Monthly Archives: April 2015

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Growing your garden of Faith

Growing your garden of Faith

That’s a picture of the corn I’ve planted in my garden.  Every morning I check my garden and work it.  The grass and weeds need hoeing.  I check for damage from the crows, coons and deer.  Some potato beetles are showing up.  Some days it’s too wet.  Some days it’s too dry, too hot, or well, …… you get the picture.  It’s never a perfect day seems like in the garden.  Pests, weather, plain ole bad luck, why bother with a garden you say?  Well, it’s the hope of a crop of good home grown fruits and vegetables.  I’m an optimistic person.  There’s lots of potential.  Even with all the pests.  I’ll grow enough that they can have their share with plenty left over for me as well as others.

Speaking of sharing, that’s the main reason of growing this garden.  Sharing.  Two different ways of sharing.  There is a joy I get from sharing the food from my garden with neighbors.  I get a “kick” out of calling them up and saying “corns ready, or taters are ready, come get you a big ole mess”.  I’ll even carry some food to some folks unable to pick their own.  The idea of sharing good food seems a part of my being.  It’s in my blood.  It’s a reason to grow my garden.

My other reason for sharing is more on a personal level.  My earthly father gets a “kick” out of seeing how my garden is growing.  He’s 85 now.  It’s past his time for hoeing, plowing, pulling weeds, throwing out fertilize.  But it’s not past time for him to get out every day, drive his beat up white Chevrolet pickup to the garden, inspect and supervise how it’s growing.  Usually, we go together to see how things are going.  We both get a “kick” out of this.  He’s there every day.  If it’s raining, or too dry, too hot, or well you get the picture.  He’s always there.

1 Corinthians 13:12-13New International Version (NIV)12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

So, let me encourage you to grow your spiritual garden.  Why bother you say?  With all the spiritual “pests”, worldly forces, evil in this world, plain ole bad luck, what’s the use.  There are two BIG reasons.  Two different ways of sharing.  There is a joy you get from sharing your spiritual food with friends and neighbors.  A harsh reality is this though.  In the spiritual world people sometimes won’t grow their own garden.  Share with them from yours.  Even then, some will use it. Some will abuse it.  Some will refuse it, some will choose it.  No matter their choice, you continue to grow.  Grow your spiritual garden.  Rows of “faith” and “hope” and have a half acre of “LOVE”.  and share…..

The 2nd reason?   Your Heavenly Father gets a “kick” out of watching you grow your garden.  I’m not sure if he drives up everyday in a beat up Chevrolet pickup, but He’s there every day.

My friend, if you don’t feel God’s presence around your everyday life, maybe you’re neglecting your “garden”.  I sense His presence everyday.  How?   By looking, listening, waiting expectantly to hear and see Him.  Shucks, you can even join me in my earthly garden so that we can grow our spiritual garden at the same time.  Bring a hoe.

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth  wilderness preacher

Spiritual garden rows of Faith ,hope, and acres of Love

Spiritual garden – rows of Faith ,hope, and acres of Love

 

 

 

 

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Do you need to restore your joy as a Christian?

RE-store, RE-condition, RE-connect, RE-vive!

RE-store, RE-condition, RE-connect, RE-vive!

After 15 years, I’ve decided our deck needs to be worked on.  It’s weathered, cracking, splintering, and you know, just wearing down from the forces of nature.  The Mississippi sunshine beats down on it.  The rain has a big part in wearing down this decking.  Also the human traffic, dragging chairs and furniture, the salt and chlorine from the pool….(even the cat who claws the post). Any and everything that can wear this wooden deck down is in high gear to try to turn it from a well conditioned deck into a rotting mass of wood and decay.

Until! ………..  DadadaDAAAAA! (Musical Intro!)  Until I hear about the 40% off all paint at the paint store.  My wife and daughter always tell me they shop because of sales.  (Seems like they always BUY because of sales too).  Well, I’m joining in myself.  Save 40%, so I’ll buy a bunch of buckets of paint for that deck of mine.

I’ve known for quite some time that the deck was needing a RE– conditioning.  I’ve just let it rock on.  The store has a paint that will RE-store your deck.  It also will RE-condition, and RE-vive.  Even says on the paint can that it will “make it like brand new again”.  I’m wondering if it works that well if I can take a drink of it.  A big ole swig just might be what I need for myself.

