Spring, summer and fall are my favorite seasons. The first sight of green in the spring renews hope of life and of warmer and longer days; the aroma of the first grass cutting; the brilliant colors in the blooming flowers and trees; planting of spring onions, lettuce and broccoli (along with the “oh my aching back!” proclamations); harvesting asparagus, strawberries, rhubarb, tomatoes, squash, corn-on-the cob….my mouth is watering!! My parents always planted a veggie garden. In fact, up to the summer before my dad died he always planted and harvested the best tomatoes!
We plant our gardens with the expectation of producing beautiful flowers or delicious fruit and veggies. None of us plant expecting crop rot, bug infestations or “critter” invasion to destroy the hard labor and love put into our gardens.
God has planted His fruit in us with the same expectations, a bountiful harvest…not plant failure. He has planted the perfect Seed (Jesus Christ), sent the perfect Gardener (the Holy Spirit) to tend our garden and produce the perfect harvest (fruit of the Spirit). But at times we allow the soil of our hearts to be tainted thereby affecting the quality of the harvest.
Luke instructs us in Luke 3:8 to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”
The proof of sincere repentance will always be a change in actions or conduct (Acts 26:20).
Repentance is the “weeding” (Galatians 5:19) of our gardens which is the result of the “remaining” Jesus spoke about in John 15. He promised if we remain in Him we would bear fruit (Galatians 5:22-25). When we allow His pruning in our lives (part of the weeding process) we will then bear “more fruit.”
God’s Word combined with repentance is like the spreading of Miracle Grow on the fertile soil of our hearts so that “much fruit” can be yielded from the “investment” God has made in our gardens.
How is YOUR garden growing?
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
In God's sight
“Now the earth was corrupt IN GOD’S SIGHT and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.” (Gen 6:11)
I am so very thankful God bases His judgments and observations according to His unchanging standards, not what man says. Likewise, I need to see through God’s eyes, not according to man’s popular opinion, from which to arrive at truth.
The last verse of the book of Judges (21:25) seems very fitting when we don’t follow God’s standard, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did AS HE SAW FIT.”
It is a sad day when we are ruled by what we “see as fit”. That ruling will always result in the easy, unaccountable and most self-satisfying way. But in the end our display of rebellion will never deliver the peace, contentment, acceptance and assurance we so desperately desire and search for.
God has always desired to be personal and intimate with His creation; has always desired to walk and talk directly with us as He did with Adam and Eve in the garden before their fall. This is why God’s fulfillment of a Redeemer in Jesus Christ, as he first pronounced in Gen 3:15, had to be carried out.
It wasn’t with hatred and revenge God banished they from the Garden but with a heart that was filled with grief and pain (Gen 6:6). God’s heart continues to be filled with grief and pain over our choices today, and as with Adam and Eve, he has given us the wonderful gift of choice. What we do with that gift determines life or death…hope or despair…a future reunion with Him, or one of eternal separation and darkness.
I have personally discovered that God can be trusted with everything and everyone I hold dear. Since He can be trusted with my past and my future, then I can trust Him with my “today”. He has proven Himself over and over again in my life that His Word is truth and His way is ultimately the best!
So what will you choose today, “God’s sight” or “as you see fit”?
“There is a way that SEEMS right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12
“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
“I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.” Jeremiah 10:23
I am so very thankful God bases His judgments and observations according to His unchanging standards, not what man says. Likewise, I need to see through God’s eyes, not according to man’s popular opinion, from which to arrive at truth.
The last verse of the book of Judges (21:25) seems very fitting when we don’t follow God’s standard, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did AS HE SAW FIT.”
It is a sad day when we are ruled by what we “see as fit”. That ruling will always result in the easy, unaccountable and most self-satisfying way. But in the end our display of rebellion will never deliver the peace, contentment, acceptance and assurance we so desperately desire and search for.
God has always desired to be personal and intimate with His creation; has always desired to walk and talk directly with us as He did with Adam and Eve in the garden before their fall. This is why God’s fulfillment of a Redeemer in Jesus Christ, as he first pronounced in Gen 3:15, had to be carried out.
It wasn’t with hatred and revenge God banished they from the Garden but with a heart that was filled with grief and pain (Gen 6:6). God’s heart continues to be filled with grief and pain over our choices today, and as with Adam and Eve, he has given us the wonderful gift of choice. What we do with that gift determines life or death…hope or despair…a future reunion with Him, or one of eternal separation and darkness.
I have personally discovered that God can be trusted with everything and everyone I hold dear. Since He can be trusted with my past and my future, then I can trust Him with my “today”. He has proven Himself over and over again in my life that His Word is truth and His way is ultimately the best!
So what will you choose today, “God’s sight” or “as you see fit”?
“There is a way that SEEMS right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12
“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
“I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.” Jeremiah 10:23
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