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Archive for November, 2013

On the difference between wordless prayer and the practice of the presence of God.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on November 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
No, by wordless prayer I didn’t mean the practice of the Presence of God. I meant the same mental act as in verbal prayer only without the words. The Practice of the Presence is a much higher activity. I don’t think it matters much whether an absolutely uninterrupted recollection of God’s presence for a whole lifetime is possible or not. A much more frequent and prolonged recollection than we have yet reached certainly is possible. Isn’t that enough to work on? A child learning to walk doesn’t need to know whether it will ever be able to walk 40 miles in a day: the important thing is that it can walk to-morrow a little further and more steadily than it did to-day.
 
I don’t think we are likely to give too much love and care to those we love. We might put in active care in the form of assistance when it would be better for them to act on their own: i.e., we might be busybodies. Or we might have too much ‘care’ for them in the sense of anxiety. But we never love anyone too much: the trouble is always that we love God, or perhaps some other created being, too little.
 
As to the ‘state of the world’ if we have time to hope and fear about it, we certainly have time to pray. I agree it is very hard to keep one’s eyes on God amid all the daily claims and problems. I think it wise, if possible, to move one’s main prayers from the last-thing-at-night position to some earlier time: give them a better chance to infiltrate one’s other thoughts.
 
It seems clear we could hardly go wrong with any of these efforts to commune with God. That which also seems clear is that we can’t love too much or care too much. We must be watchful however that our efforts are not misdirected by personal motives that are not loving and caring or those that are more about us than the person to whom we are directing our love and concern.
 
So, bothers and sisters, pray freely, often and in every form. And be sure that all our concerns be for the right thing, done the right way and being done for the right reasons. One can not go wrong if they are going right. This writer’s prayer is that God guide each of us to that righteousness and to the garden in which it abides.
 
Abiding in prayer,
Z gardener

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On Life In The New Creation

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on November 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
 
The letter and spirit of scripture, and of all Christianity, forbid us to suppose that life in the New Creation will be a sexual life; and this reduces our imagination to the withering alternative either of bodies which are hardly recognizable as human bodies at all or else of a perpetual fast. 
 
As regards the fast, I think our present outlook might be like that of a small boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time. On receiving the answer ‘No,’ he might regard absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sexuality. 
 
In vain would you tell him that the reason why lovers in their carnal raptures don’t bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. The boy knows chocolate: he does not know the positive thing that excludes it. We are in the same position. 
 
We know the sexual life; we do not know, except in glimpses, the other thing which, in Heaven, will leave no room for it. Hence where fullness awaits us we anticipate fasting. In denying that sexual life, as we now under- stand it, makes any part of the final beatitude, it is not of course necessary to suppose that the distinction of sexes will disappear. What is no longer needed for biological purposes may be expected to survive for splendor. 
 
Sexuality is the instrument both of virginity and of conjugal virtue; neither men nor women will be asked to throw away weapons they have used victoriously. It is the beaten and the fugitives who throw away their swords. The conquerors sheathe theirs and retain them. ‘Trans-sexual’ would be a better word than ‘sexless’ for the heavenly life.
 
Well, this is the first discussion of sexuality in heaven that this scribe has read. It is a very interesting concept that goes to the key questions we all have about the afterlife. Those questions usually center around such questions as, “will I be me, will I know my family and friends or will I have a body/” 
 
My simple answer has been that we will be us, yet there will no longer be the illusion of separation from God or each other. We will be us, and we will know and experience total communion with others, God and the universe. In that scenario, we would be ourselves, we would know our family, etc., we would have bodies and our consciousness. 
 
It will be the end of those things that prevent us from total communion and that imprisons us in the world of limited sensory perception and carnal existence. That is something to which we can all look forward with anticipation and joy. So much so that our lives here below can be lived in the Garden that was created for us until we can transcend the merely physical to be one with God and all creation.
 
Gardening for eternity,
Z gardener

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On Our Power To Choose

Posted in Good Morning on November 22, 2013| 1 Comment »

 
The Teacher explains our power to choose:
 
‘There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.’
 
It is our choice whether to live in the garden or outside of the garden. Just as it is our choice to accept or reject God’s call to us. Free will is a property of human consciousness, given so that we will have a choice.
 
Let us choose to live each moment in the Eden that opens to us when we decide to live therein.
 
