Month: September 2019

The Space Between the Flowers

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  Genesis 2:8 KJV

“What are you doing?!” I shouted at my friend who had weeding in the perennial garden along the back wall.

“Look I pulled all the weeds out!” he said. I shook my head in amazement at the six feet of flower bed that now lay completely devoid of growth of any kind.

“But you pulled everything else out too. Where are the flowers?” I asked in confusion.

“I’m sorry there were so many weeds that I couldn’t tell which ones were the flowers.” He said sorrowfully.

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My fault had been in allowing the weeds to get so thick that it had become impossible to pull them out.  I had forgotten that a garden grows best when there is a space around the flowers.

Maybe that is why we sometimes feel alone and God seems silent. He has not forgotten us, but in the garden that is our soul He has chosen to make some space between the flowers. He pulls out and separates things from our lives so that we will bloom our brightest and most brilliant colors when the season is just right.

Today is Not a Dry Run!

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Redeeming the time, because the days are evil       Ephesians 5:16 KJV

Quite a few years ago I had a friend whose favorite saying was, “Today is not a dry run.” It reminded me of when we visited Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. There we walked through the old shipyard where whaling ships were once built. We were shown how piece by piece the ancient ships were built; mostly by hand. In our Christian walk we sometimes think of ourselves as being in God’s shipyard; where He is slowly fashioning us and preparing us for the day when He will launch us on our maiden voyage. But in his letter to the Ephesian church Paul the apostle tells us something very different:

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil       Ephesians 5:16 KJV

Or as Toula’s mother tells her in the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding; “I gave you life so you could live!”

God has created us to live! In fact Jesus gave His own life so that we could live forever and forever includes today! Our moments and hours today are not just valuable because they are preparing us for the future. The greatest treasure we have is the moment we are living right now! Nothing will ever taste better than today’s Daily Bread. God’s plan for us isn’t that we would be safely locked inside a glass case for others to admire us, but that we would launch out into unknown seas, with our eyes on the North Star of His will. Today is not a dry run, We were made for more than the shipyard. God himself has built us to sail through both calm seas and storms. If Jesus is our pilot then He will guide us home.

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Peace and Truth

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Has anxiety kept you awake all night? Has fear stolen hours of sleep as you tossed and turned in what feels like a hopeless struggle to find peace? Don’t give up or give in because there is always hope that comes packaged in the form of truth. Think back to the endless peace talks that have failed again and again to bring peace in the middle east. They have failed because a true and lasting peace, whether among nations, friends or between people and God must be built on the foundation of truth.  Any falsehood is a roadblock to peace. The Apostle John gives us this startling vision of how God works the peace process between Him and each other.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7

Everything about God’s peace begins with being honest. We have to tell the truth to God; to others and to ourselves. Dishonesty in any area works like an infection in a wound. Operating from even little white lies it is like trying to  bandage things over without cleaning out the source of our infection. But there is always hope in Jesus Christ! No catastrophe, no bungling or sin is too great for God to overcome once we open our doors and invite Him into every area of darkness in our lives.

God is working to bring about our healing but our part is to  tell Him the truth. He already knows everything; but for us to have His peace, we must come clean and confess. Confession is a vital part and the first step of faith. Just as in a court of law, any confession obtained under duress is invalid because it is less than fully truthful. We must confess because we want to from the very bottom of our hearts. We need to tell God, others and ourselves; the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Only God can clean our hearts and only clean hearts can be filled and ruled by His peace. You may feel irreconcilably separated from God, other people or even from yourself, but healing and peace are just a few honest words away. No lie no matter how convincing has the power to calm even the slightest ripple on the ocean of life. But a truth, no matter how small can command the wind and waves and it invites God to rule over our hearts. When God rules on the inside then His peace is assured because He alone can make us lie down in peace and being with Him is the safest place of all!

 

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