I walked out early one day this week to rake grass. The dog and the cat decided to go along. The dog thinks it’s his duty to follow me around and protect me - even from turkey vultures who have invaded our air space. But I’m not quite sure about the cat. I don’t know why she goes along. That particular morning, I decided it was comic relief.
        I had raked a pile of hay about four feet tall and had moved on down the field. When I heard the cat meow, I looked to see what she was doing because she’s normally a very quiet cat. She was surveying the pile of hay. Suddenly she sprang, I assume, to get on top of it for a better view of everything. But her spring landed her about two-thirds of the way up the pile. It honestly looked like a cartoon - with hay and cat legs all avalanching down. When she touched solid ground again, she rocketed to the tree line where she lay, her tail flipping back and forth, expressing her total disgust with the whole thing.
        She probably didn’t appreciate my laughing.
        I continued working, thinking about possible ways to relate what I’d just seen to something God might be teaching me. Maybe I am attempting something that has little profit and will not succeed. But that seemed like a reach. Perhaps it was just God’s way of giving me some amusement - and I continued raking hay.
     Not too long later, I was tired enough that I decided to go pick blueberries; that’s a lot easier than raking hay into piles. I was in for a shock.
        I had last picked blueberries four days earlier. I had about decided they weren’t worth picking this year. They are small and not so sweet. In the heat and the dry summer we’ve had, they just aren’t very good. But that was before we got four inches of rain!
        The blueberries were twice as big as they had been and they were so sweet I decided to employ Christopher’s method of picking blueberries: one for the bucket, three for my mouth.
        Then it hit me. The rain! The life-giving water is such a powerful illustration of the Living Water that we can only get from Jesus Christ. We need it, and Him, for thriving and producing fruit - good, desirable fruit. What we produce in our lives, apart from God, is filthy rags - kind of like the blueberries that weren’t worth picking. In contrast, the blueberries that responded to the water were very desirable and wonderful - just like the fruit we can produce for the glory of God when we’re seeking Him, relying on Him, following His ways, being obedient to His law. The difference is almost unbelievable!
        And here’s the kicker! The rain which fell didn’t care if the blueberry bush was there. It didn’t impact the rain. Similarly, even though our obedience to God’s law affects God’s heart, it doesn’t impact any of God’s attributes, His holiness or character. God’s law is for our good; it’s totally for our benefit.
        I had thought God was using the cat to teach me something that morning. But He just used her to get my attention. The blueberries and the rain were the object lesson. Praise God for His goodness.

     In the wake of the death of our two labs, we have experienced the unexpected consequence of a whole lot more varmints attacking the garden. As if deer, raccoons, rabbits, birds,  and squirrels weren’t enough, we’ve recently added ground hogs to the mix. Ron and I installed an electric fence with wire wrapped around the garden at three levels. And lest you think that would keep the critters from eating my garden, the lowest wire did not stop the box turtle from making his way into the patch to take a bite out of my first ripe tomato.  That specific tomato plant had three layers of fencing around it and he still got through!
       As I was walking back from relocating him to the pond, I was contemplating the attack on our garden by the critters this year, as well as the severe lack of rain, and now the extreme heat. Getting anything to grow, much less thrive, under these conditions is a lot of work - requiring determination and perseverance. Hmm. Working hard. Perseverance. Not giving up. Fighting the good fight. Staying the course. Working to produce fruit.
        It seems like there’s a spiritual application here. In gardening terms, then, what fruit am I producing for the King? Am I being fruitful for His glory? Is there something to show for my existence? If I have been called into His service (aka accepted His Son as my Savior and now call myself a Christian), then I’d better be producing fruit. Not weeds. Not dry ground. Not barren bushes.

      That’s going to require some work. (That’s a hyperbolic understatment!! ) O.K.  What kind of work?

• It means fighting against the weeds that would invade. Perhaps the weeds are symbolic of what grows in my life if I’m not truly centered on my Messiah - the stuff that makes me spiritually unfruitful and wastes my resources.
• It means hours of watering because otherwise the ground is dry. Perhaps that’s symbolic of the desperate need I have to stay grounded in God’s Word and to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in all things. Without the Living Water, no Godly fruit is going to grow and thrive.
• It means fighting against the bugs, the birds, the squirrels, the rabbits, the ground hogs, the raccoons, the deer, and the turtles who are not only eating the garden, they are destroying in their wake. Perhaps the varmints are symbolic of the attacks Satan throws against us  1) to see how determined we are to persevere, 2) to incite us to complain against God (after all, He made the critters), and 3) to dampen our joy in working to produce fruit for God. And perhaps there are so many different varmints to help me realize that Satan will attack from every angle he can. He’s relentless in his quest to not only derail me from being fruitful for God, but to also cause as much destruction and death as he possibly can.
• It means fighting against the heat. While we do need the heat, extreme heat will keep the plants from setting on fruit. Similarly, when trials and troubles are heating up our lives (aka in the midst of the fiery furnace of illness, financial stress, relationship tensions), we need to find our relief in relying on God.

