harvest

Get Your Garden On

“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” – Matthew 13:23 Jesus tells us in simplistic terms that our life is a garden. In life, we’re always planting seeds around us that in their season will bear fruit. We tend to think of “you reap what you sow,” in a negative way, but in the Bible, there’s a positive aspect as well. When you sow by planting seeds in the ground and no one sees them, that’s building up a real harvest. When you do positive things, you’re growing yourself a better garden, a life that’s improving for you and others over time. I just started gardening with my kids and I’m terrible at it. I have a brown thumb; everything I touch

June 27, 2022 No Comments

Tending the Garden of Your Mind

“Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.” – Matthew 13:7 I will always remember my Grandpa Persley, who lived with us years ago and turned our backyard into a lovely and fruitful garden. In essence, he took boards and created a big sandbox and fertilized it regularly with composted topsoil to help the garden grow, and boy, did it ever! He had tomatoes and all kinds of other veggies until he and my grandma moved to Springfield. Guess what happened then? Unfortunately, as well-tended as it had been, no one else in our household had the time or the interest to keep that garden healthy, so within three or four weeks, it was completely overrun by weeds. In fact, so swift was the destruction that it made a lasting impression on me. Your mind is just like that garden. Not only must you tend to

June 20, 2022 No Comments

Vulnerability in Relationships

“See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” – Luke 11:35,36 Today, I want to sum up our discussion of discipline and secrecy and how it deepens our walk with God. Allow me to offer you two practical steps you can take to employ the power of secrecy in your own life and in your relationships, both with Jesus and others. First of all, when you do something really great for someone else, keep it a secret. If you’ve never done this before, I encourage you to give it a try. Give a gift to a friend or a stranger, serve in some capacity, or volunteer for a day, but don’t tell anyone. When

February 1, 2022 1 Comment

The Fruit of the Spirit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22,23 The fruit of the Spirit is something that we talk a lot about, but what does it really mean? While much is written and theologized on the subject, I’m inclined to look at it more simply. First of all, the list of characteristics that Paul gives in Galatians do not define multiple fruits, but components of the same fruit. In other words, it’s one fruit that is multi-faceted and manifests in different ways. Some days love will be the dominant flavor, and other days, peace and gentleness will be primary, but all of them will be evident in some measure. In fact, the different characteristics crossover, and one tends to give rise to the others. This is why I’m leery of religious people

August 23, 2021 No Comments

Never Neglect What Matters

“Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” – Galatians 6:8 What you neglect today will neglect you tomorrow. I hope reading this phrase gives you reason to pause, because it’s true in pretty much every area of existence. Just as seeds of goodness and righteousness ultimately bring abundant life, when we don’t pay attention to the kinds of things we plant in our hearts, minds, and bodies, the harvest we inherit will show it. This is true of our health, our relationships, and our goals, dreams, and projects. In the summer, as a teenager, I used to work at Rancho Capistrano, a 350-acre retreat center that was owned by the Crystal Cathedral. There was a groundskeeper named Tim who lived there, and he was like a mentor to me. He meticulously took

February 21, 2021 1 Comment

Get Your Garden On

Tending the Garden of Your Mind

Vulnerability in Relationships

The Fruit of the Spirit

Never Neglect What Matters

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