Are We Focused on the
Garden or the Gardener?
Good Morning Friends,
We have been putting together Earth Boxes to grow food. They are really efficient ways to save water and grow food. You really should have some of them and share the burden of feeding the world….securing food for your community. But today’s devotional and scripture asks us if our attention is misplaced…if it is on real estate or relationships, the building or the builder, the church or the carpenter…Are We Focused on the
Garden or the Gardener?
Scripture: 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”
Luke 14:28-30 (NRSV)
24’Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!’
Matthew 7:24-27 (NRSV)
3And so, brothers and sisters,* I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? 4For when one says, ‘I belong to Paul’, and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’, are you not merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labour of each. 9For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:1-9 (NRSV)
13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles* from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Luke 24:13-16 and 35 (NRSV)
Message: It can be difficult to recognize Jesus. Mary thinks Jesus is a gardener until He says her name, the eleven think Jesus is a ghost until they touch him. Thomas will not believe until he sees the wounds. Paul meets Jesus and has to ask who the risen Jesus is. The reality is that in our hearts He walks with us and talks with us and we need not feel odd about this experience even though the world would want us to deny that God can be so personal and near to us. Most of the time we will not see him so well. In the breaking of bread in hindsight of the harvest it is often easier to see. Still it is about having the right kind of seed, sowing the seed with love, and preparing the soil for planting and helping the seed to grow. But it is also about having a heart that grows in Kingdom soil as well. It is a message for church transplants and for gardeners in God’s community. It is a witness that in God’s creation, He has designed our efforts and His grace to team up so we might rejoice in a harvest. So today we are asked to honestly and objectively set our life’s goals before the Lord for his approval and then ask ourselves if they honor God or are just feeding our egos. Moreover, we are asked to change our goals if God shows us that we should choose another path….perhaps the one less traveled, the one that requires consistent work on righteousness, resources and relationships. Today we explore the path of discipleship…the difference of enjoying the garden and tending it…the difference of accepting Jesus as Savior and accepting Him as Lord over our lives….choosing the way of faith…the way of love in His wisdom to grow ripe for the harvest in not just earth boxes but heavenly ones as well.
Pray we look for Christ. Pray we seek Jesus. Pray we not be too overwhelmed to see. Pray we look past our problems. Pray that our heads do not get in the way of our hearts. Pray we are nourished when we remember that Jesus has been with us all along. Pray
that we are faithful in sharing the Word of God with others and nurturing and encouraging with others to help them grow in the faith. So, we pray that we demonstrate the Spirit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance as fruits of this reality. Pray that we are patient during the long stretches of darkness and silence that separates planting and reaping. Pray that during the waiting we cultivate and weed and nurture and plant and transplant. Pray we are patient doing our part as we wait on God to bring the increase, to bring the transformation, to bring back the harmony in the hope of His return. Pray we collaborate and network. Pray we plant more seeds. Pray that we are connected to the vine, the branches, and the gardener. Pray we grow in the love of Christ. Pray that we have Christ in us so that we can be fruitful.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 