So what am I learning from this experience?

• God doesn’t insulate His people from trouble just because they belong to Him. There are still lessons to be learned and determination to be fostered.
• If you think you have prepared for all of the attacks, just be aware that there may be something you haven’t considered yet.
• Mulching the garden with thick hay is still the best way to fight against weeds. It also keeps the water from evaporating too quickly and  insulates against extreme heat. As the hay deteriorates, it provides nutrients to the soil. Hay is a much better cover than cardboard or paper or landscape material. Similarly, fellowship, prayer, and meditation provide the insulation we need, to help us retain the Living Water, provide encouragement, and fight temptation  in the midst of trouble. There’s no good substitute.
• God provides what we need when we need it. One person gifted us a small tiller which Ron repaired - a perfect tool  for me to keep the weeds out. But, it involved some work to make it useful. Another friend gifted us a solar electric fence. So while God didn’t miraculously eliminate the weeds or the varmints, He did provide the tools I need to deal with them. Spiritually-speaking, God provides what I need to deal with the attacks and the temptations in my life. I just need to use those tools.
• Ron and I have spent more time together this summer working on the garden. Working as a team to achieve a goal is always more productive. I’m reminded again that a cord of three strands is not easily broken, and two are better than one. God did not intend for us to go it alone. We need each other. In the same way, we need our church family to effectively produce Godly fruit for the King.

It’s amazing how God can use the physical elements in our lives to teach us spiritual truths!! So in gardening terms, regardless of what varmints, heat, weeds, and drought you are currently experiencing, stay the course, fight the good fight, and produce fruit for the King!

We don’t like death - unless it’s spiders and mosquitoes. We hate suffering. We avoid pain, like, well, the plague. We don’t even particularly like uncomfortable situations. So it’s no wonder the topic of the death of Jesus Christ is something we tend to keep at arm’s length. We grieve, I grieve, that it was my sin that caused his suffering and death. So the tendency is to consider Jesus’ death with our head, dispassionately, rather than our heart. It hurts less.

Because we want to avoid that pain, I wonder if that’s part of the reason God allows pain in our lives. We intensely miss family members who are no longer with us. We dread the passing of the ones we know are getting older and more frail. But a person usually lives 70+ years  . . . until their warranty expires, as one septuagenarian quipped. But it’s the death of our pets (horses, cats, dogs, fish, chickens, bearded dragons) that hits us almost unexpectedly. When we take home a puppy, we don’t think about how quickly the next 10 - 15 years is going to fly by; we don’t want to consider how soon we’ll be dealing with the end stages of the life of a pet who shared so much joy and companionship with us.

But God allows it for our good. How do I know this? Consider the Passover lamb. It was chosen from the flock on the tenth day of the first month (Exodus 12:3). Once chosen, Ron Dart once opined that it was probably adopted into the family for the next 3-4 days - until the beginning of the 14th day of the month. Then they killed the lamb.

That lamb that they’d had their heart softened towards, developed a bond with, had a relationship with (if you will) would die at their hand - and not because of anything the lamb had done wrong. It was so that the blood would prevent the death of the firstborn - at least in the original Old Testament passover. Subsequent years, the lamb was killed as a reminder of being saved from the Death Angel. Regardless, the death of the Passover lamb pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for each one of us.

We can’t bring Jesus into our homes as if He were a lamb. But in these days leading up to the Passover, we should be spending more time considering all of the symbolism - allowing our hearts to be softened towards Jesus and the work He is doing in our lives; developing and deepening the bond that we have with our Messiah; strengthening that relationship. Jesus died for us - not because He’d done anything wrong. He was innocent! But He died that our sins might be forgiven, that we might be reconciled to the Father, and have the assurance of Eternal Life.

We know this. We talk about it. But do we truly know it enough, deeply in our hearts, to the point that it changes how we live our lives? Put in other words, does the suffering and death of Jesus Christ impact us enough that sin becomes anathema to us?! Do we strive with everything we are to make Godly choices, to avoid transgressing God’s law, and to show by these actions that we value deeply what Jesus did for us?

