The Savage Five

As I lay in bed this morning, I was aware of every inch of my body as the pain demanded that I get up out of bed.   My hands have been so sore from all the work done in the previous weeks.  I ask the Lord to establish the work of my hands as I drag myself out of bed. Psalm 90:16-17 Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children.  Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes establish the work of our hands!   I know that even though we are called to do the hard work of weeding our own hearts, amending our souls and planting seeds, it is the Lord that does the work through us. We were never meant to do His work alone.  We are called to do His work together and by the power of His Spirit. I Corinthians 3:6-9 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according t...

Weeds are like sin in the garden of our hearts, and like weeds, when sin entangles our hearts we need to address its presence and potential power to overrun our lives, taking captive in its wake the potential fruit bearing parts of our lives, where God desires to use us for His glory. The human heart is deceitful above all things   and is in desperate need of the pruning effect of the word of God.  Psalm 17:4 says that the Word keeps us from the paths of the destroyer.  However, the worries of life have the potential to choke out the Word making it unfruitful . If we allow it, sin will seize an opportunity in our lives just like the opportunistic qualities of the thistle.  Thistle is prevalent throughout the landscape but as a gardener manages it consistently and chooses to declare all out war on the thistle, with great resolve, then overtime, it can be overcome by the the good soil and fruitful plants in the garden. If thistle is left unattended ...

         As I took a morning stroll through my garden today, I was reminded of the opportunistic and pervasive nature of weeds that a gardener has to face each and ever day.  Like sin, weeds grow alongside the beautiful and potentially fruitful plants in the garden disguised as something lovely or fruit bearing.      Weeds are plants with no redeeming value for nutrition, food or medicine.  They compete for water, sunlight and nutrients leaving the plants starving.  They grow at an accelerated rate and quickly produce seeds that perpetuate the next generation's invasion leaving an imbalance in the soils nutrients.  This loss of nutrients makes plants weak and susceptible to disease and infestation by insects.  Weeds are difficult to remove because many of them are able to regenerate from a small portion of the plant left unknowingly by the gardener.      Like Glechoma hederacea pictur...