and giving up. Just walking away from God and everything.  I'm talking about the wintertime of life. And I know I am not the only person who has these, because I've talked with people that have also gone through this.

Following Winter, we see a different sight. You see, it is Spring. Everything is green, the trees have new leaves, the grass is so pretty in the pastureland, the flowers are blooming....the days even seem brighter, with the sun shining brightly and the temperatures warming. Even during the rains that come in spring, the world seems to have a fresh, "just washed" feel to it. Everything thrives in the Spring. Everyone is getting out, enjoying the weather. Parks get a boost in attendance from everyone coming out to see the spring growth.

   And spiritually, it is the same way. When you come out of a trial, out of a winter season in your life- everything starts to look fresh, and clean again. If you can just make it through, the good things in your life will return. In life there are season we go through:
Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:1-8
  1 To every [thing there is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up [that which is] planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.


Tonight, I have came to tell someone that winter time is over. WINTER IS OVER.  If you have been in a winter time of your life, take heart, be encouraged, because winter has passed.  It is spring time, a time of renewal and restoration. Step out and enjoy the fresh weather. The days of winter are behind us! It is a time to dance, a time to build .

God has a whole new life ahead of us. The winters are necessary. That cold winter that we hated the thought of- well, thanks to that cold weather, the mosquitos and other pests have their population checked. Without the winter, the pest population would skyrocket and damage to trees and greenery would be terrible.

I remember that a few years back there was a huge wildfire on Petit Jean Mountain. Many acres of trees and land burned, and I remember thinking that it looked like the whole mountain was on fire. After the fire was put out, I rode up the mountain on my motorcycle and viewed the devastation. My heart broke to see the formerly beautiful woodlands black and sooty, with nothing good coming out of it that I could see.
But the next spring, when the trees began greening and the flowers began blooming- what a beautiful sight! Flowers that scientist said had not been saw in fifty years bloomed so vividly, so brightly! The fire had burned off the weeds and things that competed with them, and brought them back to life. The very thing that seemed so hurtful, helped.

Tonight, if you are in a time in your life that feels like winter- remember that winter passes, and then comes the spring. Rejoice in the springtime, God has a renewal for you. If you've had a rough time in life in general- physical, spiritual, mental, financial- it doesn't matter. God is in control. Rejoice and trust in Him. It's time to shake off the winter doldrums and enjoy the new beginning God has for you.

  Praise God and worship him for the new beginning in your life! Even when you have to "praise Him on credit".  Sometimes we can't see the springtime for the curtains we have in our lives. In the spring time, we often do "spring cleaning". The windows are flung open, the house is cleaned perhaps a little more thoroughly, the glass cleaned. And then we look out at the sunshine and see the beautiful time that it is.
 
Maybe tonight we need to examine our lives, do a little spiritual spring cleaning.  The Psalmist David said " Create in me a clean heart, oh Lord". Maybe we need to pray that He will do a little spring cleaning in our lives. Look inside, where no one else can see, and look at those little sins and things that we didn't think were too serious. Just like the dirt on the windows, it clouds our vision of what God has for us. I ask you tonight, to seek the face of God and know that He has sent the springtime for us. Let's talk with God and make things right with Him, and enjoy the weather.
The winter is truely past, and the time to enjoy the springtime of God is here.




There. It's back. :laughhard:
Potstirrer and snoop extraordinaire   "I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world."- Thomas Edison

Lynx

That was good while it lasted, but where'd it go?

I was thinking of it just today.  I heard an old saying, "No winter lasts forever.  No spring skips its turn."
"Do you sing at church?"
"Yes I sing at church, I sing at home, at work, in the car, at the supermarket, at Wal-Mart..."
:sing: :sing: :sing: :sing: :sing: :sing:

The Purple Fuzzy

It's waiting for the trees to bloom so it can come back and kill them

Roscoe

 :biglaugh: Sorry 'bout that. I selfishly posted it here because my printer died and I need to print it at work. After I printed it off, I deleted it. I can put it back if ya like- just didn't figure anyone was paying attention. :laughhard:
Potstirrer and snoop extraordinaire   "I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world."- Thomas Edison

Lynx

We're watching.  We're always watching... :paranoid:
"Do you sing at church?"
"Yes I sing at church, I sing at home, at work, in the car, at the supermarket, at Wal-Mart..."
:sing: :sing: :sing: :sing: :sing: :sing: