They noted
when people are in the extreme mode with a stress that their garden (or park)
is not growing or fairing in all the quality that has been put into it, they
will sooner or later seek a horticulturist to help them find out why the garden
isn't up to its best look of beauty. In those regions where the garden is
everything, they will spend large amounts of money and time to get the desired
result whether it is for a backyard or an acre or two off the side of a castle.
In the
estimation of these women, these people required some more teaching on what
they were striving to attain, and one such point appeared as to the talking
according to plants and soils needed for such
plants, say like roses. As you know you never put a new rose plant into soil
that has grown roses before. You create that “new bed” with new soil to receive
the new rose plant. Another point they pointed to was that I noticed that they
talk about over watering any plants. Just because the plant appears yellow does
not mean it means more water, but that it requires more nutrients and many
times it is magnesium for a plant if it is outdoors! The excessive watering had
washed the important minerals out of the soil.
Now this
may seem odd to you but as a born again believer we too can know what God
plants in us a new heart for His kingdom. And how is that new soil
planned and laid out? For one is planned through His Son Jesus Christ! John
14:1-6 Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 In My Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “and if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you
may be also. 4 “And where I go you know and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to
Him, “Lord we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me.
We go through the Son Jesus and into that place where we grow! We go into God’s word and find what is ours. We find that we have an inheritance. We find that we are seated in heavenly places. And we know that we have an opponent. So too, these people who regarded their gardens should have known their opponents and what those enemies could inflict to their newly planted roses and bulbs. You would have to know what to put in your soil and what to leave out of your soil. Flaws can appear within the soil of our garden and within the soil of our hearts. Our children gave me this beautiful Begonia for a gift last month and I have been reading on it. I would certainly want to make it thrive instead of putting a tag on it for death!
He thinks about us and knows our ways and many times you and
I may not want to follow His ways: Ps.
139:1-8 Amp. Bible…O LORD, you have searched me [thoroughly ] & have known me. 2
You know my down-sitting and my uprising; You understand my thought afar
off. 3 You sift & search out my path
& my lying down, & You are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my
tongue [still un-muttered], but, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
But we should want to do nothing else but follow Him. Yes,
our Father knows what will tumble out of our mouths if we speak long enough.
And if we have kept watched to fill our heart with His truths, then we grow
like that beautiful English garden. We grow where we have all the right
nutrients we require, not overly watered with just water, but watered with His
truth so that nutrients are received when they are given.
But many times, you and I can tell Him that we do not like
the message, or we do not like the messenger. But in truth, God’s word is His
word and it is to be received in that of which it was sent: by His Son, through
His blood of sacrifice and His love. God wants to lead us, but do we pay
attention to His leading?
God sent
His Son that we would live for Him: 1 Thessalonians 5:5-11 NKJV 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We
are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others
do, but let us watch and be sober. (self-control) 7 for those who sleep, sleep
at night, and those who get drunk are drink at night. 8 But let us who are of
the day be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore
comfort each other & edify one another, just as you also are doing.
Just like
in a garden, where all the plants stand tall in their beauty, we too belong in
that kingdom of God. We are planted deep into His richness. We are planted in
His holiness and righteousness. We stand to glorify Him. We belong to the day
and not darkness! Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with
truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
We who are those
who have salvation through Jesus Christ; are to the sensitive to the Lord and be alert and be prepared! We are to be prepared as His children, the sons of God. We were saved in the past, in the present we
are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit’s work in us and through us and we share
in the Lord’s final triumph…the glorification.
We have
participation in the kingdom of God:1 Thessalonians 2:10-12 NKJV 10 You are
witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved
ourselves among you who believe; 11 as you know how we exhorted and comforted
and charged everyone of you , as a father does his own children, 12 that you
would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
God our
Father is the Vinedresser. John 15: 1 Amplified Bible I am the True Vine and My
Father is the Vinedresser. 2 Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that
stops bearing] He cuts away ( trims off, takes away); and he cleanses and
repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear
more and richer and more excellent fruit. 3 You are cleansed and pruned already,
because of the word which I have given you [ the teachings I have discussed
with you]. 4 Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me and I will live
in you ]just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in ( being
vitally united to the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.
