Galatians 6:7-8

"Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit."

I was asked to give a Graduation Speech at our local Life Skills Center. It's a charter school with 50 graduates from at-risk background.

My youth pastor asked me to fill in for him this summer on a Wed. night.

I'm planning to share the Laws of the Harvest with both groups...tailored to fit each group of course, but the theme and message will be the same.

My preparation has caused me to reflect and take stock in my own sowing and reaping. Here are my thoughts (as they should be applied to me and mine...absolutely no legalism or forced standards on others should be read into this :))...

- God will not be mocked. Living an inconsistent lifestyle to what we portray to others on Sun. & Wed. is mocking God.
- Left to it's own, the garden WILL grow weeds, we need to weed out those things that do not aid in the harvest we are aspiring to grow. For me, and I stress...FOR ME...this includes some music, movies,books and TV shows that promote an unrealistic or fantasy lifestyle that is incongruent with the harvest I desire (and brings glory to God). You see, I travel alone a good bit. I'm in mixed company out of town. I'm out at night at business dinners. These things I can't help, nor do I want to change. I see these activities as me being "in the World". It's in these opportunities where I get to be "salt" and "light"...to be set appart...However, I know my heart, and the desperately wickedness that is there...and if the weeds of a lust filled, debaucherous world (think beer commercials, sex and the city, and desperate housewives) were allowed to grow unweeded...I believe I would be much less effective in the world in which I live...

Don't get me wrong...I never see me being unfaithful (I love my wife too much)...but I do catch myself blowing it with inappropriate humor or an off color comment...and that's where I believe the weeding needs to take place.