We all attend meetings and firesides to leave better than when we came. That’s what Sheri Dew first said to us women, the last speaker for the day.
So, when I need to clear my head, think about new direction, and so forth, I should go to a conference, a fireside, or (if none) open the words of previous conferences and firesides.
Sometimes we forget that this life is but a short act, and we forget to look any further. LeGrand Richards once declared, said Sheri: ‘I Am More Interested in the Long Hereafter Than in the Brief Present’ (the title of his 1975 BYU speech). We can sometimes find ourselves acting as thought we are going to stay here. But we can’t! And we won’t. So our choices should not reflect that perspective.
Sheri then turned our attention to the book of Revelation. We didn’t discuss fire, brimstone, and dragons, but rather how Satan knows he hasn’t much time left. What? Let’s have a look at chapter 12. “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. …for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
Let’s look at that point for a moment. Satan knows and understands the plan of Heavenly Father. He knows very well who we really are, what we are capable of, and that our loving Heavenly Father wants us (and is helping us) all to return to His presence. He also knows he has a short time to do as much destruction as possible. And considering what dispensation we are currently living in, he has had much practice. And success. “He knows how to go for the proverbial spiritual jugular”, said Sheri.
And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought for the man child.
Although it is generally accepted that the reference to the woman is a reference to the Church, Sheri emphasised that it could be read literally – it is hard not to. The devil persecutes women. And how true this is. The woman is the centre of the home. If he corrupts her, he corrupts the entire family.
Sheri then spent the remained of her time with us illustrating the need to develop spiritual roots.
She shared the story of her garden, having just finished planting 40-odd plants in her garden over a period of about 3 weeks. The winter was a particularly long one, so the time to plant was short. When she finally finished the gardening project one evening, she cleaned up and went to bed early around 9pm. I have to admit here – how did she find the time to devote such time to gardening? This woman, albeit single, is most definitely living a full life. Anyway, the story continued: she awoke the next morning and opened her front door to judge the weather for the day and what to wear. That was when she noticed dirt on her front porch. Knowing that she had swept and clean up the night before, Sheri stepped out further to investigate. She discovered that all her 40-odd plants were missing. All of them. And since they were all newly planted, they had no roots to hold them firmly in the ground. So on the discovery of the 40-odd holes in her garden, and with a history of vandalism around her home, Sheri rang the police with the unusual tale of stolen plants. An officer came around to help, and discovered all 40-odd plants lined up neatly in a row next door. And so, Sheri and the police officer went next door to meet the neighbours. Literally – they were new neighbours. Hello! Welcome to the neighbourhood, did you steal my plants?
It turns out that their 6 year old daughter loves flowers, and she had uprooted all 40-odd plants because she thought they looked pretty. My first thought: what was this 6 year old doing out of bed past 9pm, and how did her parents not notice? Negligence.
Anyway, the point was this: newly planted plants have no roots. They would have easily slipped out of the soil with a small tug. Our spiritual roots need to be planted deep, and then watered with living water. So vital are these elements to our roots that we will wither and die (spiritually speaking) without them.
A long time ago, being wearied with travel, Jesus sat on a well and met a woman from Samaria. She had come to the well to draw water for her household. Jesus, being a Jew, asked this Samarian woman for a drink. Perhaps puzzled and curious as to why a Jew would speak to her, she asked “How is it that thou, being a Jew, asked drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” Christ said this: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that said to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”
“Whosover drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
We are all in desperate need of living water.
…more to come
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