We can’t just let the Passover come and go each year as a theoretical, theological construct! It has to move us deeply. It has to resonate enough to create a change - a change in our heart and mind and lives, where we focus our attention and goals and desires.

Our family is suffering the death of our 15 year-old black lab. How I hate death! I long for the day when the last enemy, death, is thrown into the Lake of Fire! But I can’t help thinking that it’s no coincidence that she was nearing the end (and died) just as we are approaching Passover. And I am impressed again with the fact that Jesus’ death needs to be more painful to me than Velvet’s death is. He’s my Savior! I daren’t become so complacent (because I face it every year) that I fail to recognize its importance and pertinence and value.

So why does God allow suffering and death? I believe there are several answers to that. The short answer is that death is a consequence of sin. But God can use something bad for our good, even as Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered.
And, it’s all part of the examination process that we must go through prior to taking the bread and the wine each year. We must recognize the enormity anew each year of what Jesus has done on our behalf. We must apprehend its significance to our lives and allow God to change us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ because of that understanding.

I hate death. I don’t eagerly embrace pain and suffering. But I am humbly grateful for the redemption Jesus achieved for me because of His suffering and death. It’s a good, if sobering, place to be as we go into the spring holy days . . because we observe Passover to proclaim the Lord’s death ’til He comes.

We’ve talked about repetition in the Bible. The phrase “verily, verily” is an assertion of truth. When God says something two or three times, we know that He’s emphasizing it for a reason. So have you ever counted how many times the phrase, “And you shall know that I am the LORD,” is found in the book of Ezekiel? Some form of it is found 50 times! That’s amazing. In Ezekiel chapters 6-7 alone, it’s found seven times!

These are chapters delineating the unrighteousness of the various nations (including God’s people) and the consequences incurred by their violence, disobedience, pride, arrogance, and overall iniquity. After God states the judgement which will come upon them, He says, “And you shall know that I am the LORD.” He is God; the idols are nothing. God’s laws are to be obeyed; He is the omnipotent Judge; He will be recognized as the only God.

But there is also an intimation that they didn’t know God; if they had truly known God, they wouldn’t have been doing the things they were doing. This same idea is in Hebrews 3:12, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.  An unbelieving heart causes disobedience of, and rebellion toward, God.

Unbelief, furthermore, caused a lack of miracles. Look at Matthew 13:58, And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Mark 6:6 records Jesus’ response: And he marveled because of their unbelief.

To say that this is not good is an understatement! That Jesus would marvel at the unbelief of the people is striking. He is, after all, the One who created mankind. You wouldn’t think that we could do anything that would surprise Him. But the unbelief of the people of His hometown amazed Him.

But we, the people of God today, we wouldn’t be guilty of unbelief. Would we? Take a look at this scripture:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1)

 It is not an accident that those witnesses are found in the preceding chapter - the Hall of Faith. These are the true believers who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:33-38)

These believers, this great cloud of witnesses, showed their faith through their deeds - regardless of whether it meant great victories over fire and lions and war or whether it meant suffering, pain, imprisonment, or death. They ran their race with endurance - because of their belief in our Great God, because of the hope set before them.

In a word, they knew God. Do you know the Lord your God like that? But really, more than us knowing God, we must be known of God (Galatians 4:9). We know how very important that is (Matthew 7:23)! So what do your actions say? Do you know God? Are you known of Him? Or do you have an evil heart of unbelief?

Jesus said, "In this world, you will have trouble."

It doesn't matter whether you are a Christian or not; you're going to experience trouble from time to time. So what do you do when trouble comes?

First, remember the second part of what Jesus said: "But take heart, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) So when trouble comes, remember that God is mightier than any trouble we might face. Go to Him in prayer and ask for His intervention.

Secondly, God has mercifully given us His written Word and His Holy Spirit. Proverbs 3:6 says, "In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." We need His direction all the time, but when trouble comes, our first response should be to seek Him, not only in prayer, but in Bible study as well.

Third, trouble will not last forever. Jesus is coming back to set up a kingdom that will never end. "Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).

And lastly, if your trust is in Him, then you will be at peace (John 16:33). That peace is an incredible witness to those around you of the great God we serve.

On this day in 1543, King Henry VIII made reading the Bible illegal for commoners. To the day, 243 years later, Thomas Jefferson finally succeeded in getting the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom passed - an act which established complete freedom of religion. A person should be, he argued, free to spread their own religious opinions without punishment from the "state church" or government.