5 I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears
much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with
Me] you can do nothing.
Work in
shaping trees for growth and within gardens takes many hours of sweat and time!
A garden takes time to plan and a time to work the ground of soil to receive
what is planted in it. Jeremiah 17:5-9 NIV 5 this what the LORD says: “Cursed
is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose
heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he
will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of
the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. 7 “But blessed is the man who
trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree
planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear
when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has not worries in a year of
drought and never fails to bear fruit.” 9 The heart is deceitful above all
things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Our trust
is to be in God the Lord. Our heart is to understand that what we receive will
come from Him and will we see it if our heart is captive to the flesh of man? No, we will not see it.
Have you
seen those salt fields in countries like Italy or here in the United States?
Most of those places that produce salt have few people living there! People
have to move there and build to work that salt into a product for consumers in
other countries. But it is still a salty
land. It only produces more salt in a dry place till rain or some type of
moisture covers it.
So there is
a great difference between the salt land and bearing fruit. For a plant described in the salt land is a bush. And if you know or have family who have lived
in a desert region, you can know that in that desert that a tree without water,
pruning or nutrients will stay or remain according to the size of a bush. But
if this same bush had water, pruning and nutrients, it could possibly grow into
a great big tree. To care for a tree in any region requires someone to give the
proper care. And our Father desires to give us care and comfort as we grow and
become a tree for His glory. That we can dig in deeply for our roots to hold to
His kingdom that has come. That you and I can remain green during any drought
and we can bear fruit with no worries in sight! Psalm 1:3 He shall be like a
tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season,
whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. Psalm 92:12 the righteous shall flourish like
a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those who are planted in
the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still
bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the
LORD is upright; He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
No salt
flats for us! We are to live in a glorious place God planned. It is neither
dusty or dry land filled with disappointment but it is a place of God’s kingdom
where faith is alive in Him and where His love comforts us.
Deuteronomy 33:26-27, 29 NKJV “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun,
who rides the heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds. 27 The
eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will
thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, ‘Destroy!” 29 Happy are
you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your
help and the sword of your majesty! Your enemies shall submit to you; and you
shall tread down their high places.
The God Almighty of Genesis to Revelation is
the God of the present and the ages to come. He is security and He is
prosperity! For we are to enjoy Him, His protection as our shield and our
sword, He is the God of glory, power and strength!
It is great
that your plants have tags on them to tell you what their name is, so when you
take them home, you might discover what sun and soil they prefer best to live
and thrive! If you have tags for travel, make sure you have them on the right
bags to note that place you are traveling to whether for work or fun so that
they arrive when you do!
But if you are choosing to tag yourself
because something did not work out for you in the workplace, or someone passed
and you expected them to live and not die or you had high hopes for a word
given last year and as of yet still has to be fulfilled, it is time to take
note of Your God and His love for you. For He loves each of us. He is the God
of Comfort, and He will hear us in that pain of anguish, but we are to see and
know His love that comforts that heart that is broken with sadness.
We are reminded in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we
are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord,
because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification
by the Spirit & belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our
gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore,
brethren, stand fast & hold the traditions which you were taught whether by
word or our epistle. 16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, & our God
and Father, who has loved us & given us everlasting consolation & good
hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word
& work.
God had you
on His mind! He chose you, set you apart for purpose. He chose you before the
foundation of the world for salvation and through sanctification, you feast on
that which is revealed by the Holy Spirit and the word of God. Hold fast to
that belief in His doctrine: it originates in salvation, by divine choice,
brought by divine power…for in this divine message the will of God is perfected
in His divine glory. No tags here, but
only benefits in our God the Lord: Psalm 106:4-5 NKJV Remember me, O LORD, with
the favor You have toward Your people. O h, visit me with Your salvation, 5 that
I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your
inheritance.
Our
inheritance in the Lord came through repentance of sin to receive salvation. In
Him we have peace with God and integrity with people. We stand against that
which conflicts against His truth and we prevail valiantly. Psalm 60:12….Amen!
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