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Archive for April, 2015

Transforming Love

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

“In all our distress and persecution we were encouraged…” 1 Thessalonians 3:7
 
When I was thirteen, we adopted the most wonderful dog in the world. Penny, as we called him, was smart and obedient. He loved everybody, and everybody loved him. But when I went off to college and my parents moved, our family reluctantly decided to give Penny away to another family. After a while, Penny decided that my father wasn’t coming back. The dog began to grieve. In fact, he seemed to give up on life, and before long, arthritis and other problems left him paralyzed. 
 
When my father heard about  Penny’s sad state, he drove seven hundred miles to bring him home. He found our dog curled up in a little ball, unable to move. But Penny’s tiny stub of a tail thrashed wildly when he saw his master. Remarkably, with the love and attention my parents began to shower on him, Penny recovered. Within two weeks of returning home, he was running and jumping. He lived eleven more years without another sign of arthritis!
 
This story about our family dog reminds me that if even a mutt needs love and encouragement to stay alive, then so does every human being on the face of the earth. We are social beings, designed to depend on God and each other. Yet some of us are curled up in a pitiful little ball of discouragement. Every day we have the power to bring life by giving encouragement to others—or we can ignore their needs and think only of ourselves. The choice is ours.
 
Just between us…
 
Has someone’s encouragement ever made you feel transformed or “healed”?
Who might be transformed by a little encouragement from us?
Lord, open our eyes to others’ need for attention, affection, and encouragement. May we never withhold what is our duty and privilege to give. Amen.
 
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
 
 
 
 
The surest way out of our lowest state of mind or spirit, is to reach outside of it and help someone else. This small act of uncurling begins the process of metamorphosis through which we overcome our yoke and can become our true selves. Just as the bound cocoon is burst by the butterflies uncurling, so too will our constricted states be freed by reaching out to another. Then the wings of our spirits will freely flutter and our souls will soar to the heavenly heights.
 
Yes, even from a fetal position we can fly, if we first reach out and take the hand of another in need. 
 
Being Transformers,
 
Z gardener

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A CHEERFUL HEART

Posted in smiling, tagged , on April 24, 2015| 1 Comment »

Proverbs 15:30      A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones.
 
Why is it that some of the people you know seem to walk around with a perpetual frown on their faces? They aren’t in a particularly bad mood it seems, they’re just not willing to go all the way to a smile. What a difference it is when you run into a friend who always has a big smile for you, embraces you with a hug and lets you know what a joy it is to be around you.
 
That kind of person not only brings a cheerful look, they bring joy too. They make life feel good. Whatever you’re going to do today, take a look in the mirror before you walk out the door. You may need to adjust the most important part of your wardrobe … your smile. See if it’s there and if it’s ready to meet the world and then share it with everyone you see.
 
A Taste of Joy
 
Lord, I know what a big difference it makes to me when I spend time with the people who greet me with joy. Help me do the same for those I meet today. Amen.
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
 
 
 
 
With all the joy that a smile brings others, it brings even more to the one who is smiling.
 
Keep on smiling,
 
Z gardener

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FOR YOUR OWN GOOD

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

1 Corinthians 10:24      Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
 
Have you ever noticed what happens to you when you start to feel slightly depressed? Before you know it you’re curled up in a little ball. Everything is suddenly about you and what is or isn’t happening to you. For your own good, in such times, let go of thinking about yourself and rather think about others.
 
If you step out of your world and reach out to help someone else, you might discover that things look a lot better than they did before.
 
You need to learn to focus on the well-being of others and not on yourself. It’s a sure cure for what ails you. It may not take away the things that made you hide out and curl up in a blanket, but it will make a difference in how you see everything around you.
 
A Taste of Goodness
 
Lord, help me remember that I’m not the only one with problems. Help me do what I can for others regardless of my own situation. Amen.
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
 
 
 
The surest way to overcome our own problems is to focus on helping others with theirs. Doing so takes our attention away from ourselves, lifts our spirits regardless of our situation and strengthens our resolve and outlook. There is little we can do for ourselves that will provide as much help as helping others.
 
Uncurling,
 
Z gardener

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FINDING THE GOOD FRUIT

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

 
Matthew 7:17-20   A healthy tree produces good fruit, and an unhealthy tree produces bad fruit. The way to identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit that is produced.
 
How do you tell the difference between good and bad people? How do you know which ones are producing great fruit and which ones aren’t? It isn’t always easy. In our culture, we often assume that beautiful people would just naturally be good, but beauty and goodness do not always go hand in hand. Maybe our definition of beauty is wrong. We need to see that a good person is always beautiful because their goodness comes from God.
 
Whatever your definition of beauty is, remember that what distinguishes good people from bad people is their internal goodness. The way you tell whether you’re following God is to see what kind of fruit you have produced. It has nothing to do with your wardrobe or wallet, but with your heart.
 
A Taste of Goodness
 
Lord, let me be a sweet and wholesome fruit of your vine. Help me to share the goodness of your love and joy with anyone who will listen. Amen.
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
 
 
 
 
 
One seed produces much fruit. What kind of seeds are we planting in our lives, and what kind of fruit will they bear? This is the truth…a seed will bear the same fruit as that from whence it came. Bad seeds will produce bad fruit, just a good seeds will produce good fruit.
 
