Good Morning Garden

What is nature? What we call nature is a small part of God’s universe that we are able to see at the present time, and much of which we see awry. All the wonderful things that are going on in the woods, all the marvelous happenings that take place in the depths of the ocean, the whole sublime story of the heavens, are all parts of God’s self-expression. Above all, our own bodies themselves are part of nature, perhaps the most wonderful part of all; and probably the part about which we ourselves know least.

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind…With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding
(Job 12:7-10, 13).
When we live according to God’s will, nature is a Garden of Eden in which we walk with God each day in joy, peace and understanding. It is a place of hope, love and faith. It is where we feel safe, strong and wise. It is our heaven on earth. It is a place where we overcome our problems by finding God’s blessings in them.

Seeing God Today,
Z gardener

Pass a test in Spiritual understanding, and never again throughout eternity will that particular task have to be done. You attitude should be:

I am going to live forever; in a thousand years from now I shall still be alive and active somewhere; in a hundred thousand years still alive and active somewhere; and so the events of today have only the importance that belongs to today. I greet the unknown with a cheer, and press forward joyously, exulting in the great adventure.

Armed with this philosophy, and really understanding its power, you have nothing to fear in life or death – because God is All, and God is Good.

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus… make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight… (Hebrews 13:20-21).

When we live in the knowledge that our lives are eternal, the day to day concerns that can hold us down will lose their grip on us. These concerns do not evaporate, but they do lose their power to keep us from our gardens. This is called the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Walking free,
Z gardener

Will you meet your relatives and friends when you go over? Where there is a strong emotional link either of love or hatred there is likely to be a meeting. Where there is a strong link of genuine love there is sure to be a meeting. Where there is no particular feeling between two people there will not be a meeting. There is a real danger that if you allow yourself to indulge in hatred of anyone, you will meet when you have both passed over. To prevent this happening, destroy the link by ceasing to hate.

The so-called dead are very sensitive to our thoughts, and for this reason excessive grief is to be deprecated. It saddens them and prevents their focusing their attention as they should upon the new life that they are starting. Of course, it seems very hard to tell people not to grieve when one whom they have dearly loved passes out of sight, but remember that if there is a link of love you will certainly meet again, and that nothing that is good, or beautiful, or true, can ever be lost.

We can pray for those who have passed on, and indeed it is a sacred duty to do so. The practice was generally discontinued after the Reformation because it had been greatly abused and commercialized, but, nevertheless, it is an excellent practice in itself. Realize peace of mind, freedom, and understanding for them.

In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2).

The most sure thing this writer believes about the afterlife is that God promises a joyful eternal life to those who believe. If we are to live with God in heaven, then we must live our lives here according to God’s will for us. This does not mean we have to be perfect. It does mean we have to believe in God’s word, follow God’s will and do our best each day to live according to God’s instructions.

Linked to God,
Z gardener

Regeneration means building a new mentality; that is, creating a new soul in place of your present one. It does not mean merely improving your present self, —it means producing (through the power of God, of course), a new self.

If you do this, everything else in your life will rapidly change for the better. Other people will become much more friendly to you. Because your soul will be filled with peace, you will radiate peace, and other people will get it intuitively. Everybody likes peace and harmony and they are attracted to any source from which it comes.

Naturally you cannot radiate peace if you do not first possess it within yourself. You cannot radiate anything from the outside. To radiate any quality, that quality must be within yourself.

True peace of mind is the short cut to regeneration. The Master said,

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you (John 14:27).

Today, let us open our “selfs” to God’s power of peace and ask God to fill us with His peace which surpasses all understanding. This is not the same as asking God to remove all our problems. It is the same as asking God to lift us above our challenges and give us the peace that comes from God’s words and messages to us.

Seeking God’s Peace
Z gardener

When you are praying for your true place, it is well to remember that the full demonstration may not come in one move, but more likely after a series of stages.

Now, If you despise these intermediate steps, and think this is a little better, but it is not really what I want, you will keep the demonstration back. Neither should you accept a small improvement as being all that you can hope to get. The scientific attitude is to see the stepping stone as stepping stone; to bless it, and give thanks for it, and to continue praying for the next step.

For precept must be upon precept line upon line, here a little, and there a little (Isaiah 28:10).

Children are not born knowing how to walk, talk and think as adults. They must take growing up one step at the time. It is the same with our spiritual growth. One step leads to the next step and it must be so. And, just as we all wanted to be “grown up” before were ready to be adults, we may want to be spiritually mature before we have gone through the growth and learning necessary to handle adult responsibilities.

