Facing a Hostile Environment
When we first started work on our orchard in Stanthorpe, we were totally unaware of the dangers of the chemicals we were using to spray the fruit trees. It was a case of no shoes, shorts, singlet and hat. After all, it was fairly warm, and you didn't want to be weighed down with heavy clothing. I had suffered blood poisoning some years earlier when handling a chemical without gloves, but it just didn't occur to me to take more precautions.
Well it was shortly after that, that the Department of Primary Industries came round to each farm/orchard and read us the riot act, showing clearly the damage the chemicals we were using, would do to bodies. There was a hostile environment out there, and if we wanted to stay healthy, we had better do something about protecting ourselves!
And so from then on it was full cover - shoes, overalls and even head covering. If it wasn't for the gas mask, my lifeline to staying alive, I would have suffocated on the spot and I wouldn't be bothering you today! (Please, no cheers here!)
W hen astronaut Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the surface of the moon for his "one small step for man", he really didn't look like himself. He was totally wrapped up in that modern-day armour that we call a space suit. Well, there's a reason. The moon also was an environment hostile to humans. An unequipped, unprotected astronaut would have died in an instant of lunar exposure. That big pack on his back was his lifeline - his protection against a hostile environment.
Actually, you don't have to go to the moon to find a hostile environment, or to an orchard which is being sprayed with chemicals. We have a hostile environment right here - all around us. Spiritually speaking, we live in an environment where the air is polluted with temptation and of course polluted with beliefs, actions and suggestions which are totally against what the Bible teaches.
When that's pretty much what your soul breathes all day long, what your ears hear all day long and what your eyes see all day long, you end up gasping for air, struggling for a lifeline so that you don't go under.
What we need is something like the Apollo astronauts had, or what I had while spraying the chemicals. We need a lifeline, a life-support system that will sustain us through the bombardment of the day. But it needs to be something totally dependable and highly mobile - a life-pack that you can have with you everywhere you go. And there is one!
In Psalm 119:11 we read David saying, "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You" - in other words "I have planted God's words in my heart to answer the sinful pressures that are coming against me."
So what's your personal life-support system in a spiritually and emotionally hostile environment? It’s the Word of God, committed to memory, so you'll always have them when you need them. You can't always carry a Bible around with you, and if you do, you probably won't have time to start looking up verses in the middle of your situation. But you can always carry Scripture that you have "hidden in your heart".
During the Vietnam War, some of the American pilots imprisoned for years in the "Hanoi Hilton" prison tried to piece together as much of the Bible as they could from memory. I wonder how much of a Bible you'd have if all you had was what you've memorized? In a sense, that is all you have when you're in the middle of a real life situation - the Word of God hidden in your heart.
So, maybe it's time for you to get serious about a regular program of committing Bible verses to memory. What you're doing is actually planting the responses of God in your personality so you can respond to what's happening with a heaven-answer and not an earth-answer.
How many times have the Lord's people been sustained by saying Deuteronomy 33:25 aloud, "Your strength will equal your days" ... or Isaiah 40:31, "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." How many times have they been helped by the battle cry of II Corinthians 10:5, "We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ"? The list of the times God's people have been rescued by a verse that they've made their own, is endless.
D.L. Moody said, "When you're thinking sin, think Scripture." You can't think Scripture if you don't know any Scripture. Our minds are cluttered with tons of earth-trivia. We need more of heaven in our heart. Load up on heaven's oxygen - God's own Word - and you'll be breathing that life-giving air all day long from that life-support system that you carry in your heart. Jesus did, and he was able to overcome temptations (Matt 4). What about you? Grace and peace..