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."

Psalm 139

I love Psalm 139....this is my own personalized version of this Psalm.  I pray you will also take time to meditate on this Psalm and see just how much God loves you...He thinks about You continually and has only the best plans for you.  Even when it seems like He is not there in your circumstances...know that He is.  We will not understand the 'whys' until we can see Him face to face one day...then we will know and understand how all the dark threads of the tapestries of our lives fit together with the other colors to make something beautiful..something only He can see now.  Trust Him...Father does know best.

Psalm 139

Thank You, Lord, that You search my heart and You know me very intimately. 

You know when I sit down… and when I get up. 
           hYou are always watching me.  You know every detail of my daily life.

Even before I have a thought in my mind, You have already known it...

            h Even before I speak…You know what I will say.

You are all around me…like a wall…protecting me

                   h Your hand is always upon me.

 

 

All this is so far beyond my ability to comprehend it.  It is too wonderful to grasp!

There is no place I can go that You do not see…

hYou are with me everywhere and always. 

hYou never leave me alone. 

 

 

There is nowhere in heaven or earth that You aren’t there. 
           hAnywhere I go Your hand is leading me and holding on to me.

Even in total darkness….You see me. 

hThere is no difference in day and night with You. 

You are my creator…


You formed me and put me together exactly the way You wanted. 

hYou planned all my days long before I was even conceived. 

hYou know every thing that will come about in my life.

You have so many thoughts toward me that they can’t be counted.

h I am continually on Your mind.

h I can’t even begin to comprehend that!

I align myself with You against all evil and unrighteousness. 

Search out my heart, God. 

Reveal to me the things that are not pleasing to You…
           hthings that will hurt me and others.... and my witness of You. 

Lead me in the direction that You have planned for me…

hthat will stand forever…

                     Lead me closer to You, Lord.

Thirst

This post  is an excerpt from the first chapter of a book called “A Thirst for God” by  Sherwood Eliot Wirt.  I first read it several years ago and am reading it again.  It is hard to find now….might be out of print.  So I wanted to share some of it…I pray it will cause you to think deeply and be blessed.

Psalm 42

As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.

For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.

O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life.

 I will say to God my rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?"

 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

If we are thirsty deer, that is a good sign….The 42^nd Psalm pictures a spent deer in an exhausting, dehydrating situation.

The Psalmist says, “That’s where I am.  I am the deer.” 

What is his problem? 

It is the perennial problem of the unsatisfied human spirit in its thirst for God. 

The Psalmist is:

...driven by the pursuit of God,
             ...goaded by the longing for God,
                           ...and he will be satisfied by nothing less than a
                                               direct confrontation with the Almighty…

                                  He wants God himself….

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Today it seems the Christian church is ready to cry out to God.  But not for ‘union’ with him—it hardly knows what that means.  The church senses uneasily that it is being choked by its club life.  It is drowning in decaffeinated coffee.  It knows something is wrong, that there is more to life in the Spirit than what it has been getting.  But it hasn’t yet isolated the problem. 

                               …God’s causes have replaced God.

So millions of Christians are asking--

      ‘Where are you, Lord?...

   ... My soul is dry.  

            ...Reading the Bible leaves me with a flat taste.
                               ...I still believe, but the church bit has gone stale.
     ... I’m bored.  
              ...I’ve heard everything, heard it until I’m sick of it.  
                       ...How can I cut across this dreary desert and find you?”

…We might ask, too, why it is that so many of us seem to take our troubles into the pew on Sunday...and bring them home again.  We are quite aware that whatever it is our souls are doing…they are not panting after God.  Yet we wish to be captivated.  We wish in our hearts to be drunk with the wine of the Spirit. 

Blaise Pascal wrote,

            “There was once in man a true happiness, of which there now remains

    to him only an empty trace which he vainly tries to fill out of his

              environment.  Yet all these efforts are inadequate, because the infinite
              abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is, by

    God himself.”

We want to know the One who made us,

     ...and why he made us,

         ...and why he set us on this strange planet,

            ...and what he intends to do with us. 

We want to know if there is anything he can do with his church—
                or should we bypass it and let it go its antique way?

We know of course that there is more to Christian discipleship than falling on our faces before the altar. 

But many of us have never fallen on our faces before anything. 

                            We’ve just fallen, period. 

So we want to know how to get rid of the things that keep pushing us back and hindering us from following Jesus. 

                           Lord!   Teach us to pant!

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

John 7:37  Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

Revelation 22:17  The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Let anyone who hears this say, "Come." Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.

Matthew- 5:6  "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Following His Voice

John 10:3-4  “The sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

In previous posts,  I talked about Hearing His Voice (April 1)and Knowing His Voice (April 13) – Now I want to look at what it means to Follow His Voice.

                                  gggggggggggggggggggg

Have you ever been in a room full of people when the power suddenly goes out and it’s totally black?

First you just stand there, afraid to move, wondering what to do……then you hear a voice.

The person you’re with is on the other side of the room… and you hear them call out your name

“ Over here!  Keep following my voice – come toward my voice – I’ll keep talking and you keep moving toward my voice.”

…because you know that voice, you follow that voice.

                               ggggggggggggggggggggg

~To hear, we have to be listening.

~To know the voice, we have to be familiar with;

~To follow, we have to trust and we have to step out in faith. 

The trust comes because we’ve spent time getting to know them.

Following His voice is stepping out in faith… it’s an act of our will…a decision …it is walking with Jesus in obedience to His voice, His Word----You can’t follow if you are standing still.

                                   ggggggggggggggggggggg

We have many examples in the Word of people walking with God.

hAdam and Eve walked with God in the garden.

hEnoch walked so close to the Lord that He just walked right into His presence without experiencing death! Gen 5:22-24  “Enoch walked in habitual fellowship with God; and he was not, for God took him home with Him”. 

hDavid wrote many Psalms that are full of examples of walking with God.   Psalm 116:9  “I shall walk before the LORD In the land of the living.”

Everywhere Jesus went, people walked with Him and followed Him.

Matthew 4:18-22  And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."  They immediately left their nets and followed Him.  Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them,  and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

Matthew 16:24-26  Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself  (forget himself and his own interests) and take up his cross and follow Me (cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living).

             gggggggggggggggggggggg

So how do we follow His voice?  How do we walk?

Colossians 2:6-7  “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him.  Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him”

Galations 5 tells us we are to walk in the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit in us will lead us…. if we are listening.

2 Cor. 5:7   “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

 Even if we can’t see ahead, we trust Him to lead us.... and we Follow His Voice.

           h He’s already been there.

                       hIn fact, He is there… just waiting for us.

                           ggggggggggggggggggggg

   What keeps you from:

                   hhearing His voice 

                              hknowing His voice

                                         hfollowing His voice?

What things in your life are drowning out the voice of the shepherd?

                    hcalling your name

                               hcalling you to listen.

Make a commitment to purpose in your heart from now on to:

              h hear His voice,

                            hknow His voice,

                                      hfollow His voice.