How is everyone doing?

[Tantei_Saru3]

I'm not a "new member," just entirely inactive for the most part, until recently.

Some weighing stuff, I worry about my fellow Christian/Judeo brethren. A few in particular who are just trying to find their footing, who have seen some rough times, are leaning too much on the world. So, I just pray for them and pray to God that if He would give me the honor of reflecting some of His glory onto them, I'd be most grateful and humble to carry any of that out.
.... A second thing I worry about is if He actually is entrusting me with that responsibility, to an equal or even smaller extent because it sure looks that way, and I am less sure than Him lol It really does scare the living tissue off me though.

Something I'm happy about is the progress in my relationship with God. He's giving me plenty to work with, so it's never boring. He's making sure I'm well taken care of in all the ways you can think of, medically, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally. So, even when I'm literally enveloped by fear, I can feel absolutely calm because He's providing the necessary information for us to piece it together. I look at it like a father and a son building a model car together. All the logic of detail, blueprints, steady hands, focused eyes, and all the intimacy that comes with teaching, caring and quality time. It's nice heart  

[cristobela]

I don't know whether it's worth sharing, lol, but lately I've been led to the topic of "tending the garden"—for a few months now. So, I've been directly interacting with plants in the yard, pruning, "dead heading", removing all the dried out stuff, keeping the perennials watered, and watching a plant that was dying bloom in response, and a live one just burst with flower buds in reaction to getting cut down a bit. I'm not making them bloom, I'm just tending, taking some dead stuff out, attacking the weeds by hand, hacking some needless twigs. God is the one making them grow even while I sleep. A few days ago, for two days in a row, back-to-back, He just poured down the rain, and everything just exploded with flowers.

Clearly, He's using all this as an illustration of how we prune the deviant thoughts within God's "garden", and what our part is in relation to His. Preparing their hearts so that they're ready to receive the rain (revelation) from God directly. But also a warning because I carelessly snipped into a caterpillar's body (that made me sad); he/she was just as green as the leaves on the plumbago plant, so I didn't see it (still don't know where it came from). There were multiple layers to that situation: first, He directly answered my curiosity (did Adam and Eve use tools or just their bare hands to tend the Garden of Eden? Had I been using my bare hands, I think I would've felt the difference and retracted my hand. But no, I was using "safety scissors" [because I don't know where the pruning shears were; literally, some scissors from elementary school lol—just now realizing the symbolism: learning the fundamentals / elementary principles of tending the garden idea ]; I don't know if the caterpillar died; its insides oozed out a bit, and his movement was less efficient, but he/she wasn't there the next day—so I couldn't tell, did it die? did it survive? did it scurry off or was it eaten by something? who knows [God knows]). But also: the things we invent for our convenience ends up hurting creation. And when personal direct touch is not involved, our interaction can be a bit calloused and hurtful (in ways you don't intend to inflict on the receiving end).

Sigh.

That hands-on experience in the yard has been taking up more of my time. Essentially, He's been leading me into a deeper understanding of the agricultural analogies that were used in the Scriptures. I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner to watch a video on grafting branches [How To Graft A Fruit Tree]. That was interesting. The threat Paul wrote in Romans 11 to not confide in our being "grafted in", but to tremble because we can be cut off too is so clear after seeing this. The joys of growing up in the city/suburbs and being ignorant of how earth works sweatdrop . I didn't know most of it would get hacked off to make room for the new / foreign branches. But I'm not clear on what to make of the "certain varieties of fruit trees" being patented (near the end of the video); a manifestation of man's greed? or a legitimately-God-honoring practice because it honors the govt's laws? So much to meditate over.

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Romans 11:17-21 (NIV)

17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.