There's Wisdom in Gardening...

It's not something that I had ever considered, but a frequent trait referenced of pastors is a love of gardening - growing the summer vegetables, growing herbs, growing flowers & roses. I am beginning to understand why - there is wisdom in gardening.

WEEDING

Weeding is a great leadership/shepherding lesson. Weeds are pesky little, or sometimes not so little, things. Weeds suck the life-giving water from the ground so that the plants that ought to be producing fruit do not. They may look beautiful, but bear no fruit, or it may be killing them. This is sin in the life the church. There is an inverse relationship between sin and the church bearing fruit - the fruit of the Spirit, or deeds of righteousness. The more sin, the less fruit. How do you remedy the situation? Some weeds in a garden are out in the open. They can be easily removed by a hoe, a tiller, a backhoe, or if you are of the inclination, targeted and destroyed by a tomahawk missile. Others, however, are nestled right up next to the plants you are caring for. Those weeds must be removed by hand. You have to bend down, move the plant you are caring for aside, and gently remove the weed so as to not to damage the plant. As ministers shepherd the church there are obvious issues of sin stemming from depravity in our humanity and culture that should be immediately 'nuked.' There are other issues that should be approached with care in that they intimately involve people's lives and we do not wish to damage them in dealing with sin but to remove sin for their edification, growth, and ability to bear fruit. This can only be accomplished through a reliance on the Spirit, prayer, and wisdom in leadership.

INTENTIONALITY

I was picking squash tonight and moved one of the leaves on a plant the wrong direction. It snapped. I had never observed the stem of a squash plant. It is essentially a hollow tube. There is nothing in the middle. It is a tube topped by a broad leaf which is the vehicle by which energy is collected in order to produce the fruit on the plant below. The sole purpose of the stem of the leaf is to support the leaf and transport nutrients. Too often we ignore this principle in living and in organizations. We are a people that overwork, that overextend credit, that overcommit ourselves in more than one arena of life, and are therefore over-stressed and have lost sight of the one reason we are here - to live lives to the glory of God. Would that we streamlined our lives so that this was our one purpose, that we would give up things that do not match this goal, and that all that is left - whether by necessity or choice - were imbued and transformed by the one intention to glorify God in all things. In this we will rediscover not only our limitations, but our purpose.

Remedies against Satan's Devices

One of the failings of the modern context is a lack of learning and reading history. In some of my reading this week I picked up "Precious Remedies Against Satan's devices" by one of the Puritans, Thomas Brooks. See if the "devices of Satan" as Thomas Brooks sees them in 1652 are not still extremely applicable to today!

PRECIOUS REMEDIES AGAINST SATAN'S DEVICES
("Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices", Thomas Brooks. Puritan Paperbacks, The Banner of Truth Trust, PA - (c)2000.)


Satan's Devices to Draw the Soul to Sin

1. By presenting the bait and hiding the hook
2. By painting sin with virtue's colors
3. By the extenuating and lessening of sin
4. By showing to the soul the best men's sins and by hiding from the soul their virtues, their sorrows, and their repentance.
5. By presenting God to the soul as One made up all of mercy.
6. By persuading the soul that repentance is easy and that therefore the soul need not scruple about sinning.
7. By making the soul bold to venture upon the occasions of sin.
8. By representing to the soul the outward mercies enjoyed by men walking in sin, and their freedom from outward miseries.
9. By presenting to the soul the crosses, losses, sorrows and sufferings that daily attend those who walk in the ways of holiness.
10. By causing saints to compare themselves and their ways with those reputed to be worse than themselves.
11. By polluting the souls and judgments of men with dangerous errors that lead to looseness and wickedness.
12. By leading men to choose wicked company.

Satan's Devices to Keep Souls From Holy Duties, To Hinder Souls in Holy Services, to Keep Them off From Religious Performances

1. By presenting the world in such a garb as to ensnare the soul
2. By presenting to the soul the dangers, losses and sufferings that accompany the performance of certain religious duties.
3. By presenting to the soul the difficulty of performing religious duties.
4. By causing saints to draw false inferences from the blessed and glorious things that Christ has done.
5. By presenting to view the fewness and poverty of those who hold to religious practices.
6. By showing saints that the majority of men make light of God's ways and walk in the ways of their own hearts.
7. By casting in vain thoughts while the soul is seeking God or waiting on God
8. By tempting Christians to rest in their performances.

Satan's Devices to Keep Saints in A Sad, Doubting, Questioning and Uncomfortable Condition

1. By causing saints to remember their sins more than their Saviour, yea, even to forget and neglect their Saviour.
2. By causing saints to make false definitions of their graces.
3. By causing saint to make false inferences from the cross actings of Providence.
4. By suggesting to saints that their graces are not true, but counterfeit.
5. By suggesting to saints that the conflict that is in them is found also in hypocrites and profane souls.
6. By suggesting to the saint who has lost joy and comfort that his state is not good.
7. By reminding the saint of his frequent relapses into sin formerly repented of and prayed against.
8. By persuading saints that their state is not good nor their graces sound.

