Do You Need An Oil Change?

Manufactures recommend regular oil changes in your vehicle so that your engine will see a longer and happier life, says Derek Odom on his web site, How to do just about everything. According to the experts oil breaks down in viscosity (or general thickness) and over time becomes ineffective in lubricating the engine. The frequency or time frame between oil changes depend upon how often the vehicle is driven.


You say, yada yada yada, we’ve all heard this stuff before right? Well we commercial lawn guys face the same issues with our mowers. In the summer when we’re working dust till dawn, fighting the heat and rain, weekly oil changes become challenge. Unfortunately for me, my inconsistency in this area resulted in having to replace my main mower’s engine at the beginning of the summer. In spite of changing my oil filters from time to time, using oil with a weak viscosity had caused tiny metal shavings to circulate through the engine, defacing the cylinder walls and other components.

A common type of oil described in the Bible is olive oil, that was extracted from presses, (according to Haggi 2:16 and Micah 6:15.) Olive Oil is described as SOFT (Psalms 55:21), SMOOTH, (Prov. 5:3), PENETRATING (Psalm 109:18) and HEALING (Isaiah 1:6.) These characteristics also correspond to Holy Spirit and the work He wants to do in each of our lives. Therefore, it should be no surprise that our Hebrew ancestors in the faith referred to the Spirit as oil.

In Bible times we find that oil was used for food, the lighting of lamps, anointing the sick, and for commissioning a person for a specific task or office of trust. When referring to David’s 23rd Psalm, “Thou anointest my head with oil.” Victor Shepherd reminds us of the following:

       "To be anointed with oil doesn’t mean we’ve been supplied with a cosmetic like suntan oil; it doesn’t      even mean that we’ve been supplied with a safeguard like sunscreen. To be anointed with oil in the presence of one’s foes is to be nerved; it’s to be fortified; it’s to be comforted in the Renaissance English sense of “comfort.” In Renaissance English “comfort” is formed from two Latin words, con and fortis: “with strength.” Profoundly to be comforted isn’t to be pampered or even consoled. It’s to be strengthened…Specifically the oil of anointing, the Spirit, is God’s effectual presence and power.”

Just as my engine needs frequent replacements of Oil, we as Christians need the periodic oil changes of HOLY SPIRIT. We need a fresh filling Him to keep our Spiritual engine running at optimal performance. Why not stop now right where you are and invite God’s Holy Spirit to soften and smooth out the rough places in your heart. Ask Him to do a deep penetrating work of restoration in your life and to let healing flow. And remember, Don’t neglect regular oil changes. They can be costly.

SURRENDERING TO THE WIND

It wasn’t until I first used a leaf blower that I fully appreciated the old cliché’, may the wind be at your back. As I strap on my backpack blower on and set out to de-leaf an empty parking lot on a windy day, it’s with great pleasure that I humbly yield with the direction of the wind!

This summer, as I’ve continued to train my son in the practical techniques of lawn-care, he quickly recognized the futility of straining against the wind. But lawn-care professionals aren’t alone in their struggle against the wind. In chapter eight of Luke’s gospel we find skilled fishermen cowering under a fierce wind that Jesus would later calm. Later in the Gospel of John we are told that the Spirit of God is like a wind that blows where it pleases. Finally, in Acts 27 when the apostle Paul and some other prisoners had to sail past the island of Cyprus, it was because the winds were too strong for them to make a safe landing.

Struggling against the wind will always require that one work harder, take longer, expend more energy, and ultimately frustrate a person into forced capitulation. The same can be said of us when we struggle against the Spirit of God and His plan and purpose for our life. Perhaps it’s a fear that He might call us to be a missionary to Africa that keeps us from unselfishly yielding to His finest direction for our lives. But I have to ask as we, issue by issue and desire after desire defer to His superior rationale aren’t we always the winner? Just as with the wind the more frequently we yield to its supremacy to faster we give up our limited potential and become one with His.

I’d like to leave you with a poem by and unknown author I discovered this week simply entitled, Surrender:

“When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ And He shows me His plan for me; The plan of my life as it might have been Had He had His way, and I see How I blocked Him here and I checked Him there And I would not yield my will, Shall I see grief in my Savior's eyes; Grief though He loves me still? Oh, He'd have me rich, and I stand there poor, stripped of all but His grace, While my memory runs like a hunted thing down the paths I can't retrace. Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break with tears that I cannot shed. I'll cover my face with my empty hands and bow my uncrowned head. No. Lord of the years that are left to me I yield them to Thy hand. Take me, make me, mold me to the pattern Thou hast planned.”

WET GRASS

I know, and any of you guys or ladies who cut your own grass know too, that WET GRASS can be so exasperating! For those of us who live in the Sun-Shine state daily showers are a given. It’s a race to get the grass cut before it rains again, but not before the lawn has had time to dry out. What are you going to do? The grass has to be cut even if it’s wet.

First of all it’s a given that you can’t use your mulching attachment. (Grass has to be blown-out from under the mower through a side shoot.) A second given is that you must take half cuts if you want your grass to be cut evenly. Finally, to avoid excessive clumping, you can cut in large rectangles blowing the grass away from the center patch.

Being a professional landscaper, I’m sorry to say that even with these few tips, grass clumping will still be inevitable. So what’s a guy to do?

1. Start with Sharp Blades. Dull blades will only prolong an already punishing task. Proverbs 27:17 likens iron sharpening iron, to one man sharpening another. Often when cutting wet fields, landscapers will follow behind each-other essentially double cutting the same grass, breaking-up the unavoidable clumps left behind by the first mowing. Almost any difficult or challenging task can be made easier by enlisting support.

2. Double or Triple Cut. To have a nice-looking lawn you simply have to break up those unsightly clumps. Stretching the grass analogy a little further all of us have HEART-GROUND that has to be broken up. Hosea 10:12 exhorts us to, “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.” Why is it that those heart issues like, greed, jealousy, and pride have to REVIEWED or REVISITED over and over again?

3. Clean the Inside. Not the inside the engine but under the deck. You know that big area where the blades spin around. That place where all the stinky dead grass and dirt pile-up, for you to pull out by hand. No matter how clean or new that sparkling engine looks, unless we get on our hands and knees and pull out all that crud from under the deck we are going to keep spitting out clumps. That reminds me of the verse in Luke 11:39 when Jesus tells the Pharisees, “You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.” It seems that no matter how good any of us look on the outside, if we are still hanging on to the cruddy things on the inside we’ll remain ineffective.

4. Engage the Wind-blower! Even when you apply each of these tips, if the grass is really wet, you will still have some clumps or clusters of grass. That’s when I find it extremely helpful to employ the power of the WIND! From a landscaping standpoint, that means using the strongest blower I can find. Spiritually speaking, only the Spirit or WIND of God can ultimately break us loose from the crud and junk that hold us back in life. John 3:8 tells us that “the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Although friends can sharpen us in the same manner that sharp-blades help the mower improve its potential; we must individually be willing to break-up the clumps of crud in our hearts that keep us clogged and unproductive. Just taking a look inside to see what blocks our effectiveness is useless, if we don’t man-up and actually remove the nasty crud. But for many of us “the crud” is so jammed inside of us that only the WIND of God can dislodge it. As our Music Pastor often says, “no matter how much we can perfect our own NATURAL abilities; we still need God to put his SUPER on top of it.” (That’s how we become SUPERNATURAL.)

Have a GREAT WEEKEND, even if you have to cut – WET GRASS!