Let us today, plant the seeds that ensure we bear the sweetest of all fruits…love, joy, peace and hope.
 
Planting good,
 
Z gardener

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CHRIST IN YOU

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

 
Philippians 1:21    For to me, to live is Christ.
 
Christ once lived in history–and today He lives on in people’s lives. Jesus not only lived on this earth, but He still lives–and He will live forever.
 
Year after year we have seen thousands of men, women, and young people receive Christ as Savior throughout the world. People with problems, burdens, and sins have committed their lives to Jesus, and seen a light in their eyes and a glow on their faces as they are transformed by the Spirit of God. when Christ takes up residence in their hearts, they become new creatures in Him.
 
Today, as always, many people think they can manage without God. They may manage economically, intellectually, and even socially. But down inside they have a spiritual void that can be filled only by Jesus Christ.
 
Jesus not only lived in the flesh in history, but He can live right now in you: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Has Christ come to live in your life? He can–and He will, as you commit your life to Him.
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
Yes, we do become new creatures when we accept God. And God gives us a new creation in which to live when we accept God. That new creation is called the Kingdom of God. It is the Eden that God created for us. This new creature and the new creation are always waiting for us to accept and recognize them as the true us and the true reality.
 
Whether we enter them, and how, is up to each of us. We can dive in, tiptoe in or run in and out. The degree to which we accept and live by God’s will determines how we will receive it and when. Are we ready to live fully in the Kingdom of God. Are we ready to live in Eden with all the peace that surpasses understanding? The choice is ours.
 
Choosing peace,
 
Z gardener

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ROBBING GOD

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Mark 12:42-44       A poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins…. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others…. She, out of her poverty, put in everything–all she had to live on.”
 
A young man came to me one night and said, “Billy, I pray, read the Bible, and go to church, but I have no victory in my life. What can I do?”
 
I thought for a moment and asked, “Do you tithe? Do you give to God’s work?”
 
He replied, “No, I don’t, but I don’t make very much money.”
 
I said, “That’s not the point. No one can rob God and expect to experience victory in life.”
 
We can pray all day long. We can go to church every week. We can read our Bible through a thousand times–but if we are robbing God, we will be miserable and spiritually dry.
 
Do you think you can rob God but have victory in your life? It cannot be done. There is no victory if we aren’t giving a portion of our income to the Lord.
 
The basis of our giving is the tithe–one-tenth of your income–is God’s (see Malachi 3:10). It’s God’s rule, and I believe it is still valid today.
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
 
How much of our money are we giving back to God? Even in nature, if a farmer does not put resources back into the soil, it will become farmed out and worthless to him. So much more do we have to return a portion of our resources back to the source from whence it came. Not because God needs it, but because we do. We are in fact robbing ourselves when we do not give back to God.
 
The good news is that returning this portion to God, ensures our fiscal welfare and our physical welfare, but more importantly it assures our spiritual welfare.
 
Returning God’s  to God.
 
Z gardener

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SIMPLE, BUT NOT ALWAYS EASY

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »

SIMPLE, BUT NOT ALWAYS EASY
 
Romans 13:7          Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue. Jesus stated it clearly: “You cannot serve both God and Money” (Luke 16:13). Yet too many people try.
 
Someone wrote to me about money he had made selling some items for cash. He didn’t see any reason “to tell the government about it”–but his wife disagreed, and so did I.
 
First, cheating of any kind will always keep you wondering if you’ll be discovered. Second, you won’t like to feeling that comes with knowing you lack integrity and are dishonest.
 
But there is a deeper reason: As the verse above indicates, if we cheat, we are disobeying God. In His eyes, failing to pay the taxes we owe is little different from stealing from an individual. Furthermore, if we fail to pay the taxes we owe, honest citizens will have to make up the shortfall.
 
If cheating of any kind enters our mind, we need to ask ourselves why we would even consider it. Is money too important to us? If greed ruling us? Whatever it is, confess it and put Christ first in your life.
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
 
 
How much is our self respect and honor worth? Would we cheat for $5…for five million? Our integrity and self worth are more valuable than anything physical, including our health. Without the peace that comes with integrity and self respect, we can’t truly enjoy anything, except in harmful ways. Even worse, we are left to fend for ourselves because cheating keeps us from receiving God’s love and protection. Note that I did not say it keeps God from loving us. Nothing can cause God to abandon us.
 
We cut ourselves off from God because we are not following his will and his way. We chose our own way, and then lose sight of God’s way. So long as our cheating is unconfessed, unforgiven and unrepented, we will fall victim to the illusion of separation from God. Just as the prodigal son put himself into the wilderness, just as Adam and Eve caused their ejection from Eden, we deny ourselves paradise by choosing to cheat.
 
So today, let us face ourselves, confess our cheating of all kinds, repent and ask forgiveness. Whatever we forego by not cheating, we assure ourselves beyond measure in peace, dignity and integrity. Eden awaits.
 
