The Garden of God

Song of Solomon 4:16

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, [that] the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

The Garden of God

               The garden in the Word is often seen as place where we come to have communion and fellowship with God.  Many of us remember the old hymn, “I Come to the Garden Alone”.   We see Adam and Eve first communing with God in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden and then we see them cast out of the Garden in their disobedience and losing that place of fellowship and communion that they once enjoyed.   We know that Jesus liked to go to the garden of Gethsemane and fellowship and commune with the Father.  Perhaps the garden is a good analogy of our communion and fellowship with the Lord, because it is a place of fruitfulness and a place where we smell the sweet fragrance of His presence as we come there to worship and abide with Him. 

               A garden is a wonderful and beautiful place.  In the Song of Solomon the Lord likens His bride as unto a garden.  He calls the north and the south wind to come up and blow upon His garden that the spices may flow out.  Often the directions of winds are used in scripture to denote judgements and testing.  The south wind was often a hot wind that could bring drought and unpleasant temperatures.  Why would the Lord call these winds upon His garden?  It says so that the spices thereof may flow out.  Fruit and spices that are never pruned, gleaned and harvested will rot upon the tree and the vine.  Their sweetness and fragrance are only seen, smelled and enjoyed when they are released and partaken of. 

               We often wonder, as the people of God, why we must endure suffering, persecution, hardship, trials and tribulation.   These are the winds that must blow upon your garden to bring you to the fullness of your fruitfulness.   Only when the grapes are crushed can they make fine wine.  God is working the fruit of the Spirit in your heart and lives, but that fruit has to be exercised to be fruitful.  The thing about fruit is it must be picked and partaken of to be enjoyed.  The world around you has the privilege of partaking of God’s garden; overtime your fruit is released in the nature and character of Christ.  They get to taste and partake of something they don’t find very often in the world. 

               Think about the last place Jesus was before He was taken to be crucified.  They came to the garden.  It was from the garden that Jesus was picked, broken, crushed and poured out for all of humanity to have access to partake of the new wine that He had become.  There the wind of adversity, judgement, trial and tribulation blew hard against Him.  There the precious spices of His God life were poured out and released for all who would to partake of and share in.  If God spared not His own Son from these sufferings, will He spare us as His sons and daughters?  Romans 8:16-18 tells us, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  Grapes must be crushed to make a great wine.  Gold has to crushed, smelted, fired, melted, beaten and formed to become a beautiful vessel of honor.  You are God’s garden and what He is picking, pruning and blowing upon you is not for your destruction, but for your perfection.  Often, we lose sight of the end result through all of the processing that brings us there. 

               Spend much time in the garden of His communion and presence for that is a place of fruitfulness and growth, but don’t despair when He picks the fruit and prunes the branches.  Romans 8: 28-30 reminds us, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”  Become that sweet smelling fragrance of His character and likeness and do not grow weary and discouraged in the process. 

Blessings,

#kent

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Diligence

Proverbs 4:23
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life.

Diligence

It is often astounding when we have observed a garden or a lawn that at one time was so beautiful and groomed and then to observe it’s state after a time when it has been abandoned or neglected. What we see are two totally different scenes, first one of beauty and then one of weeds, deterioration and ruin. Our soul can be much the same way. It can be that beautiful garden where we meet and fellowship with God consistently and frequently. It can be a sanctuary of light and truth, filled with joy and blessing. In this state people can look upon it and see the beauty that fills it. What happens when we become less than diligent to maintain that fellowship and groom that garden of our soul? Little by little it will deteriorate. It will dry out, weeds will sprout up and the good fruit and plants will whither and die. A good garden requires continual diligence and so it is with our souls. Many of us can look back over our lives and see times when we have had that wonderful relationship and fellowship with God and our soul has flourished in the sunshine of His love and presence, but then other things came in and captivated our time and attention. We began to neglect more and more our time of prayer and fellowship with the Lord until our garden was one in name only, but not in appearance and fruitfulness. Darkness began to fill the areas where there had once been so much light and life and truth. Weeds began to spring up and choke out the purity, the love and the joy that once abounded there. One day it dawns upon us as we see our life a mess, what happened to my garden? What happened to that relationship and fellowship I once had? The Lord doesn’t abandon us, we abandon Him. He is always there to help us to reestablish that garden and that fellowship again. The thing that I have observed in my life is that when we give ground to the enemy, it is harder taking it back the second time. Yet, the Lord is there for us if we will return to Him in love and repentance.
Diligence is often what we loose sight of. Our Christianity and faith weren’t a one time thing when we walked an isle and gave our heart to Jesus, it is a day by day relationship that rejoices in the good times, but hangs tough and continues to trust even in the difficult and trying times. It is like a marriage, it needs our constant attention or we will grow apart. We want a relationship where every day with Jesus it sweeter than the day before.
Hebrew 6:10-12 exhorts us by saying, “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” Our faith is not a sprint it is a marathon. It is not about how fast we run in the beginning, but about our steady and steadfast run through life. It is not about starting the race, but about finishing it and that takes perseverance and all diligence. The Lord called each of us to be a partaker of His divine nature and He has given us great and precious promise through which we might enter in. 2 Peter 1:2-10 speaks to this diligence in obtaining all that God has called us too. “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The Lord has given us all that we need, but we need the diligence to keep pressing into Him and maintaining that garden relationship with Him. Perhaps for some of us our relationship and fellowship with the Lord has been slipping away and we are loosing that closeness and intimacy with Him. Be diligent to turn back your heart to Him and draw near again. He loves you and delights in your visitation and your fellowship. Be diligent and don’t give up or turn away.

Blessings,
#kent

Neglect

Neglect

Ephesians 5:21
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Does your mind every wander back over the years of your life and you wonder, in retrospect, what you might have done differently to make them even, better, more productive and more loving.
It occurs to me that I will never regret not yelling or being angry with my wife more, but I may well regret the time and attention I neglected to give her. I’ll never regret the times I spent playing with my kids or grandkids and the special memories they created, but I may well regret all of the times I was too busy or involved to take the time with them. Neglect is often something we are not even aware of when it is happening. Usually we have sufficient other priorities to justify it when it is taking place.
In life the most beautiful and productive gardens are those that are constantly tended with a loving hand. Hours are spent watering, fertilizing, planting, pruning, pulling weeds, spraying for insects and all the things that make for beautiful garden. Will you and I regret that we didn’t spend more time in our gardens nurturing the human relationships that God has allowed in our lives? Will we even remember what it was that was so important that we didn’t make the time for those most important in our lives?
Perhaps our gardens aren’t so pretty today, because they have been neglected. Our time and our love can do wonders to restore life and relationship if it comes from our heart. People are no doubt the most important thing on God’s heart. If I am becoming more like Him they should be more important to my heart as well. Especially the ones God has given me responsibility for or accountability too.
Maybe today is a good day to go out and work in the garden of relationships.

Blessings,
kent