Getting Our Hands Dirty!

Isn’t it fantastic! I love it! Working in the garden getting my hands dirty! A member of the congregation (Donald) and me split the cost of a little roto-tiler. Gardening means work but fresh veggies from your own garden taste fantastic!

It is my prayer that all of us will allow the good Lord to work away at our life in much the same manner as we work away in our yards and gardens. Sometimes we find people who are discouraged, little hope, few goals and in far too many cases their “get up and go” has got up and went! These people go through the motions but there is little joy in their life and they look like a garden during the hot dry summer months (weather-beaten) or in the case of those from the north (winterkill)!

I have good news for you or for someone you know who needs a good pick-me-up! There is life within that old body it just needs a little help. God the Creator is able to breathe new life into his children as surely as He turns seeds into carrots, blossoms into fruit and tired looking flowers into a radiant bouquet. What is needed in order to receive new life is a little water, weeding and fertilizing.


First, with the help of the Holy Spirit go through your life and get rid of all those sins that spoil your image. Gather up your sins and turn them over to the Lord and He will take care of them for you. It’s like taking your garbage to the curb, in the morning it’s gone!

Second, listen and worship with renewed interest at church. Apply to your life as much as possible what you hear and experience. Keep in mind that the message is not always for someone else it’s for you and it’s for me. Garden fertilizer will nourish the soil only if it is taken out of the bag and spread around. Perhaps it is time that we started to apply what for so many years has simply gone in one ear and out the other.

Third, read your Bibles with eager anticipation. God has a word that He would like to share with you but like any letter it has to be opened. I enjoy reading books on how to garden and the Bible is to my life what a gardening book is to my garden. Do not allow God’s book to gather dust on your book shelf.

Fourth, don’t forget to pray. We can go through all the motions and seemingly do all the right things but unless we then turn it all over to God for his showers of blessing, growth will not materialize.

There you have it! Time to get your hands dirty. “Impossible, nothing will happen,” you say? Hey, who would have thought at the beginning of gardening season that there was any life left in the ground but just the other day I saw my potato plants pop up, miracles never cease!

Blessings,

Your Pastor, Friend & Fellow Gardener!

John