There's more in the book, but do not several of these ring true! The gospel is at the heart of grace, our faith, our conversion, and every aspect of our living. A correct understanding and application of the gospel is the only thing that ultimately will shield believers from such devices.

How Did I Get Here? God's blessings on a boy.

Sitting at the office this morning I looked over to the corner of my desk to take a glance at the bifold picture frame sitting there. In it is one of my favorite photos from my wedding 2-1/2 years ago, and a recent photo of our almost eight-month-old son in his easter vest and tie outfit. I was captured by the question that came to mind - maybe because my wife and son are headed to Midland today and will be gone for two days; maybe because I'm a proud father and a smitten husband, "How did I get here?"

Do we sit back often enough simply to look back at where we have come from? Do you remember the child that you were? Do you remember the things you loved, the things you dreamed about - those things that were catalyzing in you which would become the aspirations of adolescence? Some people we call lucky because they are now living out the dreams that sprang forth in their youth. The rest of humanity, and often ourselves, we look upon with some pity because they are not living out those dreams, and we nostalgically spend evenings sharing with one another what we had hoped for and what might have been, ending the night with a long sigh of resignation, reluctantly turning back to consider the present and the future which, when compared to the dreams of the past, do not hold the same hope, same vitality, same excitement for us. I, we, you do not stop there, do we? What follows privately is the analyzation of what we could have done to make those dreams come true. Where were our mistakes? When did we compromise and let those things slip away from us? What can we do to get some measure of those dreams to be realized in the reality we find ourselves in? How might our future be endued with the dreams we once held?

Sound familiar? Be careful here! While some of us may be able to point out distinct decisions and mistakes made that have affected our life-paths, it is rarely so clear. We had certain hopes and dreams, and they looked great, beautiful and wonderful - because they were dreams! Hopes and dreams are not hopes and dreams unless they look great! There is nothing wrong with having hopes and dreams but there is a subtle issue underlying these nights of self-analysis and consternation, namely, were we in our youth pursuing the Lord, seeking from Him what our hopes and dreams ought to be? Somewhere between then and now we, as believers, learn to pursue God's dreams as our dreams, which correctly causes the dreams of our adolescence to be left behind, or modified/morphed to be those God desires for us.

Why do we invest so much importance and nostalgia into dreams that we our own and not the Father's? Why would we allow those things to cause angst, anxieties, frustrations, anger, and depression in our lives? Why hold on to things 'not of God' if we are now striving with all of ourselves to be both in word and deed, 'of God'? Shouldn't we more often look at photos of our life and be in awe of what God has done, be thankful for the blessings we have that have surpassed adolescent dreaming, be called to worship the One who has brought us through so much to where we are?

I did dream of a family, and I have the best. I have been blessed with a wife who loves me unconditionally, and a son that is already one of the coolest kids I know. I am sitting in the office of a church that has embraced my family as family, working on Sunday's sermon and dreaming about its future. What a place to be! - realizing that the dreams of youth have been surpassed by the Grace of God, and dreaming with a church in its adolescence the dreams of its youth. May the church come to a place years from now where it too is able to say that the Lord has blessed above and beyond all the dreams of youth.

"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them." - Psalm 139:13, 15-16.

Thought For Today - 5.14.2009

"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." (2 Peter 1:2)

What is it that people pursue in life? Isn't the pursuit of humanity a pursuit of Grace and Peace? God's 'Common Grace' is shed abroad on the earth in the provision of all good things man needs to live and prosper. This can lead to peace for men, but so often it does not. Remember, Peter is writing to churches suffering various social & civil persecutions because of their faith in Jesus Christ. They have little peace, and yet Peter is writing to them that peace is found in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord!

Upon what does Peace depend? The knowledge of God and our Savior Jesus Christ! Grace and Peace are "multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." It was Tozer who stated in Knowledge of the Holy, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the church/man is always God Himself, and the most portentious fact about any man...what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like." Our understanding of God in who He reveals Himself to be drives our understanding of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ for our sins; and our understanding of both undergirds God's specific Grace in our lives and the peace that coincides with it. Without Grace there is not true peace. The travesty for many Christians today is that in the midst of Grace there is still no peace! We too often must hear the question of Paul to the Galatians, "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?" The message of the gospel is one in which we needed all of our righteousness before God to be provided for us by Jesus Christ. The message of the gospel tells us that all that we would do that is good in God's eyes is accomplished in and through us by the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The message of the gospel tells us that our sovereign, loving God provides all good things for us, even trial and suffering. Understanding God, Christ, and the gospel leads to peace in the midst of all things!

Where are you struggling with anxiety, fear, anger, frustration in life? In what ways are you operating "in the flesh" to bring success or your own desired ends in those arenas? Where are you experiencing a lack of peace because of your Christian testimony? In what ways are you not resting in the peace of God that comes through the knowledge of Him, Christ, and the accomplishment of Grace for us in Christ? Be diligent, live at peace with all men as far as it is up to you, be ready to give an answer for your faith in gentleness and reverence, and rest in the knowledge of God and our savior, Jesus Christ - therein is peace!