Good Morning Garden

Dig Deeper

The study of the Bible is not unlike the search for diamonds in South Africa. At first people found a few diamonds in the yellow clay, and they were delighted with their good fortune, even while they supposed that this was to be the full extent of their find. Then, upon digging deeper, they came upon the blue clay, and to their amazement found as many precious stones in a day as they had previously found in a year.

In your exploration of Bible Truth, see to it that you do not rest satisfied in the yellow clay of a few spiritual discoveries, but press on to the rich blue clay underneath. The Bible, however, differs from the diamond field in the sublime fact that beneath the blue clay there are more and still more and richer strata, awaiting the touch of spiritual perception—on and on to Infinity.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out! (Romans 11:33).

Each level of spiritual development yields a great wealth of joy, grace and love. Like digging for diamonds, it takes much effort and determination to dig further into the clay. And while each level of discernment includes its own set of challenges and obstacles, each yields a greater treasure. When we continue to seek and find deeper spiritual discoveries, we soon find that we have enough treasure to share with those around us and then with the whole world. Let us pledge this day to continue our spiritual search until we have so much joy, bounty and peace, that everyone we touch will be spiritually enriched by our efforts.

Digging deeper,
Z gardener

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Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved (Psalm 55:22).

We sometimes hear the expression used, “ cast the burden,” and it is useful to consider what this phrase really means. Used intelligently, it is one of the great keys to spiritual victory. To cast the burden means really to insist upon harmony and peace of mind, and to cease from worry and anxiety there and then.

If, when you are faced with trouble, whether it be old or new, you can affirm positively the harmony of being and then refuse to reopen the case, no matter how much fear may urge you to do so, you have cast your burden upon the Lord, and you will win.

One of the most difficult things we can try to do when we cast our burdens on God, is to then refuse to be imprisoned by them. That does not mean we ignore them or refuse to deal with them. it simply means we must not let them create the negative responses of fear and anxiety within us. We must still do our part to lessen and learn from our burdens. However, once we turn them over to God, we can then work on them in joy and gladness as opposed to fear and sadness. Isn’t that better?

Casting away,
Z gardener

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Sit down quietly where you are not likely to be disturbed. Relax the body – and begin to think about yourself. Every time your thoughts wander to something higher, bring it back gently but relentlessly.

Think about the past. Think over all the mistakes you have made, going right back to childhood. Think over all the opportunities you have missed and the time you have wasted. Especially think of all the occasions upon which you have been badly treated.

Think about your body and wonder if your age or your job or the climate isn’t beginning to tell. See if you cannot discover a pain or an ache somewhere.

Think about finances and if they are going well now, insist that this is probably too good to last.

In any case, think about yourself, that is the main point, and if you will keep this up faithfully for fifteen or twenty minutes, there can be no doubt about the result.

Seest a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope for a fool than him (Proverbs 26:12)

Singer Bono of the rock band U2 sings “Now your stuck in a moment, and you can’t get out of it”. That unhappy situation describes many of us who are captured by past mistakes, current weakness or despair regarding the future. While there are many ways to get stuck in a moment, the way out is always clear. The path begins with honesty about that which drags us down. The past mistakes, the current failures that, along with fear and trepidation about the future, are things about which we must make an honest accounting. Then, we must accept forgiveness for these things and put them behind us. Finally, we must turn away from ourselves as the problem and as the solution. We alone can not overcome that which plagues us or turn away from that moment in which we are stuck.

When we focus on God as our source of forgiveness, help and guidance, then we are on the right path guided by the Holy Spirit. Then we must turn our attention to all our blessings and to doing that which God would have us do. Then we can envision, enter and live in the Eden that God gave us here. The fact is gentle spirits, that we can not do this alone or on our own. “For we have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.”

So, when we get up off that couch, quit kicking ourselves and thinking about what we did wrong and how we are destined to mess things up again, then we are moving in the right direction. If we then turn to God and follow his will instead of our own,”we will be lifted up as on wings of eagles, we will run and not be faint”, “we will be able to do all things through Christ who strengthens us”. This is how to begin down the path of happiness.

Finding the path daily,
Z gardener

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Have you an open mind? Is the window of your soul open for fresh air and the sunshine of Truth to come in, or is it closed and shuttered by mental laziness or the emotional congestion that we call prejudice?

None of us knows how many fine things we have missed through being self-satisfied and cocksure. No one can be considered really intelligent who does not have a readiness to examine new ideas with an open mind.

The history of scientific discovery shows that almost every new step was opposed by the very people who should have welcomed it.

Harvey was denounced for claiming that the blood circulated through the body; Galileo was persecuted for saying that the earth went round the sun; Pasteur was branded a quack for advancing the germ theory of disease; Jenner was threatened with the police for pioneering vaccination. The finality of the atom, which was a scientific dogma in the child hood of most of us, has been completely discarded.

Probably the only incorrigible fool is the man who says that anything is impossible, or that there is any limit to the conquests that divine Intelligence working in mankind can achieve.

The Lord is able to give thee much more than this (2 Chronicles 25:9).

With all our intelligence and with all that we can perceive through it and our senses, we still only grasp or experience a small fraction of existence. What we know and feel is dwarfed by what we don’t know and can’t taste, touch, smell or see. How can we as humans be so foolish as to think we “know” anything with such certainty as to obviate any other possibility. Yet, every day many of people strut through this world fully convinced that they know it all or at least enough to say what is or is not possible. Many of us are so sure about such things that we will persecute those who think or feel differently. That is how innocent people get burned at the stake as witches.

Stan

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Don’t wait about for God to act dramatically—because He probably won’t. When people expect a dramatic miracle from the outside, they are really hoping to change conditions without changing themselves; to get something for nothing, in fact, and that would be a violation of cosmic law.

Don’t wait for God to tell you what to do from the outside—He won’t.

And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

With God’s help, we are capable of becoming new persons, reborn and and reformed. This happens within. When we turn to God and become this new person, then the external world will change dr amatically, completely and beneficially. Seek first to become the new person God intended us to be, then watch the universe yield to your new persona. As within, so without.

Working inside,
Z gardener

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