It always delights me to hear people say, “I would like to plant a garden”. Having plant and cared for many gardens in my day, I know the amount of care it takes and the joys it brings. Fresh herbs, peppers, tomatoes and the like! Delicious! I always encourage folks to plant seeds and watch them grow.
Just like the seeds we sew in the natural, are the seeds we sew with our actions and deeds for family and friends. We must be a gardener of them. We must water them, by speaking encouragement. We need to pluck out weeds around them, lend a helping hand. We also need to chase off animals/insects that would destroy them, pray over them.
Adam was a gardener; God’s first created human being formed in God’s likeness with an eternal spirit inside him. What a wonderful harvest of huge delicious crops he must have enjoyed back then. Imagine it!
I also like what the prophet Isaiah 58 says…"If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
If we follow The Word of the Lord from Isaiah 58, God will tend to us, as His garden!
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI happened to be scrolling through some of my blogger stuff, and I came across your blog, quite unexpectedly. I think it's great that you're writing and sharing your insights. You were often an encourager to me, especially during some difficult times. I've never forgotten that. I've bookmarked you, and will check in from time to time. If you ever have any music you'd like to post on your blog, I have a server that can accommodate you, so each song will have its own mp3 link, with no advertising or strings attached.
As to the title of your blog, "What we say & what we do, is faith at work"... I'm reminded of Ephesians 2- "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast." There, Paul takes salvation completely out our hands, as grace, being saved, and even our faith is a gift from God. But Paul then says why we were given God's grace and the gift of faith: "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Faith performs good works, not to keep one justified before a Holy God, but out of heartfelt gratitude to God graciousness. I'm so relieved that good works are not unto eventual salvation. Rather, We are saved in order to perform good works, not by performing them. That is the blessed Gospel!
Of course, I know you know all this stuff. I just wanted you to know that when you would tell people way back when, "Man, we better pray for Swanny"...your prayers were answered.