Our neighborhood is located directly below a large hill that has several acres of brush and grasslands; immediately beyond the hill used to be a farm. For many decades, it was a prime habitat for rabbits, deer, raccoons, birds, and, of course, rats and mice.
When clearing started on the farm, we saw less wildlife; that’s to be expected. Now they are cleaning up the hillside for a future park, and the rodents have no place left to live. Our neighborhood is having a minor rat epidemic, and people are doing their bit to eliminate the problem.
Now, I don’t have a fundamental issue with rats. They’re kind of cute, inquisitive, and smart. They can even be friendly to a degree, and I’m told they make great pets. I do, however, understand that they can cause a lot of damage and can often cause health issues, so it’s undesirable to have lots of them around. That means they must go. I found myself wishing for a mythical pied piper to lead them away (without taking the children later). We’ll get them in time.
The rats sneaking in remind me of the way false prophets can creep into a church. They typically come in innocuously enough, but soon the poison can spread through the entire congregation, causing incredible damage.
Now, not everyone who comes into the church who has wrong thinking is a false prophet with a dangerous agenda. Many can be corrected with sound teaching and/or church discipline. True false prophets need to be found out and removed from fellowship.
The pastor, the under shepherd of God, acts as a sheepdog to help keep the bad ones at bay.
The pastor can’t be everywhere at once or hear every conversation, so the sheep must also learn to be vigilant.
How do we know who a false prophet is? By knowing the truth ourselves. That comes through regular bible reading and study, listening to grounded preaching, and learning good theology ourselves.
We must do our bit to be aware and discerning. Let us be diligent to ensure we know the truth.
Some of you will know that I have been working on a children’s book series, inspired by conversation and storytelling sessions with my grandchildren and their friends over the years. Since October or November 2024, when I wrote the first concept edition of “A Surprising Arrival” as a Christmas present for the grandchildren, I have been writing, editing, rewriting, getting it professionally edited, and rewriting again. It’s an act of love, but it’s a journey.
Yesterday, I took the terrifying step of submitting to a literary agent. Once I have an agent, they will handle finding a publisher. Very few publishing houses still accept non-agented submissions. Agent hunting will likely require many rejections as I try to connect with the one who is looking for exactly the right fit.
So, why am I telling you this? There are two reasons. First, it fits with the theme of today’s Gleanings. The second is far more selfish: to ask you to visit the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551114373506 and follow it. The more followers, the more appealing to an agent. Thanks in advance.
This writing has been a work of perseverance. With Gleanings, it’s write something in the morning and move on. When I was freelancing for newspapers and magazines, it was “do the assignment” and move on.
This has been two years of working at it, often with extended periods of intensive activity and steep learning curves. Now, I’m just at step two, a step that will involve rejection. Then, assuming the agent finds me a publisher, I will have to rework things to their standards. There is no guarantee of success. Less than 1% of children’s books make it to publication (outside of self-publishing).
In life, we often have to persevere, sometimes through trials and difficult times. Yet perseverance is highly regarded as a Christian virtue. Why? Because it changes us.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Peter 1:3-8
Hold fast, my dear friends. The Lord has His hand on you, and He will not waste your suffering.
Be blessed
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word – Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
