Obedience

This plant is called obedient plant. It pretty much stays where you plant it and does not overtake your garden. This puts me in mind of spiritual obedience.

We used to sing a hymn, Trust and Obey:

When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His word,
What a glory He sheds on our way.
As we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey,
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey.

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command..."
(John 14:15)

He also said, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."
(John 15:9-12)

Beauty

July 25



July 26



July 27



July 28




Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Philippians 4:8

We need to do this, not out of pleasure so much as out of desperation. Our desperation should lead us to heights previously unknown, in the presence of God.

Still alive

I am doing a graduation party and will not be posting until after July 18.

So I said I would be posting on Tuesdays and Fridays, but for the past two weeks I have only posted on Wednesdays, and it looks like that's about to happen again.

The above is actually a photo of my daisies. I photoshopped it to death... cropped it, played with the colors, then distorted it with washes and effects. I'm sure many would say I ruined it.

The daisies, by the way, are weeds. They grew in my garden, and I left them. Here's hoping they don't utterly overtake everything next year. I also have Shasta daisies; they have not bloomed yet, and when they do, they will be quite a bit bigger, but they won't last as long as these have.

I tend to second-guess myself and wonder whether I am doing the right thing. Should I photoshop my pictures? Should I leave the wild daisies to grow in my garden? Should I keep daisies in my yard at all, since I am allergic to them? Why didn't I wear sunglasses to my son's graduation, since my eyes are itchy and watery from my daisy allergy which is provoked by the daisies I keep in my garden?

I could drive myself absolutely batty worrying over these things. Sometimes I do.

Today in VBS we studied Peter's denial of Christ.

The thing that deeply comforts me is that Jesus warned Peter and, at the same time, reassured him that it would come all right in the end: "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:31)

"I have prayed for you..." What awesome words of comfort. And Jesus prays for us, too. "Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." (Romans 8:34b)

Jesus prays for us, but, you know, we pray for each other, too. Although it is a wonderful feeling to know that my Lord and Savior prays for me, it is not quite as astonishing as the fact that He knows and controls the future. Now THAT is what really makes me feel safe and secure. Look what He said to Peter: "When you turn back..." Not if you turn back, but when you turn back. Jesus knew that Peter would turn back to Him after his failure, that he would be restored, that he would grow and become effective for the Kingdom, carrying out a powerful ministry.

The same is true for us. We do not have to beat ourselves up and fret over our mistakes. We need to confess our sins, receive His forgiveness, and move ahead with confidence in His power and grace, believing that He is the God who creates beauty from ashes, that He can use every circumstance in our lives for our good and for His glory.

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. (Romans 8:28)

FYI

Instead of writing every day, I will be posting one or two times per week. My plan is to do this on Tuesdays and Fridays, but that will flex according to the family schedule.

Blossoms

In case you can't tell from this perspective, the yellow flower in this photo is a tomato blossom. Tomato blossoms are not the most beautiful flower in the garden, but they hold some of the most wonderful promise... the promise of delicious, red, ripe, juicy tomatoes!

Blossoms signal beginnings. Actually, the bud is the beginning, and then the blossom, finally culminating in fruit.

Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

Before the beginning, there was nothing: no plants, no people, no life. In fact, I do not think there was even any space or any time. I think that God created time, and then space, kind of the way I mixed topsoil, peat moss and compost together in my raised garden bed this spring. I was preparing a place to grow tomatoes, and other vegetables and berries. God was creating a place to raise eternal souls.

Yesterday I was reading about Aaron's rod that budded.

Numbers 17:8, "The next day Moses entered the tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron's staff, which represented the house of Levi, had not only sprouted, but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds."

The main point of this story is to confirm the spiritual authority of the tribe of Levi, and particularly the authority of Aaron and his sons within that tribe. God had charged the priests (Aaron and his sons) and Levites (the rest of the tribe of Levi) with the care of the Tabernacle and the overseeing of the sacrificial system.

Going back a chapter, we see that some Israelites had challenged Aaron's role and wanted to burn their own incense before the Lord.

Numbers 16:3, "They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, 'You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly?'"

God instructed the head of each tribe to bring a staff to the Tabernacle. They were to write their names on these staffs and leave them in the Tabernacle overnight. God's plan was to put an end to all this bickering by sending a sign of His favor to the staff of His chosen leader. God said that the staff of the man He chose would sprout.

In the morning, Aaron's staff not only sprouted, it also budded, blossomed and bore fruit. Or, nuts, as the case may be. This is interesting because if the staff had merely sprouted, observers could have accused Moses and Aaron of replacing Aaron's staff with a sprouting branch from an almond tree. But God did a huge miracle and made the staff sprout, bud, blossom and bear almonds all at the same time, something that never happens naturally in nature. There was no explaining away this sign.

This is also a beautiful picture of how God brings life from nothing. My grandfather had a cane. It was rather a distinguished cane, shaped and polished and given a rubber end to keep it from skidding. There is no way that cane would have started to grow, apart from a miracle of God. Aaron's staff, and the staffs of the other men, were just as lifeless as my grandfather's cane, yet God brought life from Aaron's.

Ephesians 2:1, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins."

Just as the cane of Aaron was "dead," totally devoid of life, so were we before the Spirit of God breathed into us faith and life and a hunger for Himself.

When we live through the Spirit, we bear fruit that is pleasing to God. Just as I await tomatoes at the sight of the first blossom on one of my plants, so God looks forward to the fruit He knows we will bear by His grace and through the power of His Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23a, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control..."

Did you ever think of how Spirit-fruit in our lives gratifies the Lord even more than a bountiful garden of vegetables gratifies us?

Still pondering the same questions...

If you have ever grown flowers, you know that they do quite an amazing thing. They turn their faces to the sun. Sunflowers are the funniest, because their huge blossoms twist slowly around to face the sun throughout the day.

I am still pondering on the thought of what it means to have the Lord turn His face toward us and make His face shine upon us. (See the previous post).

Today's scripture is from Numbers 8:1-4. It is about the lampstand that God had told Moses to direct Bezalel and Oholiab to craft for the tabernacle (Exodus 25:31-40, 27:20-21, 37:17-24, 40:24-25). We know that the lampstand was a symbol for Jesus, the light of the world.

The Lord said to Moses, "Speak to Aaron and say to him, 'When you set up the seven lamps, they are to light up the area in front of the lampstand.'"
Aaron did so; he set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. This is how the lampstand was made: It was made of hammered gold--from its base to its blossoms. The lampstand was made exactly like the pattern the Lord had shown Moses.
Numbers 8:1-4

The lampstand was made of hammered gold from its base to its blossoms. Exodus 25:33-35 explains that the ends of the "branches" of the lampstand, where the oil was poured and lit, were to be cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms. This must have been a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

Aaron, according to God's directions, set up the lampstand with the lamps "so that they faced forward on the lampstand."

Somehow this reminds me of flowers turning to face the sun, which reminds me of God turning His face toward us and making it shine on us.

Which brings me back to the questions I asked in the last post...

What does it mean for the Lord to make His face shine on us?

What does it mean for the Lord to turn His face towards us?

Are these things the same or different?