Month: August 2026

The Gardener

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener.” John 15:1 NIV

Having worked as a professional gardener and tree surgeon for most of my career, this verse reminds me that the first place that God created for Adam and Eve to live was a garden. The Bible even tells us that God planted it for them! I think of that garden sometimes when I sing the hymn, “In the Garden” as it was where God came down in the cool of the day to walk and talk with His children. However: there are two other even more important gardens in scripture. The second garden we find God in is the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus prayed, “If it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done.” There the awful price of our salvation was weighed in the balance and Jesus promised to pay it in full. Yet, there is still a third garden we read of that holds the highest meaning of all. That is the garden, where the tomb of Christ was located. There Mary came to weep, and there Jesus met her, and the walking and talking with Him that day was truly sweeter than any song the birds could sing. I do hope you will be blessed by this rendition of my favorite hymn, “In the Garden,” sung yesterday at our meeting at Discovery Villages. Have a blessed day and I hope that you will take some time to walk and talk with Jesus in all three of these gardens this week.

Come Thou Fount

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For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. Not as the result of works so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV

Maybe the reason this now ancient hymn strikes a chord in my heart is that the tumultuous life of young Robert Robertson was a lot like my own. Wandering far from the fold of God, was an understatement in both our lives. But into the middle of my mess, and on a collision course with disaster, God intervened, when someone offered me a ride while hitchhiking if I would just go to church. In Robert’s case, he and some ne’er-do-well friends, made plans to go to laugh and mock at a meeting where the famous evangelist George Whitefield was speaking. God must have chuckled, because there Robertson fell under the conviction of the Holy Spirit under Whitefield’s preaching, and not long afterward, committed His life to Jesu Christ. Then, just two years later, at the age of 22, the wonderful lyrics, of Come Thou Fount were born as Robert wrote:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to me
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering soul to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart O take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

That great debt of grace, only paid by the precious blood of Jesus is what binds us in love to Him forever, if we give our hearts to Jesus Christ. I pray that our simple rendering of this wonderful hymn, will be a blessing to you all this Sunday. Have a wonderful Sunday, and may you find rest and peace in His grace.