AROUND THE CAMP FIRE
CRUSADER’S DEVOTIONAL
Hello ya all! I hope you are blessed with contentment and are giving thanks to whom all good things come from.
A few weeks ago some Crusaders and I went on a trail ride. We rode to an area where a friend of ours keeps his cattle. Now, as I got off Virgil to open a gate I noticed what I thought was an awful pretty flower. A rider went by it and said it was a “weed” then a second rider came by and said “Yep, it’s a weed.”
About a week later, a friend and I went for a walk down a dirt road and I saw the same kind of “weed” and I asked him, “is that a flower or a weed?” he simply said “weed.” Just then a multi-colored butterfly landed on that weed and it was one of the prettiest sights I’ve seen in a long time. Why I’d say it was as pretty as a new born colt. To my way of thinking, that day at that moment, that weed was the prettiest flower I ever seen.
Sometimes we can be so blind that we can’t even see through a barbwire fence. See, nature talks to us if we are only quiet enough and still enough to listen. That “weed” is all of us and for that butterfly, well that’s God’s grace. God knows his weeds from flowers but his love and mercy (that butterfly) can make a weed into something pretty unforgettable.
I’m afraid that a lot of people see themselves as weeds, even though God sees them as flowers. In that weed out in the field I saw nothing but beauty and thought his grace and love touches us unnoticed. Love is shown outwardly surely, but must begin inward. Loving yourself and the Holy Spirit within you is where it all starts. Some people live in a self imposed world of darkness, dark enough to slow down a bat. I’m telling ya right now, love steels the spine and settles the heart.
But, how do we get to that stage and awareness of love? We must abandon ourselves, all our fears, doubts, insecurities, comparisons to others, hate, judgment and conceit. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with Christ Like character. Beauty should not only consist of outward
things, instead it should consist of the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God’s eyes. Do not look at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. Seek the lord and his strength, seek his face continually. (Chronicles 16:11)
The hammer shatters the glass, but forges steel. If you’re made of glass, if you’re superficial, if there is no faith in you, adversity will crack and shatter you. The seed of the weed will show itself. But if within you lies the victory that overcomes the world, the grace of the lord shall shine upon you. “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (Mark 5:19).
Let’s face it, we are all like the weed, but if a butterfly landing on a weed makes for a pretty picture, imagine what the Lord’s grace landing on us can look like. Don’t feel you have to understand so much. It’s not complicated, if you want to be a better person, just get hold of something of him, even if it’s only the hem of his garment, you will be made perfectly whole if your desire is real. No longer defeated but victorious in all ways through Jesus Christ. I say let that butterfly land. From weed to flower. From sinner to saint. From Death to life. Thank you Lord for the butterflies of this life.
Cowboy wisdom: One disadvantage of having nothing to do is you can’t stop and take a rest.
May God’s blessings be upon you.
In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene.
Cowboy Pastor: Ty
PastorTy@CrusadersEquestrian.org
