Good Morning Garden

If you have explored some of the back waters within a few miles of the ocean you will know how much difference tidal water makes. Here you come upon a stagnant pool, partly covered with weeds and slime, an unpleasant place to be near. Not far away is another pool but this is filled with clean, salt-smelling sea water, and the growing things around it are pleasant and wholesome. The difference is that in one case the living ocean water pours in twice a day charged with vitality, and then flows out again carrying away anything stale or lifeless. It is this circulation of life that makes the difference between the two pools.

When the tide is out, we sometimes see a boat stranded, unable to move, but we know that this condition is only temporary because the tide always comes back and refloats the boat. As long as you keep up your daily visit with God, your soul is open to tidal water, and even if you should seemingly be left high and dry for a period, it is only a question of time before the living ocean will float you off once more.

Keep your soul flooded with the tidal water of eternal life and

…nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19).
The ebb and flow of God’s healing in our lives is a natural as the tide. The key is to have both ebb and flow. Each day we commune with God opens the tidal gates of our lives to let in God’s healing and to let out the debris of hurt and doubt.

Ebbing and flowing,
Z gardener

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The spiritual forces that created and sustain the whole universe are available to help you at any time; provided you call upon them intelligently. The way to call upon this Power is to become quiet both mentally and physically, and then to call upon it quietly to do what it knows to be necessary. Do not dictate ways and means.

Have you ever seen a huge hoist in action at the docks? You know what happens. The operator would not dream of trying to pull up that load with his muscles. He would damage himself seriously and make no impression on the task in hand. What he does is to gently throw a small switch, and leave it in. Then the electric power raises the load to any height required.

When you work spiritually you are applying Infinite Power to your problem,and there can be but one outcome; victory.

Great in counsel and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men (Jeremiah 32:19).

As long as we try to do God’s work, we will fail. Success will always come when we get our selves out of the way and let God do His work. All we have to do is flip the God switch and the power will flow into our lives. If we then obey God’s will, then all we need for our best good will manifest itself in our lives. Then, we can live in the Eden God created for us.

Switching to God power,
Z gardener

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Read Acts 19:1-41.

This is an extremely colorful and dramatic chapter even for the Bible, which is so full of color and drama. Every problem has a solution. Some problems last a long time, some a short time, but always there is a solution, and always the solution is to turn from the outer to the inner. When you admire some outer, passing thing too much, and thus give power to the manifestation, you are saying, “Great is Diana.” When you fear some outer thing or condition or person, then you are also saying, “Great is Diana.” And when you say, “Great is Diana,” then your troubles really begin.

The First Commandment is, “I am the Lord thy God.” God, spirit, nothing outside. There is not a single trouble or heartache that has ever come to us, that has not come directly through saying, “Great is Diana,” and forgetting God.

Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite (Psalm 147:5).

Our culture is consumed with all things outer, and virtually ignores the inner. And although we may not worship a false idol such as Diana, we often worship or worry about other things and put them before God. This is putting ourselves before God which separates us from Him. That separation causes us to live in the outer world of our making instead of the world God created for us. Our world exposes us to every human weakness and subjects us to all forms of negative human reactions. When we indulge those weaknesses, they cause all the thoughts, words and deeds that hurt us and hurt others.

God is great!
Z gardener

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No matter what problem you may have to face today, there is a solution, because you have nothing to deal with but your own thoughts. As you know, you have the power to select and control your thoughts, difficult though it may be at times to do so. As long as you think that your destiny is in the hands of other people, the situation is hopeless.

Remind yourself constantly that you have nothing to deal with but your own thoughts. Write it down where you will see it often. Have it on your desk. Hang it in your bedroom. Write it in your pocketbook. Write it on your soul. It will transform your life. It will lead you out of the land of Egypt and out of the House of Bondage. It will bring you to God.

I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies (Psalm 119:59).

This sounds easy enough and is most certainly true. All we really have to overcome each day is our thoughts. Yet, in practice, this is probably the hardest discipline we will ever seek to master. So hard in fact that it would be impossible without the grace of God. The good news is that God’s grace is always available to us in limitless measure. It is only our ability to accept and live in that grace which limits it.

Z gardener

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People are very apt to find what they seek. You have noticed that people who go about looking for trouble, practically always find it. The popular proverb, “Listeners seldom hear good of themselves,” is an example. We also know people who love to say that they never have any luck. When things seem to go against them, they exclaim triumphantly, “Wouldn’t you know it? That is what always happens to me!”

Now, such a mistaken person needs only to alter this habit and he will automatically alter his life. It is often difficult to get such people to make this alteration, but if they do the result is never in doubt. Spiritual law says that it is never too late to mend, and that when we seek God’s help we find it.

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;for I am God, and there is none else (Isaiah 45:22).

Many times, the old ghosts that haunt us, use our past to drive our present. Our past experiences should be used to enlighten our present, not to dim it. It is only when we have learned our lesson and turned our backs on our hurts and failures that we escape them. That happens when we look to God and obey His will.

