Fifty years ago, after Sunday service, saints long sing passed down the River of Life, gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Grace Church, and met for sustenance and song.

The minister asked the longest attending member to chose a song. She selected “In The Garden” www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhIGIfsLxVk. The hymn sings of guidance from, and intimacy with God.


I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses

And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am his own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known


Like so many through the centuries, the elderly lady woke up from the bewildering dreams that civilization proposes, then walked in the clarity of new life that God offers.



“We are a seed patiently waiting in the earth: waiting to come up a flower in the Gardener's good time, up into the real world, the real waking. I suppose that our whole present life, looked back on from there, will seem only a drowsy half-waking. We are here in the land of dreams. But cock-crow is coming.”

― C. S. Lewis

On an April afternoon, I lay overlooking our fallow garden. There were no day lilies or lilies-of-the-valley; no lilacs or hyacinths; no fragrant rosebuds wafting along Spring breezes. Yet God arrived with countless angles. Spirits fanned heavenly floral fragrances through my bedroom windows. A barely perceptible yet strong and sure voice whispered, “Have faith my son. My gardener shall tend to your flowers and soul. Through faith, you shall run like a deer through scented flowers in my heavenly kingdom. Ah, such is my aspiration.

I await the cock’s crow, when body and soul sleepily arise from the muddled Earthly land of dreams.

Tags:   religion Christianity God garden retirth nature Spring tulip flowers

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In episode of The Chosen, Simon Peter and Centurion Gaius repair a cistern. Simon quotes Jerimiah 2: 13.
My people are guilty of two evils:
They have abandoned Me, the spring of living waters;
And instead, they have settled for dead and stagnant water
from cracked, leaky cisterns of their own making.
Israel relied on cisterns for their water supply. The area received no more that 20 inches of water each year. Therefore, the tribes gathered rains for future use. Although useful for survival, cistern waters risked becoming polluted. Likewise, mankind has corrupted the gifts of creation. The Eternal proclaimed I am the One who delivered you into this land of abundance
to enjoy its fruits and many good things. (Jerimiah 2: 7).
In Hosea 6, the Eternal speaks of mankind’s infidelity and fickle nature. “Your loyalty to Me is like fog in the morning,
like dew that evaporates at sunrise.
5 This is why I cut them with the words of the prophets
and destroyed them with the words of My mouth.
My judgment went forth like the light of the rising sun.
6 For I want not animal sacrifices, but mercy.
I don’t want burnt offerings; I want people to know Me as God!”
Whether 3000 years ago or today, man takes Go’s guidance lightly. With a flippant attitude, people have sinned, asked for forgiveness, then returned to comfortable sin. Since the industrial revolution, man has exploited the Earth for his own financial benefit. The radical changes in climate – drought and floods - testify to the damage man inflicted. We speak of reform, but find it politically and economically unpalatable. The people of Ephraim did what they wanted, then errantly expected sacrifices to make amends, allowing them to turn back to living a life far from Eternal truths.
I lived a similar life, seeking a passing relationship with God. Yet my seeds were thrown among the rocks, taking temporary root, only to have me trample upon those seed. I heard the word and received it immediately with joy and enthusiasm; but without deep roots, doubt, and a search for acceptance in a party world caused seed to wither, and likely brought lasting health consequences.
However, the grace of God has pulled me through, so that I may cultivate an attitude of repentance, and that new crops can grow among living waters. Jesus said “If you believe in Me … rivers of living water will flow from within you.” (John 7:38)

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After five days of rain, sunny skies warm Virginia to an Indian Summer 70 degrees. In front of me, and Alabama license displays “God Bless America”. At patriotic events, we may sing a Kate Smith song with similar supplications.
“God bless America
Land that I love
Stand beside her
And guide her
Through the night with a light from above”

Despite requests for blessings, we live in a dysfunctional world, ignorant of how to receive blessings.

In the show The Chosen, Jesus joyfully listens to children reciting the Shema, taken from Deuteronomy 6: 4-5 and 11:13-21.
Hear (and act), O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

For many, 21st century idols have replaced a full love of God and his rules for life. God no longer holds our hearts and minds. Many would rather get in a Sunday morning game of golf or catch a nightly TV show that teach Godly precepts to our children.

One night, lightning and thunder crashed simultaneously, shaking my car. Darkness flashed a pure white. My daughter prayed “God save me”. I responded that God is not an ATM machine. If one had not been praying, it was probably too late to expect any response.

Likewise, “God Bless America” is not a feel-good slogan. To expect such blessings, we must live as the Shema requires: agape love for the Eternal.

Tags:   Old Testiment Torah Deuteronomy God love Christianity James Webb Telescope nebula space nature

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I love August.
The sweet green scent of God's breath hangs in the humid air.
The Eternal builds a stairway to Heaven, inviting us to "come on up".

I am so thankful to God, who always marches us to victory under the banner of the Anointed One; and through us He spreads the beautiful fragrance of His knowledge to every corner of the earth. 2 Corinthians 2:14

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An author misattributed to Jesus the quote “I am the Rose of Sharon”. Actually, in Song of Solomon 2:1, a young lady speaks sensually, enticing, inviting her lover. “ I am a rose of Sharon, a lily found in one of the valleys.” The floral fragrances of crocus, lilies and perhaps roses in a meadow made senses sing. They provided a venues for lovers to frolic

Eternal truths are forever the same, immutable, their earthly manifestation forever changing.

The author showed a modern Rose of Sharon, no way associated with the Biblical reference. Yet her prose encouraged me to take neighborhood walks, to nearby Rose of Sharon bushes. There, I sensed two characteristics of the Eternal – Jehovah Jireh and the gateway between darkness and light.

A bee, buried deeply among with northern hibiscus, was covered with a coating of pollen. He worked calmly with the knowledge that Jehovah Jireh bestowed the blessing of bountiful pollen within the flowers.

Countless generations past, God gave aging Sarah and elderly Abraham son Issac. Then one day God put Abraham’s faith to the test. God directed Abraham to offer Issac as a burnt sacrifice. Undoubtedly troubled, Abraham bult an altar then raised a knife above his son. A special messenger from God arrived, expressed that Abraham had shown his loyalty to the one true God. A ram appeared with horns caught in a thicket as an alternate sacrifice. Jehovah Jireh – God provides

Secondly, I captured a picture a Rose of Sharon, morning shadows within the floral bush. Like the flower, Jesus sits at the nexus between light and darkness.
John 1 Before time itself was measured, the Voice was speaking.
The Voice was and is God.
2 This celestial Word remained ever present with the Creator;
3 His speech shaped the entire cosmos.
Immersed in the practice of creating,
all things that exist were birthed in Him.
4 His breath filled all things
with a living, breathing light—
5 A light that thrives in the depths of darkness,
blazes through murky bottoms.
It cannot and will not be quenched.

Tags:   Rose of Sharon pink flower September Bible Song of Solomon nature

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