Do You Need Your Fence Cleaned
This lesson came to me through the Holy Spirit while I was preparing my fence to apply a fresh stain to it. The weather got too hot the previous summer. So I could not stain it before the fence started to weather. Consequently the fence boards amassed a discoloring of the wood and showed dilapidation. I had tried some of that store bought bleach to clean the boards with little success (Spiritual analogy: we can’t clean ourselves). The boards were not renewed and did not regain their original color.
After washing my truck, I got the idea to try the pressure washer on the boards. This brought back the wood to their original color and renewed the board. It took pressure to clean the boards which had weathered.
While spending several hours in the early morning sun, I began to sing, praise and pray to the Lord. I even asked the Lord to show me the spiritual lesson. So here are some points that were revealed to me during the cleaning of my fence.
1. The prettier the board (original color), the darker it turned.
* the original clear yellow boards were white
* the original dark brown boards were black or dark gray
Spiritual lesson: God makes all of us beautiful and some of us turn darker than others. The individual beauty that God placed in you will change its look and we all change (look) differently after we have been weathered.
2. The darker boards took more time and pressure to clean.
* Hence return back to its original glory that was intended.
Spiritual lesson: No matter how we change, grey, dark brown, white, we are wither without God’s protection. It takes the pressure of God to restore us to the inner beauty he created. Without the pressure, we are like the bleach trying to cleam the wood. It may lighten the color and look a little better, but it does renew and restore the inner beauty placed inside of us.
3. The boards are in the world, no longer of the world.
* As a tree the wood was of the world, as a board for a fence it is in the world but not of the world.
Spiritual lesson: John 17:15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
4. All different kinds of colors and patterns to each board.
* All boards were unique with their own beauty. NO two boards were alike.
Spiritual lesson: Psalm 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
5. All boards had been withered by the elements of the season
* Hence all boards were exposed to the same elements, but each board changed differently.
Spiritual lesson:
* We are exposed to a sinful world, some us do not wither as much
* We all face the elements such as , sin, life, pain, adversity, death
Romans 3: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
John 8:7 "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
6. After pressure cleaning, all boards were RESTORED to their original beauty.
* God's cleansing blood RENEWS you to your original beauty
7. When pressure cleaned, the boards were ready for the stain. The permanent color that the board was meant to be.
* God's purpose, color and beauty that he meant for you.
* After being cleansed, the blood stain of the cross can protect you from the elements of the world (sin).
After jotting these seven points down, one more inspiration followed. What is the purpose of a fence? To keep out, to keep in, privacy, to cover up so others can't see in, hide things like weeds and unmowed grass. Many sinners are hiding behind that fence and need the Lord come in to cleanse them.
So the basic message is Do You Need Jesus to Cleanse and Stain You?
Boogey Bob