About a month ago, someone plowed our garden spot. Then he tilled it. Then he harrowed it. Then he marked it into rows. Then he planted and planted and planted. Onions, cabbages, corn, tomatoes, all are out there. Everything is growing. The corn is two inches tall. Last night, I got this gorgeous posy:
It is more than just a clump of radishes.
It is saving and scrimping to buy land.
It is buying and maintaining a tractor.
It is watching weather and planning ahead for planting.
It is keeping a vegetable inventory, to know how much to plant each year.
It is changing diet to fit what grows in our area.
It is walking out to the garden every day to be sure things are okay.
It is stringing irrigation hoses out there and paying for water when the rain refuses to fall.
It is seeding it over in autumn with crimson clover so we either get a cover crop or else some venison.
It is buying and maintaining a small tiller for between rows, later.
It is researching through gardening books for help with pests and diseases.
It is sharpening and oiling the hoe, shovel, and rake.
It is pulling rocks out and chunking them into the ditch.
It is winding twine round and round and round stakes to support plants.
It is shredding piles and piles of newspapers for mulch.
It is staying up late and going out with a dorky “headlight cap” on and covering tender plants before a surprise frost comes.
All of the above, and more, go into the first bouquet of the vegetable gardening season. And here you see it, held in the hand that provided it, the hand of someone who, though he doesn’t eat many radishes, knows who does.
ABC-TV has decided that it can take direct aim at Christians with what amounts to hate speech. This is the premise of its new program GCB (which stands for Good Christian B****es).
This program ridicules Christians, Christianity, the Bible, and Christian symbols in ways that would be unthinkable if aimed at any other religious group. For example, in the official Facebook page for GCB it said that “cleavage will help keep your cross straight.” Can you imagine the reaction in the Muslim community if that kind of message (complete with a highly suggestive photo) would have been made aiming at a symbol of the Islamic faith?
To read more of this, including who sponsors it and why it affects home schooling, go HERE. It’s an amazingly scary world out there, still filled with hatred but aimed in a new direction.
Read today’s reblog, folks. Just one page over, “Leaving Twilight Zone“. You will find an amazing fact of nurses beaten and otherwise injured-on-purpose while on the job. READ IT.
He could see naught but vanity in beauty,
And naught but weakness in a fond caress,
And pitied men whose views of Christian duty
Allowed indulgence in such foolishness.
Josiah Gilbert Holland, Daniel Gray, stanza 9
Sweet Indulgence
But . . . but . . . but . . . God carresses the earth with beauty every Spring! David Gray maybe never stuck his nose into a lovely collection of spring beauties, suppose?
Some trees, like some people, use the wounds of their past to shape them for sheltering. They grow to have room in their hearts for all and that certain open-armed welcome you just know you will need someday.
Others go on to be more nurturing. They serve and give generously, providing those who come to them with nothing less than plenty. We will look at some of those types of trees, today.
Drink it Down
And, although these trees offer tantalizing refreshments, let us not forget the harm they endured to become what they are:
For Larger Storage
It can be hard to imagine how these trees must have looked when they were going through all this scarring and the needed recovery, but now they look inviting, as if something special might be happening in their lives.
The children had practiced for weeks. Several broke down when they were eliminated. Mothers comforted them, dried their tears, and assured them they were not failures.
Jobs! Marriages! Children! Friends! Failure can feel never-ending. It can make you want never to show your face again. We fear failure and refuse to try. And the worst is when we know we did wrong, failing Jesus.
What can we do? God’s Word tells us.
The Bible records many failures because it contains life as it really is: accounts of real people. Bible heroes are remembered for their successes, yes, but before success, sometimes there was failure, as we saw last week.
This week we will look closely at a couple more, and learn how to turn life’s failures into life-giving experience.
One of our stories is about Peter:
“Then seizing him [Jesus], they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, ‘This man was with him.’
“But he denied it. ‘Woman, I don’t know him,’ he said.
“A little later someone else saw him and said, ‘You also are one of them.’
“‘Man, I am not!’ Peter replied.
“About an hour later another asserted, ‘Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.’
“Peter replied, ‘Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!’
“Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.” Luke 22:54-62
We need not be too hard on Peter. The story of the arrest of Jesus shows he was a man of courage.
In Luke 22:50, when the authorities came to arrest Jesus, only Peter grabbed a sword to defend Jesus. In this attempt, he not only displayed courage but also chopped off the ear of the High Priest’s servant. I believe that Peter would have died at that moment to defend Jesus, had Jesus not intervened.
During the arrest, Peter “followed at a distance.” That must have taken courage. The other disciples fled, but he did not do that. He followed Jesus—at a distance perhaps—but still, he was there.
Peter also managed to ease his way into the courtyard of the building where Jesus was being questioned. Then, “[. . .] when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them.” What a dangerous place to be, then, in the courtyard amongst the soldiers who had just arrested his Teacher!
Finally, things got too “hot” and his courage weakened. Peter failed in a way he had sworn he would never fail. (Matthew 26:35)
As the intensity of his denials escalates, we want to say, “You were with Jesus three years! You saw the miracles! You heard His teaching! You had revelation knowledge! How could you fail so miserably?”
But what Luke wants us to see is that we have something in common with Peter: It is easy to fail.
Whenever we fail to share our faith because we’re afraid of what people might say about us, we deny Jesus.
Whenever we choose to do what we know is wrong instead of right, we deny Jesus.
Whenever we trust our own understanding instead of trusting His Word, we deny Jesus.
And, like Peter, something about us tells others we have been with Him . . .
At church, we say, “Praise you, Jesus! I love you so much! I’ll always be faithful to You!”
Peter was sure. But when the test came, he faltered.
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 1 Corinthians 10:12
Peter’s story encourages in that we can learn from his failure. That is what we will look at for the next few days.
Consider the times of Jesus. The whole New Testament demonstrates to the world that Jesus is the Son of God by His deeds and by His death. And His 12 Apostles had a front row seat for the whole thing.
Let’s look at what they saw, as recorded by Matthew the Apostle:
Jesus drove out demons, as recorded in Matthew 8. Jesus told the wind and the waves to be still in Matthew 8. They saw Jesus heal the sick and raise the dead. They were there, we read in Matthew 12, when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees like no one had ever spoken to them before. In addition, in Matthew 26, they were there for the Last Supper, when Jesus established a new covenant with all of humankind.
Yet in spite of all these things the apostles were privileged to see, in spite of all the things that were designed to strengthen their faith, “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” Matthew 26:31
How could anyone fail God with Jesus walking alongside him?
The disciples swore they would not leave Him, but they were about to find out how weak they were.
They walked with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus told them to watch and pray. However, they were so tired that they could not even keep their eyes open. Then the soldiers arrived and took Jesus into custody. The disciples were so scared and so startled that they turned and ran for their lives. Jesus was right. They all fell away. They failed Jesus and they failed to keep the faith.
What about us? In church, it’s easy to pledge our allegiance to Jesus Christ. But when we are out in the world, it is not so easy. Out there, we consider other things:
Our marriage.
Our job.
Our finances.
Our family.
Our health.
Our worries.
As much as we want to serve God, there are times when it is hard. We fail, we sin, we deny Jesus as Lord, and we fail to keep the faith.
Yes, we are in pretty good company with God’s dishonor roll of failures. Thank God, He is not finished with us!
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