Laced With Grace

I love flowers. In my dreams, I have one of those lush English flower gardens. It is a veritable paradise of color and fragrant blooms. In reality, I don’t actually have a green thumb. In fact, I think it tends more toward the dark shades of brown. I can kill a plant faster than you can say Miracle-gro!

When we first moved to Texas twenty-five years ago, I planted the things I knew and loved. However, since we moved from upstate New York where it tends to be a tad cooler than southern Texas, they didn’t fare very well. Another thing I hadn’t counted on was the deer – ah the deer. I like them; I really do. They are so cute, especially here in Texas. I thought everything was bigger in Texas. Not true with the deer. They are dainty little critters (apologies to all the guys who are avid hunters) with soft brown eyes.
They like flowers too.

One spring, in a burst of gardening energy, I cleared the area under a cluster of oak trees we have in our front yard. Then my husband and son build a cute little stone border around the area for me. I bought and planted about two dozen impatiens plants. In my mind I could already see the beautiful mass of pink and white flowers skirting the huge oaks. It took me forever to plant them. My back was killing me by the time I finished, not to mention my poor old knees. However, it would all be worth it when those flowers bloomed.

The next morning I awoke to find dozens of little green stems sticking out of the ground. I may as well have sent out printed invitations: Attention deer. Linda is serving a special delicacy tonight – fresh impatiens. Bring a friend! So I learned to look for deer resistant plants as well as native plants. Just to be on the safe side, my husband fenced in a little area for my flower garden, and I started all over again.

To begin with we planted three crepe myrtles. They were supposed to be miniatures, but I don’t think anyone told them that. They grew to be about eight feet tall and had a tendency to poke people about the head and shoulders as they were walking up our front walk.  We decided they had to go feeling that eyes were an important thing to protect. My husband cut them down, and I planted Irises, Lantana, Salvia and a couple of rose bushes. To my complete amazement, they all did very well. My garden was looking good!

Then one morning I noticed them – crepe myrtle shoots growing where I had planted my flowers. My husband had done his best to dig up all the roots, but evidently he wasn’t able to get them all. So…I pulled up the shoots. And they grew again. I pulled them up….they continued to grow. I wasn’t able to get down to the roots and dig them up.

Another reason I am not very good with plants is that I want everything to be simple and easy. When I get something new, and it has a manual as thick as a dictionary I get discouraged before I even begin. I just want to be able to push a couple of buttons and have everything good to go. That doesn’t work very well with appliances, and it certainly doesn’t work with growing things. I just don’t take the time to research gardening. I want to dig the hole, put the plant in the ground, feed and water it when necessary – and that’s enough already. I want a beautiful garden.

It also tends to get a bit hot here. I am great in the garden when it is cool – not so much when it’s hot. I tend to neglect the more physical aspects of gardening when it gets into the summer months. So I stopped pulling up crepe myrtle shoots because it’s just too hot to be on my knees in the dirt yanking on plants that simply refuse to give up easily. Before long the crepe myrtle shoots became crepe myrtle PLANTS and crowded out everything else.  Because of my neglect, the flowers I planted with such hope were suffering.

I got to thinking the other day that the Lord has a lesson for me here.  As important as it is to do the necessary work to have a lovely garden, so it is within my heart. To have a heart that is beautiful, thriving and pleasing in His sight I need to do the necessary work. I need time alone with Him, time in prayer and in the Word so that He can plant the good seed in my heart and nurture it.   I also need to do the hard work of keeping the things out of my heart that are not supposed to be growing there. It may not seem like anything big or awful – at first. However, if I allow it to grow it will soon begin to crowd out the good things.  I need to dig down and pull it out by the roots.

“Oh the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.  They are like trees planted along the riverbank bearing fruit each season.  Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do.”

                                                                                                      Psalms 1:1-3 (NLT)

(Matthew 16: 25-26) “For whoever wants to save his live will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”

The summer is over and gone. The heat of the day is not as intense for a new season is upon us. We are left with reminisce of a fading picture as we try to restore it in our memory.

Earlier this summer during my vacation, I sat on the beach one afternoon by myself and built a sand castle. This is one of my favorite past times next to hunting for sharks teeth and shells. For hours, little by little, I dropped one clump of sand by hand on top of the other until I had a beautiful sand castle.

Eventually, it was time for the sun to rest. The waves drew closer and closer to my castle until in time the ocean had taken back its own. My castle was now gone. I knew this would happen. I was ready. It was almost a joyous occasion. As my castle washed away, I got up and walked back to my room, relaxed, having enjoyed my day.

But what do we do about things in our life that we may not be ready for? So many people in the world are holding onto things that will not last, whether it is material belongings, people, performances or just life. We put every bit of our time and energy into the here and now but if we were to die today, and the waves drew closer until the ocean took back its own, what would really matter?

Take stock of your life today. What do you want to leave, and what do you want to take with you. I bet it is going to be memories, relationships and what you did for God and with God. And when the waves come, what beauty will your sand castle have held?

Will you be ready to pick up and walk home? To the heavenly realms?

Where our beautiful Sand Castle awaits us…..The One that never washes away… For it is eternal… it is Forever!

As you read this, I will be on my way to attend a funeral and I apologize for doing this but I decided to share a post that I wrote last spring on my personal blog. The reason why I am doing this is two-fold: I am too grief-stricken to concentrate but more importantly I think it’s important to discuss the dangers of The Secret again because it’s been made it into a movie and it’s now on Pay-Per-View.

Have you ever had something keep popping up in your life and you try to ignore it but there it is again, in your face calling you to pay attention? In the past month I’ve heard more and more people talking about “The Secret.” I had heard about it from a Christian Radio Talk Show and I didn’t pay much attention to it, but at the same time, I had this nagging feeling to check it out. I ignored that feeling. Then it came up again, several times. Ignore, ignore, ignore. Finally it came up in an email this week; one of my yahoo groups was discussing it. All I knew about it was that it’s some new age phenomenon or psycho-babble that all the popular talk shows were featuring. Since I no longer watch those talk shows (I love that Casting Crowns lyric, “Stop asking 0prah what to do”) I didn’t have a clue as to how popular it was. After reading the responses in the email I felt compelled to check it out.

If you google The Secret, you’ll come up with an idea of how big this has gotten. It’s been featured on several prominent talk shows and is being made into a movie. Here is a quote from 0prah, “It’s making headlines around the world—and buzz just keeps building. Some say it’s the secret to creating the life you truly want—losing weight, making money, finding love. See why people everywhere are talking about The Secret.”

I decided to go to the bookstore to see for myself what the fuss was all about. While reading the book, I felt a pain in the pit of my stomach and it became obvious to me why I needed to write about this. Before I explain why, let me share a few quotes from the book:

“When I really understood that my primary aim was to feel and experience joy, then I began to do only those things which brought me joy. I have a saying: “If it ain’t fun, don’t do it!”

“It is not people who are giving you the things you desire. If you hold that false belief, you will experience lack, because you are looking at the outside world and people as the supply. The true supply is the invisible field, whether you call that the Universe, the Supreme Mind, God, Infinite Intelligence, or whatever else. Whenever you receive anything, remember that you attracted it to you by the law of attraction, and by being on the frequency and in harmony with the Universal Supply. The Universal Intelligence which pervades everything moved people, circumstances, and events to give that thing to you, because that is the law.”

“There is nowhere that the One Mind is not. It exists in everything. The One Mind is all intelligence, all wisdom, and all perfection, and it is everything and everywhere at the same time”

“The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there, for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. you are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret.”

“So your purpose is what you say it is. Your mission is the mission you give yourself. Your life will be what you create it as, and no one will stand in judgment of it, now or ever.”

I did not include any of the quotes about earning money by thinking only positive thoughts and I know that is a big selling point for a lot of people.

Now as a believer reading those quotes you might laugh or wonder why anyone would fall for that. Let me tell you, there are a lot of “Cultural Christians” that will buy into this. I thought back to how I was maybe ten years or so ago and this book would have been purchased for everyone on my Christmas list. It seems like every year I would find “The Book” that had all the answers to life’s questions. I can think of five of them right now and they were all the rage when they came out and were passed from friend to friend all in hopes of finding ourselves, the meaning to life or what we hoped was the truth. It’s funny how often “The Book” comes out. I know I need to share this with you because had I not given my life over to Christ, I would be all over this. What makes it even more frightening is that I would have still called myself a Christian.

All of these “top-sellers” have something in common: there is no mention of salvation, sin, Jesus, mercy, glory to God, repentance, and certainly no mention of righteous judgement.

Paul writes in Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

In 2 Peter 2:1-3, Peter talks about false teachers and their destruction:

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

John MacArthur tells us that “Peter described false teachers in detail so that Christians would always recognize their characteristics and methods. The greatest sin of Christ rejecters and the most damning works of Satan is misrepresentation of the truth and its consequent deception. Nothing is more wicked than for someone to claim to speak for God to the salvation of soul when in reality he speaks for Satan to the damnation of souls.”

Isaiah 44:20

He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him;
he cannot save himself, or say,
“Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

Let’s not feed on ashes. I realize I’m going to annoy a lot of people with this post. My intention is not to offend you, believe me. I know what it’s like to search for answers and I’m telling you it’s so easy to find the Truth if you’re ready for it. You’ll read something like The Secret and think it makes sense…and some of it does, which is what scares me. What’s wrong with thinking positive thoughts after all?

When your focus in life is on you, it’s off of God. When you worship yourself, you stop worshipping God.

Something to think about anyway…

Titus 3-8 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.