Good Morning Garden

The world is not going to the dogs. The human race is not doomed. Civilization is not going to crash. The captain is on the bridge. Humanity is going through a difficult time, but humanity has gone through difficulties many times before in its long history and has always come through, strengthened and purified.

Do not worry yourself about the universe collapsing. It is not going to collapse, and anyway that question is none of your business. The captain is on the bridge. If the survival of humanity depended upon you or me, it would be a poor lookout for the Great Enterprise, would it not?

The captain is on the bridge. God is still in business. All that you have to do is to realize the Presence of God where the trouble seems to be, to do your nearest duty to the very best of your ability; and to keep an even mind until the storm is over.

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. (Psalm 119:165).

What a comfort it is to know that the creator of the universe is watching out for each and every one of us and for all of us. That comfort rises to the level of peace when we obey God’s will and live according to God’s laws. Such peace also allows us to overcome life’s unpleasantness and challenges while living in love, faith, joy, gladness and hope. When we know and fully accept that everything which happens to us is meant to be, or can be made to be for our best good, then obstacles become opportunities and challenges become victories. And, life then can become a garden filled with beautiful and healthy life that nurtures us and fills our days with peace, beauty and bounty.

Following the Captain,
Z gardener

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Most hotel rooms are furnished with a notice that says “do not disturb.” The guest has only to hang this outside the door and he can sleep in peace as long as he wishes. Some people appear to have hung such a notice on their brains; they deeply resent anything like a new idea, or even a new and better way of considering familiar things. They are slumbering away their lives in a kind of semi-coma; repeating mechanically the time worn phrases and threadbare ideas of the past. Not dead, but sleepeth, might very well be said of them, and, indeed, their consciousness is a mental cemetery.

If you have been sleeping like this, pull yourself together, rub the mental sleep from your eyes. Now is the day of salvation. Start right in today to handle at least one important part of your life in a new way. Break at least one rusty fetter today, and once this process begins you will be astonished to find how far you will go, and what wonderful things you will attain to.

Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (Ephesians 5:14)

While this writer believes the scripture above refers those who have died and are awaiting heaven, the point of the piece is well taken. A wise man once responded to the question, “what were they thinking?” with the observation that the question assumes they were thinking. How many times do we just go through our days or certain circumstances without much thought at all? How often do we just act or react based on our preconceived ideas without taking time to really think about our lives or what we are doing?

Carpe Diem,
Z gardener

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As children of the Most High we have a divine heritage and therefore a right to expect that God will take care of us in every way. The Bible is full of promises as to what God will do for His children, but perhaps Jesus put it the most plainly when he said,

What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matthew 7:9-11).

So you have a divine right to expect all these good things from God. But what does God expect of us? Well, God has a right to expect that we will put Him first in our hearts. Then God expects us to have a lively faith. Faith in itself is a reliance upon the goodness of God.

And lastly, God expects us to go to Him in prayer — as a son who knows that even before he has asked, the loving Father has answered.

Putting God first, practicing our faith and relying on God sounds like fairly simple propositions, and they are. Doing these things however, is anything but simple and are among the most difficult things we can attempt. For it is human nature to put ourselves first, to put our wants before our faith and to rely on ourselves for our needs. So, we must overcome basic human nature and rise above human weakness and self-centeredness if we are to do that which God expects of us.

God first,
Z gardener

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In the depths of his being man always feels intuitively that there is a way out of his difficulties if only he can find it. The infant, as yet uncontaminated by the defeatism of his elders, simply refuses to tolerate inharmony on any terms, and therefore he demonstrates over it. When he is hungry he tells the world while many a sophisticated adult goes without. Does he find a pin sticking in some part of his anatomy? Not for him a sigh of resignation to the supposed “will of God,” or a whine about never having any luck, or a sigh that what cannot be cured must be endured. His instincts tell him that life and harmony are inseparable.

Refuse to tolerate anything less than harmony. You can have a happy and joyous life. But to do so you must seize the rudder of your own destiny and steer boldly for the port that you intend to make. What are you doing about your future?

For not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified (Romans 2:13).

What we do ultimately determines who we are and how we will live. Even though we say the right things and believe the right things, they alone are insufficient to make our lives harmonious and joyful. It is in action that all our thoughts and beliefs are put to work in the physical world and in action that our perception of that world is shaped. Joy and harmony are the mental states that flow from right actions.

Accepting joy and harmony today,
Z gardener

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There is no need to be unhappy. There is no need to be disappointed, or oppressed, or aggrieved. There is no need for illness or failure or discouragement. There is no necessity for anything but an abounding interest and joy in life.

As long as you accept a negative condition at its own valuation, so long will you remain in bondage to it; but you have only to assert your birthright as a free man or woman and you will be free.

Success and happiness are the natural conditions of mankind. It is actually easier to demonstrate these things than the reverse. Bad habits of thinking and acting may obscure this fact for a time, just as a wrong way of walking or sitting, or holding a pen, or musical instrument may seem to be easier than the proper way, because we have accustomed ourselves to it; but the proper way is the easier nevertheless.