Choosing the garden,
Z gardener

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On Humility

Posted in Good Morning on November 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
 
For each of us (John) the Baptist’s words are true: “He must increase and I decrease.” He will be infinitely merciful to our repeated failures; I know no promise that He will accept a deliberate compromise. For He has, in the last resort, nothing to give us but Himself; and He can give that only in so far as our self-affirming will retires and makes room for Him in our souls.
 
We must overcome the “self” affirming will and accept the will of God. We must submit to it and let it become our will. This is one of the most difficult things for humans to do. It feels as if we are giving away control of our lives and decisions. It is actually the recognition that our sense of control is an illusion. We are only in control of what we think and how we act.
 
Further, our common experience has demonstrated that “self” centered thinking takes us away from the joy, peace, love and that God promises those who follow him. In other words, self-centered thinking has been the cause of most human failures from the individual level to that of entire civilizations.
 
When we truly realize that our will , when in harmony with God’s will works for our best good; then we will know Eden.
 
Increasing God’s Will,
Z gardener

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On the Holy Spirit

Posted in Good Morning on November 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
It is as if a sort of communal personality came into existence. Of course, it is not a real person: it is only rather like a person. But that is just one of the differences between God and us. What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God.
 
This third Person is called, in technical language, the Holy Ghost or the “spirit” of God. Do not be worried or surprised if you find it (or Him) rather vaguer or more shadowy in your mind than the other two. I think there is a reason why that must be so.
 
In the Christian life you are not usually looking at Him: He is always acting through you. If you think of the Father as some- thing “out there,” in front of you, and of the Son as someone standing at your side, helping you to pray, trying to turn you into another son, then you have to think of the third Person as something inside you, or behind you.
 
Perhaps some people might find it easier to begin with the third Person and work backwards. God is love, and that love works through men—especially through the whole community of Christians. But this spirit of love is, from all eternity, a love going on between the Father and Son.
 
Jesus is Immanuel “God with us”. The Holy Spirit is God within us. Jesus came here to save us and to leave the Holy Spirit within us. Next to his sacrifice for us, it was his greatest gift to mankind. It’s indwelling gives us a conscience, a moral compass to guide us and counsel us. It provides an advocate to help us and justify us to the Father. It brings freedom and great responsibility.
 
Lord, we ask for the ears to hear this spirit’s wise counsel, the eyes to see it’s guidance, the courage to seek it’s advocacy and the strength to live according to it’s will. These attributes will; put us in harmony with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; will lead us to the peace and joy of the Eden that God created for us and which Jesus reopened to us all.
 
In the Spirit,
Z gardener
 
Author’s note: Today we are joined by a new gardener. This brother is in a very dark place, and this writer asks each of you to keep this gardener in your prayers for guidance, peace and light.
 
Z
 

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On Prudence

Posted in Good Morning on November 19, 2013| 3 Comments »

Prudence means practical common sense, taking the trouble to think out what you are doing and what is likely to come of it. Nowadays most people hardly think of Prudence as one of the ‘virtues’. In fact, because Christ said we could only get into His world by being like children, many Christians have the idea that, provided you are ‘good’, it does not matter being a fool. But that is a misunderstanding.
 
In the first place, most children show plenty of ‘prudence’ about doing the things they are really interested in, and think them out quite sensibly. In the second place, as St Paul points out, Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to be not only ‘as harmless as doves’, but also ‘as wise as serpents’. He wants a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim.
 
The fact that you are giving money to a charity does not mean that you need not try to find out whether that charity is a fraud or not. The fact that what you are thinking about is God Himself (for example, when you are praying) does not mean that you can be content with the same babyish ideas which you had when you were a five-year-old. It is, of course, quite true that God will not love you any the less, or have less use for you, if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have.
 
With all our heart, all our mind and all our will, we are to serve God and follow his will. If we are leaving out the mind part…we err. That is why we were given a brain; to use it. Whether grappling with doubt or secure in faith, we are to observe, ponder and respond with all our intelligence. God is intelligence and we, as his children are to manifest God’s nature in every way. Then we will be prudent and providence will find its home with us.
 
Think,
Z gardener

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On Goodness

Posted in Good Morning on November 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It has sometimes been asked whether God commands certain things because they are right, or whether certain things are right because God commands them. . . . I emphatically embrace the first alternative. The second might lead to the abominable conclusion . . . that charity is good only because God arbitrarily commanded it—that He might equally well have commanded us to hate Him and one another and that hatred would then have been right.

