Darnel sown amoung the seed.

O God, you know my foolishness, and my faults are not hidden from you. Psalm 69:6

He put another parable before them, ‘The kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep, his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, then the darnel appeared as well. The owner’s laborers went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does this darnel come from?” He said to them, “Some enemy has done this.” And the laborers said, “Do you want us to go and weed it out?” But he said, “No, because, when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ Matthew 13:24-30

And the thing about the Word is that it is a living sword, a tool wielded skillfully by the Spirit. And this morning the sown darnel is all of the foolishness and faults in my life that do not produce fruit, but that are sprinkled liberally among the thoughts and deeds of the day.

And of course, I hit Wikipedia this morning: Darnel usually grows in the same production zones as wheat and was a serious weed of cultivation until modern sorting machinery enabled darnel seeds to be separated efficiently from seed wheat The similarity between these two plants is so great that in some regions, darnel is referred to as "false wheat". It bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears. The spikes of L. temulentum are more slender than those of wheat. The spikelets are oriented edgeways to the rachis and have only a single glume, while those of wheat are oriented with the flat side to the rachis and have two glumes. The wheat will also appear brown when ripe, whereas the darnel is black.

And while it is true that the season of harvest has not yet arrived, today I confess my double-mindedness, and turn my day over to His glory.

Let me now go forth, O Lord my God, to the work of another day, still surrounded by Thy wonderful lovingkindnesses (plural) still pledged to Thy loyal service, still standing in Thy strength and not my own.

Let me today be a Christian not only in my words by also in my deeds.

Let me follow bravely in the footsteps of my Master, wherever they may lead:

Let me be hard and stern with myself:

Let there be no self-pity or self-indulgence in my life today:

Let my thinking be keen, my speech frank and open, and my action courageous and decisive.

O Christ my Lord, who for my sake and my brethren’s didst forgo all earthly comfort and fullness, forbid that I should ever again live unto myself. Amen. –John Baillie