In the Garden

In the Garden

Good Morning Friends,

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot. Now it is autumn and the harvest is full swing in the Midwest where I grew up In the Garden.

Scripture: Praise be to the . . . Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Psalm 16:5-8 (NRSV)

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

Habakkuk 3:18-19 (KJV)

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:29-31 (NIV)

Message: Toward the end of her life, my grandmother went into a nursing home. She always found Bible verses comforting. She would read the Bible through once a year until she lost her sight. The one about the sparrows I think was the one most comforting to her. She was an amazing woman of faith and enjoyed hearing her favorite verses. I learned a lot about the Bible since she died. Nevertheless, now that my mother is getting closer to heaven’s door I am finding it difficult as I searched for the right verses to encourage her. And the reason is because what motivates her into a place of calm is music. Thankfully I have been blessed to be involved in a music ministry as one of the many things I do. The thing is that when one sings it comforts both the listener and the singer as well. So yesterday as my mother was going through a particularly difficult time, I got my sister Fran in California and brother David in Oregon on the phone when a local music therapist with a guitar was visiting. Together with my brother James and I locally sang songs to our mother and our mother joined in on the chorus. One song brought a tear to her eyes as the trembling stopped. The song was In the Garden. The lyrics are below. May they comfort your heart as well with their timeless truth.

Pray we realize that senior adults have much to offer even if it is only to gather people together for their care. Pray we realize that to God, old age is an honorable attainment.
Pray that God still wants us to help older believers to bear fruit in their lives.

Blessings,

John Lawson

IN THE GARDEN

• I come to the garden alone,
  While the dew is still on the roses,
  And the voice I hear falling on my ear
  The Son of God discloses.
  • Refrain:
    And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
    And He tells me I am His own;
    And the joy we share as we tarry there,
    None other has ever known.
• He speaks, and the sound of His voice
  Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
  And the melody that He gave to me
  Within my heart is ringing.
• I’d stay in the garden with Him,
  Though the night around me be falling,
  But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
  His voice to me is calling.