Vines Gone Wild
Plants grow. If a plant receives enough water it will start to grow wildly if a gardener does not tend to it. I have some wild vines growing on my fence. We cut them down, but did not pull them up by the roots. Therefore, they grew back in a short amount of time. Without regular pruning and cutting back, they will take over the yard.
My problem is mild compared to the wild vines in the southeastern United States. Have you heard of kudzu? Kudzu was introduced to the United States from Japan in 1876 at a centennial celebration in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From there, gardeners admired the sweet smelling blooms and sold the plant for ornamental purposes. Kudzu quickly spread in the south through the encouragement of the Soil Conservation Service who paid farmers $800 per acre to use kudzu for erosion control in the 1930’s.
The problem—these vines grew too well which gave them the nicknames “mile-a-minute vine,” “foot-a-night-vine,” or “the vine that ate the south.” These vines can literally grow one foot a day and sixty feet per year. By 1972, it was declared a weed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Kudzu vines climbs whatever objects they come in contact with—telephone poles, abandoned vehicles and homes, road signs and trees. The vine destroys the natural forest by blocking sunlight.[i]
Without careful attention and regular pruning our belief systems can grow wild like kudzu. False teachings can appear as truth if we do not regularly check it with the Bible, which is the truth. The Israelites allowed false teaching to grow like wild vines; never cutting them back or pruning out idol worship. They kept on growing wild until the Lord cut them (the Israelites) off and allowed their destruction. The very thing we allow to run wild like kudzu is the means that God will allow to destroy our lives if we do not turn away from it.
ISRAEL IS a luxuriant vine that puts forth its [material] fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars [to idols]; according to the goodness and prosperity of their land they have made goodly pillars or obelisks [to false gods]. (Hosea 10:1, AMP)
Like the kudzu vine, the Israelites spread their false beliefs throughout the land. The more they increased, the more they worshiped idols. They wrongly believed the fertility god of Baal brought them prosperity and they continued to spend what they gained on idol worship. They sought after what pleased themselves and used it for selfish gains.
In my early Christian years, it seemed the more I acquired, the more I wanted. What I acquired never satisfied me. If I purchased name brand-name clothes and accessories, I got hungry for more; it was as if those clothes defined my identity. In my mind I thought I worshiped the Lord because I went to church, read my Bible, and prayed, but I still worshiped the god of materialism.
Because I grew up in a small town next to the wrong side of the tracks, I made sure I lived in the “right” neighborhood as an adult. I truly believed that the Lord would release me from my “poverty” mentality because, after all, He wanted to bless me. I wrongly twisted His word to mean something He never intended. I turned it into idol worship; it was all about me. Yes, God blessed me, but I misused His blessings of the fruit and surrendered it to idol worship just like the Israelites in the days of Hosea, the Old Testament prophet.
If it is not the idols that provide our wealth, they why then do so many people seek after the false gods of materialism? They want to follow after greed and pursue things that we will leave behind when we leave this world. Based on my own personal experience, it’s a false sense of fulfillment and contentment. But, my designer clothes left me forever yearning; never satisfied.
The Israelites used religion (both the worship of the true God mixed with idol worship) as a means of financial gain. Centuries later Paul wrote in First Timothy 6 about greed. Sometimes stipends were attractive so Paul admonished those who pursued wealth through the work of the ministry. He wrote that this person is “puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain” (6:4-5, ESV).
False teachings must be pruned out of our lives while they are still only on the fence. If not, they will take over like the kudzu took over the southeastern U.S. The Lord will allow our wild vines to destroy us as the wild kudzu is choking the natural habitation if we do not submit our lives to Him.
The high places also of Aven [once Beth(el), house of God, now (Beth-)aven, house of idolatry], the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed; the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their [idol] altars, and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us! And to the hills, Fall on us! (Hosea 10:8 AMP)
We must be careful to not allow our temple to turn in to a place of idol worship or it will be destroyed. We will be covered with the wild vine that we should have allowed our Master Gardener to prune. The sin of Israel overtook them so much that they wished they would die.
If we live Totally Transplanted lives, we can avoid reaching this point of despair. We can allow the Lord to cut false teachings out of our lives by staying attached to the true Vine, Jesus Christ. By staying in Christ, we will be well groomed vines instead of vines gone wild.
[i] Shores, Max, “The Amazing Story of Kudzu,” http://www.maxshores.com/kudzu/, accessed November 7, 2009
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