Last night i wrote about the garden, today i found myself standing in the middle of one. One of the things I'll be doing this fall (which I've mentioned little about) is going back to work with YWAM in New Zealand... only this time I'll be building a garden! Myself and a few others will be spending many months preparing for the Earthcare School which will be starting March of 2012. I'm starting to realize how much needs to be done before the DTS starts... but also trusting God will show us everything we need to know :) Every since I started doing this 90 day thing, it seems as though God has been bringing people in my path almost everyday that are teaching me something new! I could have sought very hard on my own to find these people... but he's doing it all!!! "Plowing the field" in a way i guess! Hahahaha.
One of these people is an old nashville buddy of mine that has been learning all about gardening and self-sustainable living the past few years. He's even going to start a business/ ministry that teaches people how to garden and goes through all of the biblical symbolism at the same time. He was telling me some of the revelations He has had since He started working in the garden and they are so unbelievable. He mentioned that the bible was speaking to mostly an agricultural audience. He pointed out all of the verses that talk about seeds, sowing, harvest, soil, growing, plowing, shepherding, etc etc. These are things that the people really identified with. They understood than when the harvest is READY, that it's ready right then... and if you wait too late to pull the lettuce it will become wrinkly and bitter and will need to be thrown out. They understood that timing is everything. This generation now is the first to not to be connected with agriculture in this way. Most people my parents age had grandparents that lived on a farm.... but now that's pretty rare. Will it get harder and harder to identify with the gospels the further we walk from agriculture?
I definitely feel closer to God when i'm digging in the earth he made with His bare hands... when i'm growing food from His earth that He designed us to live on... and when i begin to really connect with the stories of the word with it's symbolism staring me in the face. Haha.
Towards the end of the garden tour today I saw something that almost brought me to tears. There, by the fence, was a little tomato plant struggling to survive. My friend shared with me that there were a few branches that were bearing no fruit that were taking all of the energy from the other ones that were. If the gardner doesn't cut off these branches soon, He would eventually lose the whole plant. But they give it a little while to see if those branches will begin bearing fruit and if not, it's time to cut them off. As I looked down at the dead little branch i realized that it was done. End of story for that little guy. This made me really and truly hurt for people who are not connected to the SOURCE for life... our Father. God loves all of His kids, and He wants them to bear fruit in their lives so others can see and TASTE that He is good. But He never manipulates us into a relationship... just pursues and offers. So, If we are not comparing ourselves to other tomato plants... do we bear good fruit that honors God and represents Him to the world well?
B90: (1 Samuel 7- 18:30) It's funny how this verse came up in Chapter 8 vs 12 after all this happened. After today, the scripture and all it's "agri lingo" are starting to come alive to me in a way i didn't expect! Some of you guys out there may find yourselves in a place where you just don't see any fruit in your own life right now, feel stuck, hopeless, or just down trodden from all of life's throws. Well maybe it's time to set a marker and place your Ebenezer in the ground! (Ch.7:12) Claim the ground God has already won in your heart, step into that freedom and boldly begin to walk forward- one step at a time.
You are an expression of God's kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment