Horticulture

Update on my garden: it is still blooming and looking wonderful.

Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd:
        and their soul shall be as a watered garden;
               and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
                          Jeremiah 31:12 (KJV)

I've been thinking about this verse. When I go outside to water, all the thirsty plants drink in the water and make me so glad and uplifted. Lately we've been getting some rain so I haven't had to water them as much. I just go out and enjoy their beauty.

Many of my annuals are forming seeds so I've been gathering them to try to start them from seed in the spring. I have some flowers that I haven't seen that particular color variety before so it'll be wonderful if I am successful.

I'm also experimenting with trying my hand at starting new plants from cuttings...

I started these about a week ago and they are still green...it's a good sign. :)

The packets next to the plants are all of my seed gatherings.

I've also been thinking about the parable of Jesus when He related hearers to four soils. If I wasn't around to have prepared the ground it would have been rocky and weedy and trampled by careless passersby,  and it wouldn't have gotten the water it needs. It makes me aware of the fact that I'm thankful the Lord prepared me to hear Him, and since that time I've continually sought Him to help keep the weeds at bay and water me in times of drought. There was a time I was very stubborn and thought I knew better for myself than anyone else. I am thankful that I was able to lay down that arrogance and self-pride. God showed me a much better way.

Hear the parable of the sower of the four soils:

And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, 

Behold, a sower went forth to sow;   And when he sowed, 

some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 

Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 

And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: 

But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. 

And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?  

He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:  

For this people's heart is waxed gross, 

and their ears are dull of hearing, 

and their eyes they have closed; 

lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.  

But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.  

Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

  

 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. 

But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. 

  

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. 

But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Matthew 13:4-23 (KJV)

At one time or another I was all of the above soils. I had a praying grandmother when I was a small child, so perhaps this is why the Lord never gave up on me. I also remember hearing the parable of the four soils preached by our Seventh day Adventist pastor when I was about 11 years old, and I remember there coming a silent unspoken response in me, a thought that came to me that said: "I hope that I am that good soil, God please make me the good soil"...and I believe He heard my heart and began even then preparing my "ground". However I was still going to go through the other phases of poor soils and I still would mock those who believed in Jesus thinking myself so much more superior than those poor, silly, superstitious morons. I would still go through many terrible situations and if I would have died then I know I would have gone straight to hell, and yet I didn't die at that time, and believe me when I say that there were several times that I could have and absolutely should have, and yet somehow He kept me from killing myself through my blind stupidity. He prepared my soil during this time, answering the silent prayer of a little girl in a heretical "church" and yet He was able to get through to me in this church that taught heresies because He spoke to me through that portion of the sermon when the pastor read actual words from the Bible.

I'm not recommending this as a good procedure.
Not at all.
It just proves the fact that God can even use a talking donkey to do His work.
It wasn't overnight.
It took MANY years in developing.
He was faithful even when I wasn't.

I just hope I am half as good a gardener as the Lord is (even that I think would be exceedingly abounding), and can grow a successful garden next year from my cuttings and seedlings. 

<3

False Christians

There are many false Christians just as there were many false followers of Jesus in the times of the apostles. Many of the Pharisees and Sadducees were false as were most of the huge crowds that followed Jesus. We see from John 6:66 that most people only wanted immediate gratification. In yesterday's post I discussed Beth Moore. She teaches "that kind" of Jesus, the kind that will give you all the goodies if you will believe that He will. She is one of many false teachers leading people astray. But the Bible warns that people want their ears tickled with this kind of garbage, so the responsibility of her error lies partially with her listeners. 

 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (KJV)

We see that happening more and more, don't we?

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.   And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 2 Peter 2:1-3 (KJV)

These people...do they honestly believe that they are teaching the things the Lord wants them to teach? Have they truly sought Him for the truth and diligently studied all of God's word so they would speak truly of Him? What does Jesus say?

 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?   And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV)


When I read these warnings I do not say to myself:  
"These don't apply to me...get thee behind me satan for trying to lie to me".

Instead, I say and have always said:
 "Jesus I hope that these are not words you will have to speak to me when I see You, however, if you say them to me I know that in all things You are truthful and pray for your forgiveness. Help me through my stubbornness, remove this guilty stain from me I pray that You in Your mercy and goodness remove my guilt so that I won't be among the many You say will be rejected...yet IF I am rejected, I know it would be a right decision. I deserve hell. It would be a blessing and mercy to be forgiven, and not in any way deserved."

Let us not build a life on the sinking sand of self pity or self-confidence or self-anything where we think the things we do will be our saving grace. Let us instead acknowledge our lack, our fallenness, our depravity, agreeing with Jesus that without His intervention we are destined for hell. Nothing we can do can outdo our sin debt. Only the blood of Christ can pay the payment for our crimes (even if these crimes were only in our thoughts and never reach the actual doing stage, Jesus said if we even thought them we are guilty of them---face the truth: our sins are many and they are terrible) which we can never pay we can only accept His gift of forgiveness in humble gratitude.

So stop following false teachers with your itching ears to find another way. There is no other way. Humble yourself before Jesus while there is still time.

Beth Moore

DebbieLynne has a couple of posts touching on this false teacher.



I had to take many breaks through this because I cannot take much of Beth Moore at a time. She is one dingy woman for certain. I think many love her because she comes across as a dingy blonde. Who can fault her for not getting all of her facts straight. She's just a blonde after all, right? It seems like that is how she tries to excuse her lack of Biblical accuracy. She is one of those who make Christians a laughing stock amongst unbelievers (atheists, yes I lump everyone who is not a Christian as an atheist, because either you are with Him or against Him). I don't know if she is a Christian or not. Just because she (or anyone) claims to be one doesn't make it so (as I have seen time and time again). The proof is in the pudding. God will reveal the truth about her, and about everything in His perfect time. In the meantime, please, please, please know and understand how these things get mutilated by these false teachers, the likes of which you can find on TBN every day.

 See if you can suffer through her rantings with that horrible overdone southern twang. Chris Rosebrough takes us through her "message" and tries to untangle what she rants about with the searchlight of the Bible. At one point he says "I think my ears are bleeding".  Sigh. She turns all of scripture on it's head...and I can see that people who follow people like her (instead of following Jesus Himself) can wind up in confusion or worse, end up losing what little faith they might have had before they began following her. She needs to confess that she doesn't teach what Jesus or the Apostle Paul taught. She needs to stop.

Listen if you can stomach this stuff  enough to be able to understand the difference between the truth of the gospel and the rantings of people that think they teach the Bible but instead butcher what it actually says.

Listen to the broadcast at DebbieLynne's website (I cannot get it to embed here)
http://debsheadstick.blogspot.ca/2014/07/beth-moore-confidence-and-looking-at.html?showComment=1406572630526#c7118769919111099094

The Great Debate

About commenting on this post, a few guidelines I believe are necessary:

Please keep your comments to what is in this video (well, audio actually).

Please think out your comments carefully because those that I determine are simply to be rude, mocking, or otherwise not productive, will be removed. You are free to ridicule me or this debate and what have you on your own websites and muck it up there as much as you want to of course, but it isn't welcome here.

Also realize that I may decide to not answer your comment but leave it as it is if the answer already addressed adequately in this audio debate and therefore I hope then you will take it upon yourself to do a better job of listening. Yes it is long (over 2 hours duration), and you might have to take it in segments. Don't be sloppy, and I will try to heed my own advice as well there. :)