Thursday, March 31, 2016
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Well Watered Gardens
It is getting that time of year when we start to plant our gardens. I know for myself that it brings great joy to my heart to get out and prepare the ground for planting the seeds so that my family and I can enjoy and look forward to the time of harvest. There is nothing more beautiful than a well watered and kept garden. Lines and rows of the best fruits and vegetables. It can be absolutely breath-taking. It will also require a lot of work. The fallow grounds have to be broken up. Sometimes that means digging up rocks, weeds, and such like things. If we must, we don't mind getting our hands a little dirty, putting in the manure, and hours and hours of back breaking effort. But then, there's harvest. I will now compare a well watered garden to the book of Isaiah, Chapter 58, verses 1-14. If you seek to have a well watered life with God, let's look at these 14 verses from the King James Version (ER)
"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. Why have we fasted, say they, and you see not? why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors. Behold you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of of wickedness: you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover him: and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rearward. Then shall you call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity. And if your draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in obscurity, and our darkness be as the noon day.
And the LORD shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones: and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach. The restorer of paths to dwell in. If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking our own words. Then shall you delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob our father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it"
We see what it will take to have a well watered garden spiritually. When we fast as the LORD speaks here, the chosen fast, our grounds will be fertile. There are to be times that we set aside to do nothing but fast and pray. The times and length of your fast should be first of all prayed through with God. He may lead you differently that someone else. There are the corporate fast when everyone fast as together as a church or unit. But either way, always seek the mind of God before fasting. If you do fast alone, you don't have to go around telling everyone else. This is between you and God. Naturally, if you have a spouse, discuss it with them, and of course, your immediate family who lives in your home will also probably know. But, anyone else should never know that you are fasting. Like I mentioned earlier, corporate fasting is different, and others will know that you are doing some sort of fasting. God still honors that.
Fasting is not for debates. Just because you fast it does not mean you are in the position to point your finger at other people. This is not the fast that God honors. True fasting that God honors will cause you to stop living for yourselves and you will learn to cease from fighting and quarreling with people all the time. Just because you go through the motions of fasting and penance, sometimes even dressing in sackcloth and covering yourselves with ashes, does not mean that you are pleasing the LORD. God chosen fasting will call upon you to free those wrongly treated and be fair to them. You will share your food with the hungry and welcome the poor to your homes. You will give clothes to those in need, and not shy away from your own relatives who may need your help.
If you do these things then your healing will come quickly, and your salvation will come like the morning dawn. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind. When you call upon the LORD, He will answer you and say, "Here I am". God chosen fasting will call upon you to feed the hungry and help those in trouble. You will stop bringing oppression to the helpless and making false accusations and spreading gossip. When you do this the LORD will then lead and guide you always, watering your life when you are dry, like a well watered garden. He will give strength to your body.
Let us seek to honor God with our fasting and not ourselves. Seek the LORD as to how He would want you to fast, and remember, let it be between you and Him alone. When you do your fasting in secret, the LORD will reward you openly. But, when you go around telling everybody that you are fasting, that's the only reward you're going to receive. Fasting is not to be done for show. If you are to produce the best, well watered garden in your walk with God, then you can go a long way by fasting the way He would have you.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Monday, March 14, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Monday, March 7, 2016
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Friday, March 4, 2016
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
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