Stone Stepping,
Z gardener

We do not have to create good. We do not have to persuade God to be Love, or Life, or Truth, or Intelligence. We do not have to ask Him to remember us. We do not have to ask for any more good. God has already filled the world with infinite good, love, life, truth and intelligence. Fundamentally, evil is a false belief that there are limits to the power and availability of God’s goodness.

If we draw down the shades in every room in a house, that house will be in darkness, and is likely to become damp and unhealthy as well, no matter how brightly the sun may be shining outside. Salvation consists in raising these shades and opening the windows; then He does the rest.

…walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8).

It may be hard for us to grasp that we do not have to create the good in our lives. Because humans are creators, doers and fixers, we tend to think in terms of what we can do to create good or fix bad. In reality, what we have to do is get our “selfs” out of the role of doer and become an instrument of God’s doing, fixing and creating.

In the true light,
Z gardener

Resignation in defeat is really a sin.

If an old problem continues to stick; pray for inspiration and intelligence. Stop struggling and thank God constantly for setting you free.

If nervous or frightened; throw the responsibility on God, and tell Him that you know you are safe in His hands.

If someone is being troublesome; see only the Presence of God where the troublesome person seems to be.

If you want to make faster progress; claim understanding and affirm that divine Love is working through you.

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you (1 Peter 5:7).

You see brothers and sisters, it is only when we see God in the midst our troubles that they no longer trouble us. We resolve our troubles when we truly realize that God is in them with a message we need to hear or is providing a door we must enter for our best good. When we accept that God has buried blessings in our burdens and know that God is using our pain to shape us and set us free; then we enter that door God has provided. We hear God’s message we need, and that message is “Welcome back to the Garden I created for you”.

Unresigned,
Z gardener

When you give your mental assent to any idea, good or bad, you associate yourself with that idea and you incorporate it into your consciousness; to the extent that you realize it. When you read a passage of Scripture you will, if you assent to it mentally, incorporate it into your life to that extent.

This law, of course, works the other way too. If when you hear or read of some piece of injustice or cruelty, you approve it mentally by thinking that “it serves him right,” you are associating yourself with that deed, and making it a part of your own life, even though you do not speak a word. It is the mental assent that counts.

Give your assent only to Truth.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my numbers, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity. So then with the mind; I myself serve the law of God. (Romans 7:22, 23, 25).

What we think and give assent to is what we are. If we serve God in our minds first, everything else will manifest God’s power and will in our lives. Not that this is easy; in fact it is the hardest part of being a follower of God. Once we conquer our minds, the rest of our world will yield to our faith.

Planting love,
Z gardener

Author’s note: Today we are joined by five new visitors to the garden. They are all pilgrims whose path is set on serving others through Christ. Each of them is a blessing to those they touch, and we are graced by their presence here in the Good Morning Garden.

When you apply a certain word to God, it must bear the same essential meaning as it does when you apply it to man; otherwise it has no meaning at all. When you say that God is Love or Intelligence, or that He is Just, these words must mean substantially what they mean when applied to human beings. The love of God must be essentially the same that we know as the love of the mother for her children, or the love of the artist for his creation, purified and increased to infinity, of course.

Many people say that God is Love, and at the same time maintain that He visits finite sin with eternal punishment.

The truth is that God is Love and Intelligence; and that He works with perfect wisdom and perfect justice to all, at all times, in the ordinary and correct meaning of these words.

God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is Love (1 John 4:8).
Good and upright is the Lord. (Psalm 25:8).

Many times we strive to complicate the clear and unambiguous language of the Bible to suit our personal needs. Let’s face it; much of the Bible’s most important instructions and information are absolutely clear. We just may not want to face it and apply them in our lives. That is natural, but it will not lead us to our Eden.

Truthfully,
Z gardener

A good housekeeper sees to it that dust and dirt do not accumulate in nooks and corners and on shelves. Periodically, the house is gone over and given a through cleaning. Too often in our spiritual lives, we allow negative things to accumulate in the corners of our minds. We tackle the obvious problems as they come along, but allow the small difficulties to pile up in the corners.

For instance, if we are faced with a problem of health or finance, we get to work on that immediately, but if, on the other hand, someone has injured us, instead of handling the incident spiritually at the time, we tuck it away and perhaps pack in a little resentment along with it. Such problems should be dealt with as they arise. If someone has injured you, forgive him now, and be done with it. Take care of the other difficulties in like manner.

Be a good housekeeper. Clean out every nook and corner, and God will make you worthy of greater accomplishments in the future.

And he said unto him, Well done, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over then cities (Luke 19:17)

We all have many hurts and injustices that have been visited on us both great and small. Daily prayer an affirmative forgiveness allows us to jettison those hurts and forgive those that have hurt us.

Unloading to live,
Z gardener