Cheating greed,
 
Z gardener

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THE POISON OF GREED, giving

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

 
Jeremiah 6:13        “From the latest to the greatest, all are greedy for gain.”
 
A close relative of covetousness, greed is quite possibly the parent of more evil than any other sin. Greed cheats, robs, murders, and slanders in order to achieve its desires–and each of us is born with greed in our nature.
 
The Bible teaches that greed is idolatry, because it places things at the center of our lives instead of God. We in America, for instance, are so bent on making money that we do not have time for God and the spiritual disciplines. It is not a sin to be rich, but if our riches have choked out our spiritual life, then being rich has become sin–and we are poverty-stricken in God’s sight. Furthermore, the love of money corrodes the human heart, spoiling our happiness and setting us in conflict with one another. The Bible says that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).
 
As long as the prodigal son sang the song of “Give me,” his lot was misery, want, loneliness, and famine. But when he changed his song to “Forgive me,” he found himself in a state of fellowship, comfort, and plenty. What song are you singing?
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
 
 
Giving produces all abundance from what is given. 
 
Taking consumes everything good from what was desired.
 
Giving lifts and expands the giver. 
 
Taking lowers and shrinks the taker.
 
 
Seeking giveness,
 
Z gardener
 
 
 
Author’s note: this gardener will be on sabbatical through the end of April. The daily devotional will be on leave as well. If possible, will try to send some photos for you edification from time to time. Peace. Z.

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LOVE AND JUSTICE MEET

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

 
Matthew 26:36-37         “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane…and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.”
 
Gethsemane means “an oil press.” When the olives are harvested, they are squeezed under an enormous revolving stone that mashes the fruit to pulp and recovers the valuable oil.
 
In the Garden of Gethsemane, the wheel of humiliation and death would squeeze Jesus to the point of His greatest agony, so He pleaded with His Father for release–but only if it were the Almighty’s will.
 
God did not grant release, for there was no other way for our just and loving God to deal with our sins. Sin must have a price. If God were simply to forgive our sins without judging them, then there would be no justice, no accountability for wrongdoing. God would not be truly holy and just.
 
But if God were simply to judge us for our sins as we deserve, there would be no hope of salvation for any of us. His love would have failed to provide what we need.
 
The cross was the only way to resolve the problem of sin. At the cross God’s love and justice came together. Jesus took the judgement we deserved, and now we are clothed in His perfect righteousness.
 
 
Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
I will sing to my Lord as long as I live, I will sing
praise to my God while I have my being.
 
 
 
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that whosoever believeth in him would not perish but have everlasting life”. John 3:16
 
On this Good Friday let us remember that our savior sacrificed himself for our salvation. He was God’s son, the Word who created us. He became the human Jesus to bear our sins, was tortured and crucified by us. Yet God resurrected him to save us and to leave God’s Holy Spirit in us to counsel us, guide us and advocate for us in heaven.
 
Father, give us eyes to see this Advocate’s guidance, ears to hear its wise counsel, courage to seek its counsel and strength to live according to its will. Then we can “celebrate” his sacrifice and rise with him on Easter to live with him in the Eden he created here and forever in heaven.
 
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
 
Taking up his cross,
 
Z gardener

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THE POISON OF SLOTH

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Proverbs 21:25 The sluggard’s craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.

Webster’s defines sloth as “a disinclination to action or labor, sluggishness, laziness, idleness.” In theological contexts, sloth carries with it not only the idea of laziness and spiritual things, but also apathy and inactivity in the practice of our everyday lives.

The slothful person is like a piece of driftwood floating effortlessly and heedlessly downstream with the current. It takes no effort, no strength to be lost. A drifting boat always goes downstream, never up. Likewise, a drifting, slothful soul is inevitably moving toward an eternity of destruction.

The sin of doing nothing–the sin of omission–is just as dangerous as any sin of action–of commission. You don’t have to do anything to be lost: just do nothing. Just be slothful about your soul. Tragically thousands of us Christians are slothful also–when it comes to prayer, worship, reading the Bible, witnessing for Christ, helping neighbors in need, giving to charity, or giving to God’s work.

A stubborn, slothful spirit is a great hindrance to receiving Jesus’ forgiveness and transforming power. Don’t let this happen to you.

Michael & Alison Smitherman
The Singing NetSurfers
I will sing to my Lord as long as I live, I will sing
praise to my God while I have my being.

Broad, low and flat is the way to destruction. It is the narrow, high and rocky path that leads to salvation. We can pretty much assume that if we are taking the easy road filled with many fellow travelers that we are likely on the wrong path. We can also assume that the right path is the far less traveled one filled with challenges and obstacles.

It is easy to go along just to get along in this world. It is exceedingly hard to stay on the path of light and righteousness; God’s path. Many times, we may not be sure which path to take. So, when faced with a choice of paths, we would do well to choose the harder, less traveled one.

On that path God awaits, saying “I am with you and will never forsake you. I will give you what you need to make the journey. And your reward will be the peace which surpasses all understanding.” So, the choice is ours. Will we choose ease or peace, pleasure or joy, sloth or salvation?

Rocky road?

Z gardener

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