There was a time when a person's tongue might be cut out for preaching without a license or a person's ears cut off for listening to unapproved preaching. Even in our nation's history, people were taxed to support the state-sanctioned church, regardless of whether they believed in the stated doctrines or not.

Praise God for the freedoms that we now have! Do you treasure your freedom to read the Bible? Do you devote some of your day to studying the Word of God? I pray that it doesn't take some degree of persecution for us to value what we dismiss so casually today.

Fact source: This Day is Christian History, A. Kenneth Curtis and Daniel Graves (eds.), Christian Publications, Inc., 2005.

Are you free? Well, you have to have truth to be free.

How do you get truth? You have to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

How do you know if you are a disciple of Jesus? You have to hold to His teachings.

What does that look like? You have to do what He says.

How do you know what He says? You have to study the Bible. Make Bible study a daily part of your life. But don't just read the words; seek to deeply understand them and make connections across the books of the Bible. Dig and study and seek - and you will be blessed.

Try it.

Gardening is hard work! Don’t laugh at me. I’m serious! I’m not talking about tilling the ground, pulling weeds, watering, planting, keeping the critters out (repeat as needed); I’m talking about the harvest! We don’t often think of the harvest as hard work. We think about the joy of going out to the garden and picking a ripe tomato, sauntering back inside to prepare a BLT. But what if it’s not just one tomato? What if it’s 6 bushels of tomatoes and today’s already Thursday and you’ve already canned 50 quarts and you’re only halfway done? (This happened this week to someone I know!) Or how about cucumbers by the 5-gallon pail? Or gallons and gallons of grapes?

I’m not complaining.

I’m feeling so incredibly blessed at the abundance of produce from the garden. Many days I go outside and pick what is ripe and then come inside and work until dark getting it processed and preserved. Harvest season is hard work!

Two things occurred to me as I was thinking about that this week. First, as we (as a society) get further and further from an agrarian lifestyle, we can very easily miss some of the object lessons in the Bible because so many of them are based on farming or animal husbandry or both. That’s  a shame! The words of life are becoming more and more of a mystery to us (as a people) as we get farther and farther from the land.

Secondly, harvesting is hard work. And as I experience that in my garden, I’m wondering if I somehow missed the object lesson: preaching the gospel, letting our lights shine to those around us, exhorting, encouraging, planting seeds - it’s hard work. Do we really understand the dedication that God is asking of us as ambassadors of Christ? Are we content to stroll out to the garden (spiritually speaking) and pick a solitary tomato? Don’t we understand how much time, effort, blood and tears goes into this?

But here’s the really cool part of it: harvest season is the highlight of the whole year. It’s the time when we see the blessings of God. The joy and satisfaction we feel from slicing into a ripe watermelon which cracks before the knife can cut all the way through! That’s the joy and contentment we should feel from working in God’s harvest field. And that spiritual harvest is a lot more meaningful than gallons of green beans or tomatoes or grapes.