Seeking and finding God,
Z gardener

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What man is he that feareth the Lord?” Psalm 25:12

What are you haunted by? You will say – By nothing, but we are all haunted by something, generally by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our experience. The Psalmist says we are to be haunted by God.

The abiding consciousness of the life is to be God, not thinking about Him. The whole of our life inside and out is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God. A child’s consciousness is so mother-haunted that although the child is not consciously thinking of its mother, yet when calamity arises, the relationship that abides is that of the mother.

So we are to live and move and have our being in God, to look at everything in relation to God, because the abiding consciousness of God pushes itself to the front all the time.

If we are haunted by God, nothing else can get in, no cares, no tribulation, no anxieties. We see now why Our Lord so emphasized the sin of worry. How can we dare be so utterly unbelieving when God is round about us? To be haunted by God is to have an effective barricade against all the onslaughts of the enemy.

“His soul shall dwell at ease.” In tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hid with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease. We rob ourselves of the marvelous revelation of this abiding companionship of God. “God is our Refuge” – nothing can come through that shelter.

When our spirits, thoughts, words and deeds are filled with the consciousness of God, all else fades to the background. All the syndromes, habits and hauntings from days past melt into obscurity as our lives focus on the presence of God each day.

In the spirit,
Z gardener

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People are to be judged by their actions. We sometimes hear it said, “His conduct is bad but at heart he means well”; but this is nonsense. In the old-fashioned phrase, “handsome is as handsome does.”

The bad-tempered person cannot possibly have a “heart of gold” as is sometimes charitably said. A bad-tempered person has a mean, selfish heart and should get busy and change it without delay.

One who loves does not seek his own advantage. Love acts the part, and anything else is hypocrisy.

…be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).

How many of us hide resentment, anger and bitterness behind a false smile. How many times do we put a pretty face on our own meanness, judgement or condemnation of others. When we do this it is usually to hide it from ourselves and others. We secret away these traits because we don’t want to face them ourselves. Putting on a mask to pretend we are something other than we are is harmful, dangerous and ultimately fails; blocking us from ourselves, God and those around us.

De-masking,
Z gardener

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We all know that it is God alone who is our peace, —although nearly all of us tend to forget it from time to time. We forget it when we begin to neglect our daily visit with God.

Now, when you think that you are too busy for your daily visit, let me ask you frankly, what wonderful thing are you doing that is more important? There is nothing that you could possibly do with that time that would bring you greater benefit than perfect peace. As a matter of fact, if you have something very important and urgent to do, your visit will make that very important thing go through much more easily and successfully.

Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace… (Job 22:21).

Nothing can separate us from the love of God…except us. When we close ourselves to God’s indwelling spirit by putting ourselves before Him; when we don’t turn to Him in daily prayer; or when we fill ourselves with negative thoughts, words and deeds; we separate ourselves from the love of God. Then we cause ourselves to live in the world we created instead of the Eden God created for us.

Z gardener

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For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall or partition between us (Ephesians 2:14).

This is not only one of the most beautiful texts in the Bible, but one of the most important. Consider what it says. First, that God is our peace; next, that not only are we and God one (all spiritual teachers say that) but that it is He who has made us one. We are one because that is the nature of being since He has made us that way. Then the inspired writer uses a figure of speech. He reminds us that when we lost our sense of unity with God, it is exactly as though a wall was built between God and ourselves. When that happens communication is broken and we are no longer one in consciousness, until, of course, the wall is pulled down.

In any difficulty the one important thing is to have the temporary wall of partition pulled down, and to let God do it —for only He can.

This passage identifies one of the seminal foundations upon on which the Garden Morning Garden is built; and by which its soils are enriched. When we first separated ourselves from God, we fled the Eden God gave us, and the East Gate was closed to those living “East of Eden” or separated from God.

Z gardener

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When Nebuchadnezzar sent out his decree that everyone in his kingdom should bow down and worship the golden image that he had erected, there were three men who refused to obey. These were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, Hebrew officials in the province of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar called them before him, and they bluntly told the King that their God would deliver them from the fiery furnace to which they would be consigned, but even if God did not deliver them, they would still serve Him and Him alone.

Nebuchadnezzar had the three men thrust into the fiery furnace, and the heat was so intense that it slew the guards who threw them in. Then, as he looked in upon the three faithful Hebrews, Nebuchadnezzar was astonished to find a fourth man walking in the flames with the other three. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego walked out of the fiery furnace without blemish or scar.

So it is when we hold steadfastly to God, and give all power to Him. He sends his messenger to deliver us from our furnace of fear and frustration. Then do we know that nothing shall by any means harm us.

Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him. (Daniel 3:28).

How many of us would be willing to face a fiery death rather than yield our faith? Yet the Holy Bible tells us we are to do just that. This writer is not sure he could meet that standard. Yet, either the instructions in the God’s revealed word are true, or they are false.

In faith,
Z gardener

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