As I was reading in early morning from Ezekiel 13, this passage of scripture really stood out to me
in light of the many things on our minds at this time.
It says: “The fact is that they’ve lied to my people…. When
people build a wall, they’re right behind them slapping on whitewash. Tell
those who are slapping on the whitewash, that when a torret of rain comes
and the hailstones crash down and the hurricane sweeps in. Then the wall
collapses, what’s the good of the whitewash that you slapped on so
liberally, making it look good.”
Having myself gone through Katrina here in Louisiana with all the wood that was soaked in the floods
and rot, I knew when the scripture said the storms came, the whitewash wall
would not stand. Today one of our pastors said that if you left a sponge in
the water that it would eventually rot. He explained that holding the word
of God unto yourself is like leaving a sponge in water for a long time. It
is not good. You have rot just like the wood. You must share the water or
the word of God for it to be affective.
I also thought of a peacock dress that I had recently seen in a vision, like the peacock, so beautiful. Do we
stand in beauty with decorative eyes unseeing while the world is like the
rotten wood coated with whitewash? In Ezekiel it says God will come in His
wrath and take the wall and the ones who whitewashed it down. May we at the
Daily Lily keep unfurling, like the peacock, the beauty of the Lord Jesus,
and Savior.
thedailylily.com 
Rena, I love the analogy that your minister is giving concerning the sponge and how to “operate” it properly and its use as a metaphor or simile in relation to the “water” as being LOVE, agape love. You have to squeeze it out, give it out to others. We all know how hard it is to clean a surface if the sponge is dry, or if it is completely soaked with liquid. It doesn’t work until we release the liquid from the sponge. And then in his second analogy, leaving the sponge soaked until it rots gives me clearer understanding concerning the command to go and give it out to make disciples of all. It reminds me of that
of that scripture….’ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth” but that we contain it within ourselves instead of sharing it and applying it to our lives and to others’ lives. We become soggy and stogy and bloated and thus listless and useless in our witness.
Thanks for sharing this, Rena.
Ezekiel 13 you referred to sounds like a story out of our daily lunch conversations. We tell our story and/or as you said dress in our peacock outfit and want others to confirm us and complement us and tell us what a great job we are doing. And, our sponge cake makeup is caking while we eat and talk and yet we both leave half-empty and half-full.
Maybe our ego feels great and our vision is dimmer so we see not the spots and wrinkles on our outfits. But we are on our way to dry rot. Of course Ezekiel is making a point that we love to listen to lies. But, we dry rot because somewhere inside there is truth, and part of us wants to share it but only when it benefits our egos. Like Pastor said if you hold the truth, the Word of God inside of you what value is there to others or to you?
A picture came to my mind from this blog. At Halloween I saw a lady dressed in costume. It was a lady w/a man on her shoulder and she was walking through the streets yelling, help, get this man off my shoulder. It was real ‘scary people ‘for Halloween but the point is we are walking like that when we yell help but only tell me lies. One of the many ways we can judge ourselves is when we want affirmation for our wrong we become angry when another tells us the truth. Or, when we decide to speak truth to another, ie if you want man off your shoulder this is the way and it is not the way they wanted to hear, out comes the fury and or possible broken relationship.
I may be wrong but I get from this lie not to one another. No healing in this but much desturction may befall us.
I had to go back to page 5 under Inspiration to read your blog, Sara, “Measure of a Lie Measures a Man”. I think this is what you are talking about here. The glass at the lunch table would measure full if our compulsion (you talked about this too in blog ‘Compulsion’)was to tell the truth and our repulsion was to feed our ego. The man on the back of the scary costume reminded me of the Devil sitting on the shoulder of a lady dressed up like a peacock whispering lies to her. You said in ‘Measure’ that …”We find Satan wins us over with the beauty of his lies….His scheme is to make a beautiful wrap all for himself and wrap us warmly with him.” The lady in the costume had lost her ‘lady-likeness…her real character. Now she was just a double headed monster. Like in your blog…”When you wrap yourself in Satan and his lies you lose control of just who you are”. That’s real scary! Dry-rot alright. I want to strive for truth and to give it out. Thanks for this blog Sara.
Whitewash…this makes me think of Matt 23:27 where Jesus said Woe! to the scribes and Pharisees and called them hypocrites. He said they were whitewashed tombs, outwardly appearing beautiful but inwardly just full of dead men’s bones and all uncleaness. So if we pretend to be one thing while strutting like a peacock (as my mother used to say) but really do nothing then we are hypocrites.
Wow Rena, I started studying this about holding in the water and what else happens when it is held in…Jude 13 says people become like raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame…verse 16 murmurers, complainers, walking after thier own lusts; and thir mouth speaketh great swelling words, having mens; persons in admiration because of advantage…That goes with what Sara was saying below in her reply about the lunch conversations and having cakemakeup on and lies….Verse 20 But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, , praying in the Holy Spirit, Keep yoursleves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh….Yes Rena May we at the Daily Lily keep unfurling, …….the Beauty of the Lord Jesus..to all…dj