        The first summer I lifeguarded, I enjoyed it. I liked knowing that I was keeping the swimmers safe. And I only had to go in for one save that summer, so it was all good.
        The next summer, I taught swimming lessons before the pool opened to the public in the afternoon for general swimming. Teaching swimming lessons was amazing! How much fun is it to take a child who won’t even put their face in the water and turn them into a fish!! On the last day of lessons, after only three weeks, teachers would take their swimmers to the deep end and let them jump off the diving board. When I was teaching the littlest swimmers, I was always treading water just below the board in order to catch them and get them started on their way to the side.
         Some of those kids were tiny! What would possess them to climb up on the diving board, creep out to the end, and then jump into my arms?! After only three weeks of lessons?! They trusted me. They not only were willing to do what I asked; they believed I would keep them safe when they did it.
         It’s no wonder Jesus said that we have to become like little children if we want to enter the kingdom of God! (Matthew 18:3) To obey - even when you’re scared - and to trust that God’s got you!! That’s the very definition of faith.
         I was replaying that video in my head this morning - thinking about the faith of a little child, evaluating my faith. The scripture (1 Corinthians 13:12) popped into my head: we see through a glass darkly. We don’t know what’s coming. We don’t even fully understand what’s happening right now.  We almost certainly don’t comprehend everything that has happened last week, last month, last year.
     We don’t know why certain things have happened - health issues, relationship conflicts, natural disasters (called acts of God by the insurance companies), accidents, etc. We may find ourselves asking God why - not in the wrong way. We just want to know what it is that we’re supposed to be learning from whatever difficulty we’re walking through. It’s an expression of faith and trust - asking why - because it demonstrates
that we know God has allowed that circumstance to occur in our life.
        But what if that’s not the best response? What if the best response is, “Thank You, Father, for loving me”? What if, like that scared little swimmer who creeps to the end of the diving board, we simply trust that God loves us enough to jump off into His waiting arms - trusting that He loves us enough to give us His very best, having the faith to believe that we don’t know what miracles He’s performing behind the scenes? What if the thing that we label Disaster is actually the event which draws us closer to Him? What if we are blessed to see God’s hand at work in our life because of where He has asked us to go?
        It’s the craziest thing! Sometimes a child will be so afraid to climb up on the board. They have to have another teacher walk them out to the end of the board. I even had one little one who had to be lowered into the arms of her teacher, who was treading water below the board. Some of those kids are scared to death. But when they do it once, that’s all they want to do - over and over again. They get to the side of the pool, run to the diving board, and eagerly wait for their turn to go again.
        Thinking of their enthusiasm brings tears to my eyes. What if, in addition, to being obedient and trusting God, what if we were jumping up and down in eager anticipation for whatever is next in God’s plan? It’s gonna be good - even if it doesn’t look good right now - because God loves us. He wants us in His kingdom with Him. And He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32) He’s already given us the most precious gift of all!!
        So as the swimming lesson session of life winds down, how are you walking to the deep end and the diving board? Are you obedient? Are you trusting? Are you thankful? And are you joyful? Just something to think about.

Every time I watch the news or read a news article, I’m dismayed at world conditions. Some of it makes me angry. Some of it makes me sick. Some of it makes me feel very discouraged. Most of it just makes me want to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head, hoping it was just a bad dream and that it will all go away. Those feelings weigh me down and make me feel less like accomplishing anything. Of course, one solution is to just not look at the news, but that doesn’t make all of the evilness, insanity, and godlessness disappear; it just makes me less informed.

I was thinking about toil and trouble as I was picking blueberries and blackberries and watering the garden.

My garden is not producing like I would have liked or expected. I got it planted later than I wanted to because it was so wet so late. Then the deer very happily ate the cucumbers, beans, cantaloupe, strawberry leaves, and tomatoes when they first came up!!! Seriously!! Ron and I have taken some measures to discourage the deer. But the result of their nightly smorgasbord munching has set my garden back enormously. Then the extreme heat, the myriad of bugs, and dry conditions haven’t helped.

Nevertheless, the blueberries are trying. The early variety was nice and plump. The variety which ripens in July are not nearly so large and juicy. Nevertheless, they are plentiful. As I was picking blueberries this morning, I was struck by the realization that regardless of the difficulties and obstacles the plants face, they are still trying to produce fruit. Well, some of them are. The blueberries and blackberries are trying. On the other hand, the tomatoes have lots of blooms. The plants look dark green and healthy, but have very little fruit. The difficulties they experienced have resulted in limited production. I’ve weeded. I’ve mulched. I’m watering. Still on 35 plants I have five little tomatoes set on. I’m not happy.

Do you think God feels like that toward us? Jesus told us that in this life we would have trouble. We should expect difficulties and obstacles. So then, what do we do? Do we hunker down and just wait for the return of Jesus? Or like I said, go back to bed and pull the covers over my head, hoping it will all go away? Or do we tighten our belt, adjust our hat, straighten our shoulders, and resolve to produce fruit for the Master regardless of the difficulties and obstacles?

I know some people who exhibit peace, calm, and pleasantness regardless of the problems they are experiencing. To look at them, you’d never know that life has thrown them a nasty curveball in the bottom of the ninth with the game on the line. And we’re not just talking about limited tomato production! These folks are struggling with severe issues.

I suspect that, for these folks, the peace they exude is not just a facade, but is very real evidence of their faith in the Master, in His provision, His sovereignty, and His goodness. Their peace is faith in action; it’s producing fruit for the Kingdom.

There are things we can do to help a garden be productive in the midst of a hot, dry summer. Of course, water is essential. But, in the end, God gives the increase. And that’s the key to my own emotional malaise, isn’t it? My loving Heavenly Father is still in control; He’s sovereign. He knows what I need to shape me into a useful tool for now and for in the kingdom. I need to take my eyes off this world and keep them firmly fixed on Jesus Christ.

And who knows, with all of those blooms, maybe I’ll have lots of tomatoes before the summer is over.