WORD From The Woods
I’ve shared this before, but I really like this illustration. This devotional was written by Pastor and timber faller, Del Abbey. Del was my pastor for most of the time I was growing up in Montana. I learned a lot from him and he always had a good logging illustration for His sermons!
God Bless and have great week! -Terry-
“Pig Ears”
Years ago I had a sawing partner who had a real problem cutting the limbs on the top of the log. He just wouldn’t lay the saw over to cut them flush with the bark, but would just angle-cut them on the top of the log and leave 2-3 inch “pig ears”. One rainy September day he dropped a tree across a stream and began to walk down it limbing it. He had taken his caulk boots to the cobbler to be “re-corked” so he was wearing a pair of hiking boots that laced all the way to the toe. As he was working his way down the log across the creek, he tripped on one of his pig ears and pitched head-long toward the creek, but one of his boot laces hooked over a pig-ear and he ended up hanging upside-down over the creek with just the top part of his head to about his eyebrows in the water. On the way over he lost hold of his chainsaw, and it landed in one of the deeper holes in the creek. (Keep in mind that this was before the days of “SMZs,” or “Stream Management Zones”.) He was kind of short and a bit chubby, so he couldn't pull himself back up to the tree to get a hold of it and get loose. He was just shy of being able to reach the bottom of the creek to push himself up and get "un-hung". So he thrashed and kicked until his bootlace broke and dumped him unceremoniously into the creek.
He came up through the wet brush to where I was cutting. It was a very wet day in the woods, and he didn’t really look all that much wetter than I was. When I saw him approaching, I shut off my saw and asked him what was up. “Will water hurt a saw?” he asked. “There’s plenty of water here”, I replied, “and it doesn’t seem to be hurting my saw much.” He looked at me with those big, sad eyes. “I mean a lot of water!”, he said.
You know, sin is a lot like those “pig-ears”. It might not seem like a big deal. It might seem like a small thing in your life. It’s no problem. I can handle it. Everybody’s doing it. It’s not like I killed someone or committed adultery or something like that. We might even make excuses for ourselves. “I only cuss this way because I’m a logger and this is just the way that loggers talk.” Or we might say, “I was just looking at her, I wasn’t going to do anything with her.” Or, “I was just looking at some pictures on the internet. It doesn’t hurt anyone.”
They might all seem like little sins. But I’ll guarantee you: sooner or later they’ll trip you up and leave you hanging. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, ”Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”
If you know Christ as your Savior and Lord, you have the Holy Spirit in your life. You are free from the necessity to sin. You have the power to overcome besetting sins. You may need to talk to a friend who will keep confidences and pray for you and hold your feet to the fire to help you get free of some sins. But keep in mind that whether you are in the woods, at home, in the shop or in town, you represent Jesus. So stop making excuses. Cut ‘em off flush and don’t get tripped up on those pig-ears.
I’ve shared this before, but I really like this illustration. This devotional was written by Pastor and timber faller, Del Abbey. Del was my pastor for most of the time I was growing up in Montana. I learned a lot from him and he always had a good logging illustration for His sermons!
God Bless and have great week! -Terry-
“Pig Ears”
Years ago I had a sawing partner who had a real problem cutting the limbs on the top of the log. He just wouldn’t lay the saw over to cut them flush with the bark, but would just angle-cut them on the top of the log and leave 2-3 inch “pig ears”. One rainy September day he dropped a tree across a stream and began to walk down it limbing it. He had taken his caulk boots to the cobbler to be “re-corked” so he was wearing a pair of hiking boots that laced all the way to the toe. As he was working his way down the log across the creek, he tripped on one of his pig ears and pitched head-long toward the creek, but one of his boot laces hooked over a pig-ear and he ended up hanging upside-down over the creek with just the top part of his head to about his eyebrows in the water. On the way over he lost hold of his chainsaw, and it landed in one of the deeper holes in the creek. (Keep in mind that this was before the days of “SMZs,” or “Stream Management Zones”.) He was kind of short and a bit chubby, so he couldn't pull himself back up to the tree to get a hold of it and get loose. He was just shy of being able to reach the bottom of the creek to push himself up and get "un-hung". So he thrashed and kicked until his bootlace broke and dumped him unceremoniously into the creek.
He came up through the wet brush to where I was cutting. It was a very wet day in the woods, and he didn’t really look all that much wetter than I was. When I saw him approaching, I shut off my saw and asked him what was up. “Will water hurt a saw?” he asked. “There’s plenty of water here”, I replied, “and it doesn’t seem to be hurting my saw much.” He looked at me with those big, sad eyes. “I mean a lot of water!”, he said.
You know, sin is a lot like those “pig-ears”. It might not seem like a big deal. It might seem like a small thing in your life. It’s no problem. I can handle it. Everybody’s doing it. It’s not like I killed someone or committed adultery or something like that. We might even make excuses for ourselves. “I only cuss this way because I’m a logger and this is just the way that loggers talk.” Or we might say, “I was just looking at her, I wasn’t going to do anything with her.” Or, “I was just looking at some pictures on the internet. It doesn’t hurt anyone.”
They might all seem like little sins. But I’ll guarantee you: sooner or later they’ll trip you up and leave you hanging. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, ”Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”
If you know Christ as your Savior and Lord, you have the Holy Spirit in your life. You are free from the necessity to sin. You have the power to overcome besetting sins. You may need to talk to a friend who will keep confidences and pray for you and hold your feet to the fire to help you get free of some sins. But keep in mind that whether you are in the woods, at home, in the shop or in town, you represent Jesus. So stop making excuses. Cut ‘em off flush and don’t get tripped up on those pig-ears.