Monday, February 15, 2021

WHY Have You Put a Luggage Tag on Your Big Toe

 My husband and I were watching this adventure type show: two older women who do that special garden work ( those who studied horticulture and the such) and how they use their expertise to solve those varied problems in people’s gardens which look more like parks and situated within in the United Kingdom. One such episode they made this observation about how people carry their problems around while alive with the noted truth they have attached a travel tag to their big toe instead of to their luggage.

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.

 They in their speech pointed to those people who with the extreme desire had extreme stress for the garden to live. And in their choosing that, the work had to have been yesterday. Those with such demands live on the edge mostly without God. To live in His presence, you know and understand what is required for the Holy Spirit teaches us the way to go or walk.

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!

 

 Only truth and life come through Jesus Christ. God has desires for us all through our lifetime. We are to understand that He has thoughts for us: Psalm 139:15-18  Amp. Bible   My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately & curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of earth [ a region of darkness & mystery]. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance, & in Your book all the days [ of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. 17 How precious & weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! [Psalm 40:5] 18 If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You.  

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. BibleO 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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