Polish

If you’re in America, you might have used Old English furniture polish.  I did this morning.  Our interior doors are six-frame solid oak.  Gives a bit of noise reduction in a house that is so open.

Beloved Husband had a pulley system on our bedroom door to help exercise his rotator cuff after surgery.  The neurologist had him get that out again to help strengthen the muscles in both arms due to myasthenia gravis. The pulls at the end of the rope knock against the door and make small nicks in the finish, sometimes showing the bare wood beneath.  Yes, they should be refinished, but I’ve been using Old English’s dark oil to soak and match.  Doing that brought to mind (of course) a verse:

Having a form of godliness,

My polishing the doors gave them the look of being ‘finished’, even with the bit of wear all wood gathers, but it’s not real.  It’s as though I’ve denied the reality of needing refinishing and the depth it would provide. As the next part of the verse displays:

but denying the power thereof:

When it comes to the life of a Christian, covering up with a temporary fix ‘ain’t a gonna get it done.’  We’re told in the last of the verse:

from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:5 KJV)

Of course, Paul wasn’t telling Timothy about furniture polish.  The previous verses explain from what we are to turn away:

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; (2 Timothy 3:2-4 KJV)

Those are the people we are to turn from. Yet, those are the people we read about in the newspaper and internet, watch news (and dramas / comedies) of on television and see movies of in theaters. We see so much more of them than we do the people who could be described as having the fruit if the spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 KJV)

Which ones do we turn from – and which ones do we turn to? The choice to do so is ours.  No one is forced to watch egotistic, greedy, self-servers being disobedient and all the rest.  Yet the ratings are higher when there is violence and controversy. 

Whether it be news, drama or comedy, how many have you noticed with the fruits of the spirit?  “Fireproof” comes to mind.  Have any of my readers seen that movie?  Or, “Courageous”, now in American theaters.  Heard about it?  They do exist.

Vote for them by watching them, not the ones we’re to turn from.