 
I believe, on the contrary, that “they err who think that of the will of God to do this or that there is no reason besides His will.” God’s will is determined by His wisdom which always perceives, and His goodness which always embraces, the intrinsically good. But when we have said that God commands things only because they are good, we must add that one of the things intrinsically good is that rational creatures should freely surrender themselves to their Creator in obedience.
 
The content of our obedience—the thing we are commanded to do—will always be something intrinsically good, something we ought to do even if (by an impossible supposition) God had not commanded it. But in addition to the content, the mere obeying is also intrinsically good, for, in obeying, a rational creature consciously enacts its creaturely role, reverses the act by which we fell, treads Adam’s dance backward, and returns.
 
This is the path to the Eden God created for us. That path leads to the “Eastern Gate” that was closed behind Adam when he and Eve fled, but re-opened by Jesus, the second Adam. It completes an essential manifestation of God’s promised dispensation to mankind.
 
So, obedience is the path to Eden whereby we find the gate and enter once again, the Garden.
 
Dancing backwards,
Z  gardener

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A BETTER PERSON

Posted in Good Morning on November 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »


As the days ticked down to my 47th birthday this year, I had to admit that I was a little melancholy. I was looking back over the years of my life and remembering every mistake that I had made, every wrong path that I had taken, and every chance for growth that I had turned my back on. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

When the day finally arrived, though, I was overwhelmed with the love I received from so many. Gifts, cards, and birthday greetings from friends filled both my mailbox and my computer. My wonderful children took me out for dinner and then surprised me with a homemade cake, a homemade card, and a homemade gift all wrapped with their love. By the end of the day my melancholy had fled and my happiness had returned. I felt truly blessed and I remembered that life is about the love you share not the mistakes you make.

I realized too that I wanted to spend the rest of my days here becoming the person that God meant for me to be. I wanted to watch more sunrises, share more smiles, and spread more love.  I wanted to fill my life with acts of kindness and moments of joy. I wanted to give my children wise words, kind thoughts, huge hugs, gentle kisses, loving laughter, and endless happiness. I wanted to help others every chance I could and in every way I could. I wanted to know that when I finally step out of this body and cross the threshold to Heaven that I would be taking a lifetime of love with me.

You too can become a better person each and every day of your life. There is no greater adventure than to become the person God meant for you to be. There is nothing better than being a blessing to everyone around you. There is nothing more wonderful than to live all your days here in love, growing younger on the inside even as you grow older on the outside.

 
There is no epilogue needed here. This passage is not from C.S. Lewis, but is from a daily devotional email this scribe receives each day from a friend. Each day this kind soul sends out the “Good Morning, Lord” message to lift up those who receive it. Ironically, he can hardly read them because he is legally blind; but, clearly not without true sight.
 
It is that daily dose of goodness that helped inspire this writer to create “The Good Morning Garden” www.zgardener.com. A place to begin each day in the Eden that God gave us. All of the daily emails you receive, and the premise behind the Good Morning garden can be visited there.
 
Today’s message was clearly the one that needed to fill the Garden. Thank you,  for years of daily inspiration and goodness. May this message today remind us all that life’s greatest adventure, joy, peace and fulfillment is “to become the person and children of God we were created to be”. Amen.
 
Author’s note: Today we are excited to welcome a new gardener whose family across the sea has joined with us here. Welcome all, to the Garden. Z gardener

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On Comfort and Truth

Posted in Good Morning on November 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
 
 
Know the truth and it shall set us free. So many times we trade momentary comfort now for monumental heartache later. Seeking , facing and accepting the truth is harder in the short run, but is the only way to peace in the long term. No matter how hard it is, seek first the truth, accept it and act on it. Then, the peace that surpasses all understanding will have a route to the heart; and the heart will guide its soul to Eden.
 
Seeking truth,
Z gardener

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Posted in Good Morning on November 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

On God
 
 
The voice of God indeed daily calls to us; calls to the world to abandon sins and seek the Kingdom of God wholeheartedly. O that we may all hear the call of the Father and, sometime, at last be converted to the Lord. In silence and in meditation on the eternal truths, I hear the voice of God which excites our hearts to greater love.
 
That which excites our hearts to greater love is the voice of God calling us to Eden. When we respond with greater love to that voice, we can inhabit Eden with God there and then. Not later, not somewhere else, but here and now.
 
Silently meditating eternal truths,
Z gardener

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