Unhappiness, frustration, poverty, loneliness are really bad habits that their victims have become accustomed to bear, believing that there is no way out, whereas there is a way; and that way is simply to acquire good habits of working with the Law instead of against it.

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law (Psalm 119:18)

There is a way out. The problem is we too often don’t have eyes to see the way, or we do see and refuse to seek the way. The difficulty lies in the fact that we have to empty out our self-centered human desires and perceptions, and replace them with God-centered spiritual desires and perceptions. Many times this seems undesirable or impossible, and without God’s help it usually is.

In abundance,
Z gardener

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Your destiny depends entirely upon your own mental conduct. You may think that you know this already, but if you do not act upon it, it is certain that you do not really know it. Most people would be amazed to discover how much negative thinking they indulge in. Thought is so swift and habit is so strong that unless you are very careful you will constantly transgress.

Suppose that, quite without your knowledge, an invisible dictaphone were strapped on your shoulders the first thing tomorrow morning, and that you carried it about all day until the last thing tomorrow night. Then suppose that this record were played over to you so that every word you had uttered for a whole day was repeated to you. Well, if you are an average human being you would probably be embarrassed. Yet it really does happen that everything we say, and think and do, is recorded – in the subconscious mind – and our daily experience is simply that record being played over to us by the Law of Being.

Never forget that the circumstances of your life tomorrow are molded by your mental conduct of today.

I have chosen the way of truth…(Psalm 119:30).
The old saying that you are what you eat has a spiritual corollary. Your life is what you think. If one has ever tried to spend any amount of time without having any negative thoughts, one realizes quickly how many negative thoughts we indulge in a short time frame. We spend much of our lives as spiritual persons overcoming the world’s propensity to instill negative thinking in us. As we work to overcome this we soon find that we are unable on our own to totally overcome negativity in our thoughts, words and deeds. That revelation is the gateway to the understanding that we depend on God to ensure our capacity for love and faith. It is when we give God the reigns of leadership in our lives that we are able to stay on that narrow high path. That path leads through our gardens here below to our eternal joy above.

God dependent,
Stan

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You are continually treating your conditions with the thoughts that you hold concerning them. What you really think about anything, is your “treatment” of that thing. Many people have the idea that they are only “treating” when they call it “treating.” But no matter what you call it, your thought concerning any subject is a treatment. This is the reason visible conditions are always the expression of invisible thought.

If you will begin systematically to treat every side of your life with a series of positive, correct thoughts, and keep to this practice for even a few weeks, you will be amazed to find how much everything will change for the better.

…be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…(Romans 12:2).

If we added up all our positive thoughts and negative thoughts, which pile would be higher? Selfless thoughts vs. selfish? faith vs. fear?

Treating by thinking,
Z gardener

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God’s time for your demonstration is now. The time God wants you to be healed is now. The time God wants you to be in your true place is now. The Bible says that the day of salvation is now.

God is ready the moment you are. There is nothing to wait for except the changing of your own consciousness. People often make the mistake of saying, “I know my demonstration will come at the right time.” But the only time to be harmonious and satisfied is now. The time to be happy is now and the place is here. Did not Jesus say, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and by this he meant close by.

Do not keep yourself out of the Kingdom of Heaven by inventing postponements, but change your consciousness now, for it can all happen in a moment.

…that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed (Romans 13:11).

If we are to live in the Kingdom of God, we must adapt our consciousness and behavior to that prescribed in the Bible. We must believe in God, we must act in accordance with God’s will and we must accept the principles and priorities espoused in the Bible. When we accept Christ as our personal savior, live according to his teachings and think as he instructs, we will live in the Kingdom of God. In this kingdom, God rules and we are God’s servants. In this kingdom we are given a garden to live in and nurture. In this kingdom we are protected, lifted up and blessed in all the ways we need for our best good. Isn’t it time to awaken and claim our gardens?

Demonstrating now,
Z gardener

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We make spiritual progress by putting God into every corner of our lives. Most people on the spiritual path are willing to give God a generous portion of their lives, but there is often one little corner where they do not wish the divine Light to shine.

Bluebeard, you remember, kept open house, with the exception of one little room – and there he drew the line. His current wife, or any of the neighbors could go all over the premises and welcome, until they came to that one little room, the Bluebeard chamber, that was forbidden. Yet that one little locked-up room contained the tragedy of the house.

The contents of the Bluebeard room need not be anything that we usually call horrible. There may just be selfishness, laziness, spiritual pride, or any of the more “respectable” but very deadly sins. There may be an old grudge or bitter remorse.

Open every door of your soul to God. Have no place where the light of His presence does not shine.

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God… (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Until we open the secret rooms of our lives to God, our spiritual journey will be impeded. All of us have thought, done or said things which we want no one to know. In most cases we ourselves do not want to enter that secret room, much less have God or others know about it. Many of us continue to contribute contents to that room in our ongoing behavior but won’t admit it to ourselves. So our guilt and sin continue because we are afraid, ashamed or unwilling to open the doors and let the sun shine in.

All rooms open,
Z gardener

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