A Fruitful Harvest : He prepares

Continuing the steps a gardener takes in making and tending a garden:

2. HE Prepares


Once the gardener has his plan, his next step is to prepare the soil.

Preparing has 2 parts:  Breaking down and Building up

In the parable of the sower, (Luke 8)  Jesus said that the soil represented our hearts and the seed was the Word of God.   Just as the soil is the foundation of the garden..so our hearts are the foundation of our relationship with God.  If the soil isn’t good.....the garden won’t be healthy.

~~~~Breaking down:

Hard, clay soil doesn’t soak up the rain water…it just runs off.  Seed sown on hard ground can’t take root and grow.  The gardener will have to break down the hard clay and compacted soil by digging or rototilling to turn it over and loosen it up.   And on some soil he might even have to use a pick to break it down!  The softened soil can then soak in the water and the plants can put down their roots and grow.

        Hosea 10:12   'Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the  
                        LORD.'

        Psalm 51:17  “You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”

What causes our hearts to become hard?

Our hearts can become hard from many different things: 

        ~ Sometimes it’s just life.  Life is not easy and it can be painful.  To protect ourselves  

           from the hurts and disappointments, we build up calluses, or hardness, in our hearts.

Prov. 4:23  Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

        ~ Sometimes it’s because of rebellion against God…wanting to be in control 

            of our own lives.

Heb. 3:15    "Today when you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts as Israel did 

when they rebelled."

       ~ Sometimes it’s because of unbelief or disobedience to His Word.

Mark 3:5 “He looked around at them and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts.”

          Mark 16:14  “And He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart.”

          ~Sometimes it’s because of bitterness, anger, resentment, jealousy, pride, 

          envy....self.   These are like rocks, weeds and invasive plants that have to be 
          removed.

Heb. 12:15  Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you.

~~~~Building up:

After breaking down the soil the gardener will begin to build it up by working amendments

into it…things he adds to keep it from becoming hard and compacted again. 

One of the best of these is compost.

     Compost is made up of grass clippings, dead plants, dead leaves, kitchen scraps, rotted, smelly fruit and vegetables…all the things we would normally throw away.  But put them all together, let them sit and heat up, stir them once in awhile and you have compost…



a wonderful, loose, life-giving mixture that builds up the soil. 
It is full of nutrients and its rich, loose texture gives the soil
exactly what it needs to be the foundation for growing, thriving

plants.  Compost is a wonderful, useful, living thing that is
made from unwanted, useless, dead things.

In the same way, God makes spiritual compost from the broken, rotten, smelly pieces of our lives.  He uses everything in our lives for good... even parts we thought were dead and useless.  

There is nothing that comes into our lives that He doesn’t use in part of His plan for us.  He mixes it all together, lets it sit and heat up, stirs it around and when it is all ready He uses it in our lives to make something beautiful and useful and alive…and He sits back and smiles as He watches His plants growing and thriving.

Psalm 23:3  “He restores my soul.”

           Rom. 8:28   “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the 
                               good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose  
                               for them.”

            Joel 2:25  "Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has
                              eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust.”

~So let the Lord do His preparing work on the soil of your heart. 

~Let Him break up the hardness and make it soft and pliable. 

~Give Him all the broken, spoiled parts of your life and let Him use 
   them to make something life-giving and good. 

~Let Him restore to you the years that have been wasted. 

 ~Let Him make you into a beautiful, thriving garden bringing joy and life to all around you.

2 Chron. 16:9  "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

A Fruitful Harvest : He Plans

In my last post we looked at how God is the Master Gardener and how He  is intimately involved with every part of seeing us, His plants, grow, mature and produce fruit.

So now I want to talk about the steps a gardener takes in making and tending a garden.  Because a fruitful, bountiful harvest doesn’t just happen all on it’s own.

 1.  HE PLANS

In her book Time Began in a Garden, Emilie Barnes wrote:

“Long before the first piece of sod is turned, long before the seeds are ordered or the plants are purchased or the first buds begin to open, the garden takes root in the mind, the heart and the imagination of the gardener.  And even after a garden has begun, it continues to be fed from the gardener’s dreams” 

The garden all begins in the heart and the mind of the gardener.  He has a plan.

Likewise….God has a plan:

Eph. 1:4  He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,  In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,

Jer. 29:11  'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

Psa. 33:8  The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation. 

Isa. 25:1  O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.

Eph. 2:10  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Psa. 139 .   For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.   I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.  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. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.

--Each plant has its own purpose –all are made by God and are different and unique...all fit 

    together for His purposes.

Never forget...

~He is the designer..

~He has the plan...

~His plans are always right and good and come together to    

   create a thing of beauty that brings honor to Him.

                      “The planting of the Lord that He may be glorified” Is. 61:3

A Fruitful Harvest : The Master Gardener

A while back I did a retreat about  ‘A Fruitful Harvest’.  Since this is the gardening season, I thought it would be a good time to share some of it with you.  Over the next several posts, I will be taking some excerpts from the retreat messages and sharing them with you.  I pray you will be able to relate and be blessed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

First, we are going to look at how God works in our lives as the Master Gardener.

God used examples of gardens, plants, trees, grass, vines, etc. in His Word to show how he relates to people as the Master Gardener.

 

Psalm 1:3  He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither.

Psalm 92:12  The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Psalm 103:15  As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

Isaiah 58:11   you will be like a watered garden,

 Isaiah 61:11  as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

Isaiah 5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah His delightful plant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The Bible begins in Genesis with God creating the world, filling it with life and planting a garden for man to cultivate.

For those of you who love to garden or know someone who does, you know that a true gardener LOVES to be among his plants –

~ close to them,

     ~touching them,

      ~working with them,

                      ~tending them,  
                             ~enjoying their fragrance, their beauty and the fruits of his labors.

*A gardener nurtures his plants and cares for them lovingly.

* He is intimately involved with every part of seeing his plants

                 grow, mature and produce fruit.

*He becomes very familiar with his plants and cares for them individually. 

And sometimes He loves to sit back and just look at the garden and enjoy what he has accomplished.

In Jn 15:1 – Jesus said His Father is the vinedresser, or in some translations, gardener.  God is the Master Gardener and His heart is for US...His plants…His garden.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just think---

The eternal Creator of the Universe, subjected Himself to a body of a man...

limited to time and space.....and lived among us. 

The feet of God Almighty...walking barefoot on dirt roads, getting tired and sore and dirty, stepping on rocks, and thorns...sleeping on the ground where it was cold and hard.

Why did He do all this?  

 For the fruit.

 We are His harvest—the fruit of His labor… the fruit of His love.

 

Rev 4:11  "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."