Restore unto me the joy of your salvation, and let a willing attitude control me Psalms 51:12  International Standard Version

OK, personal question here….. Is the joy of being a Christian fading, being worn away, and is being lost from all the weathering in your earthly life?  Well, it’s time to get RE- ‘d.  Anything that begins with RE-.   Restored, revived, realigned, reconnected, recharged, rekindled, REVIVED.

What’s amazing is that God Himself will be the one that restores you.  You are the one that must become motivated enough to ask for this reconditioning.  It’s a process between you and God.  It may not be an overnight thing.  It might take a “couple of coats”.  You gotta believe that your Lord and Saviour wants you to have a life that’s protected from this world’s harm.  You gotta believe that He knows and cares about your condition.  You gotta believe. You do don’t you?

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher

 

 

 

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What to do when someone says, “what you’re doing will not amount to anything”.

a separate persimmon tree surrounded by an oak

a separate persimmon tree surrounded by an oak

Study this picture and you’ll see that is not a limb growing out of this tree, but it is an entirely different tree growing in  a most difficult situation.  Both trees are very old.  The net fencing at the bottom of the tree was put there during my papaw’s time of farming.  The barbed wire fencing has been nailed onto the tree over the last decades.  The top strand has actually grown into the persimmon tree over the past 30 years  I was curious why us farmers nailed the fencing to the small tree and not the much larger tree.  That’s when I realized that the small persimmon tree was growing more upright.  Poor little tree.  Sure has and is taking a lot of abuse just to be able to live where it is.

What is amazing to me is that each year this persimmon tree bears a lot of fruit.  Persimmons….. they don’t call it deer candy for nothing.  The cows love them.  As well as the horses, deer, and myself as well.  This tree’s fruits are sweeter than most persimmons.  But looking at this tree you would think that it would not amount to anything.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.

It does make you wonder what kind of tree this would have been had it been planted somewhere all by itself, away from encroaching oak trees, and farmers’ fence staples.  Probably would be 50 feet tall, with  uniform and gloriously spreading branches reaching in every direction.  It’s got perfect limbs, perfect leaves, why I bet there’s a bench under this perfect tree where people come sit to look and gaze and admire at what a perfect tree looks like. It’s got its own website, social media, fan club, and bank account.  A perfect tree in anyone’s book.  It has amounted to something.  But trees don’t decide where they are to be planted.  They are created to bear fruit.

But back to the original tree that struggles to make it.  I showed this tree to several people to see what their comments would be.  Most folks thought that the tree was struggling, it wasn’t being treated fairly, and that it certainly wouldn’t amount to anything where it is.  Wrong, wrong, and more wrong.  It bears fruit every year for the cows, deer, critters and me.  It definitely doesn’t look like it should.  It struggles.  but, the fruit is sooooo good.     To those of us critters 2 and 4 legged that know this tree, it’s valuable.  To the world in general, it is not going to amount to anything.

What about you?  Has life stapled barbed wire around you.  Does it seem that worldly “problems” have surrounded your life?  Have you heard someone say that you/your life will not amount to anything?

Matthew 7:16 NLT You can identify them by their fruits, that is, by the way they act………

People who tell you that you won’t amount to anything measure success by the amounts.  You know, the amount of units sold, the amount of money possessed, the amount of people you control, the amounts of anything you can claim.  But shouldn’t we be more than that.  Because if that is our life’s true goal, then we truly haven’t amounted to anything.

Identify yourself by your “fruits”.  Even when wrapped up in “barbed wire” and surrounded by the world you can still be what God has created you to be.  I like to think that this persimmon tree is a great example of “living in but not of this world”.  It’s focused on bearing fruit, growing upright, and LIVING no matter what comes.

So there you are producing fruit.  So many different fruit trees.  Look at this list of fruit…… teaching music to a child, singing at the nursing home, raising children, leading a men’s group, praying for someone, volunteering, helping the needy, being there for someone.  My, my, the list is endless as it should be.  Fruits of the spirit have no limit.  They  also  have no amount.  God knows where you’ve been “planted”.  He knows about the “barbed wires” of your life that could hold you back. But He also sees “your fruit”.  Well done, keep on bearing fruit, growing upright, and LIVING no matter the cost.

What should you say when you are told that you won’t amount to anything?  My advice……. say nothing.  You are focused on bearing fruit, not amounts.  That’s difficult to calculate what is considered successful to some people.  Or……………, you could tell them they are wrong, wrong, wrong.  That to argue with them about what you are worth would be a waste of your time.  Besides, it wouldn’t amount to anything.  Bam!