Lawn Mowers

“I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I have set my heart on your laws.” Psalm 119:30

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2



Instructions: Sit in the seat and steer



Walk behind and maneuver to where you want it to go.



stand behind, and try to keep up!


Today was a day of mowing. Now we have three lawn mowers, the riding lawn mower (above), and two others that you walk behind. One a little more difficult to steer (center) and the other that is "self-propelled" (right). I got to thinking . Say that we compare ourselves to the  lawn mowers, and God to the gardener.
There is the riding lawn mower that gives control to the person riding to steer and go easily, there is the one that is difficult to maneuver and takes considerable effort, and finally the one that is very eager to go but is therefore difficult to keep up to. Which one are you?

Do you submit to God's will and seek him,
Job 22:21, “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.

Hebrews 12:9-10, Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.

 

Or are you difficult and fight against what God is calling you to do, 2 Chronicles 13:12, God is with us; he is our leader. His priests with their trumpets will sound the battle cry against you. People of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed.”

Or do you try to get ahead and therefore come to harm
2 John 1:8-10;  Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God.

Which one are you?

Anger...>?

Psalm 78; Jeremiah 10:23-24; Nahum 1:2-4
  Ephesians 4:25-27,  Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.   “In your anger do not sin”^[a]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

After reading that scripture it seems as though God is recognizing that there will be times when we are angry but that we should not REACT out of that anger and therefore do ourselves and others harm. We need to RESPOND instead out of love instead. Which means forgiveness and reconciliation.

Psalm 86: 15, But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. 

God himself is slow to anger.... I think this means thinking before you let anger take hold and maybe even recognizing the consequences that could take place if you do react in anger. There are times when God gets angry, so anger in itself is not a sin, it is what we do with our anger that can lead to sin. God's anger is different and since we are more likely to sin out of anger, we need to be careful. So when anger takes hold in a situation, when someone does something that you know is wrong and you justify that anger, be careful what you do or say. Ask God for the right words, or even rather if you should speak at all.

James 1:19-21, My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

 So,  is it  better to forgive the person and leave them to God, If we know that God is a just God?
2 Thessalonians 1:5-7, All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you    and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.

John 7:24

So after coming home from Bibleschool I realized that I would soon be needing a vehicle.  My first method was searching kijiji to see if anything came up that struck my fancy. Then on Saturday my dad took me to look at two of the cars I had found.

The first was a gold sunfire, it came with two sets of tires, was clean inside and everything seemed to work properly. However on the outside the paint was peeling and upon inspection my dad figured out that two of the doors had been replaced, therefore red paint was peeking out from underneath ( spare parts from a red sunfire). I wasn't too inpressed with it due to the outside and the fact that it had been hit and therefore repaired.

Next Car was purple and I was pleased with the outer appearance, I wanted this purple car so I hoped that everything would be in order when i drove it. I peered inside and saw that some of the interior was ripped and worn and the seats were stained as well as the floor. When we test drove it, we found even more problems. I was disappointed, however God used this experience as a learning one.

It struck me as we were driving home.

1 Samuel 16:6-8, "The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Here I was doing exactly what I wasn't supposed to, I was more concerned with the outside and not the inside( heart of the car) . Have you ever done that with a person? Met someone and immediately judged them by the way they looked. I have. And God has reminded me time and time again that the inside is more important. However, we live in a world where value seems to be placed upon outer beauty. But God doesn't. He made a world where everyone has the potential to be beautiful, and I'm not talking about plastic surgery. Our hearts can be beautiful!!! <3  When you think of Jesus, what do you picture?

Read Isaiah 53. It says that "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."

What does that say to us, that we should desire to be outwardly lovely? 
I don't think so, he didn't want people to be drawn to him because of his appearance. He desired to be known for his inner beauty and to affect people from the inside out. When we start working on our inward appearance, it starts to come through outside. Perhaps when a person saw Jesus they didn't think, "Wow, what a handsome fellow", but I believe that after a conversation with him, hearing him speak, or even seeing some of his actions they may have thought, "That Jesus is such a beauty!". Our inner beauty can and will shine through, if we focus on Jesus and becoming more like him.
Ecclesiastes 8:1,
Who is like the wise?
Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
 and changes its hard appearance.

1 Peter 3:3-4, Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Outer beauty fades, but inner beauty lasts on and grows, so instead of waking up in the morning and picking out the features that you dislike about your appearance( gold or purple). Consider how God sees you and maybe take time to examine your heart, <3

John 7:24, Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

Flowers

Matthew 6:27-29; Proverbs 10:25; Isaiah 32:8. Today I went horsebackriding by the river and as we rode through the forest my grandma pointed out a lily among the green plants. After some thought I realized that in life we have a choice, to be flowers that stand out among the green or to be part of the green, blending in with our surroundings. Sometimes it's easy to be a flower, like at church or in easy situations. Other times it's much easier to blend in like a leaf among other leaves. To follow what everyone else is doing even if it's not right. As Christians we are called to be flowers all the time, not just when it's easy. To stand out because of our love for Jesus and our desire to follow him. It says in Job 14:2, "They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure. " Those aren't the kind of flowers we should be. We need to endure, and the only way that we can is through the blood of Jesus. In situations when you know that you need to stand up and stick out like an orange lily among the green, remember that you are not alone, Jesus will be the roots if you let him. So put your trust in him today and when you face a difficult task, choose to be a lily among the grass :). And maybe you'll find another lily in the midst that will stand beside you!

2 Peter 3:14  So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

Thoughts while Gardening

As I kneel among the weeds in the garden, I thought, "hmm, what can I learn from this?". In between the rows of peas is a mesh fence so that the pea plants can grow upwards, and my job was to pull out the weeds so that they could grow. Many times in the Bible, gardening is mentioned (John 15, Genesis 2). God clearly likes his gardens :). But our lives can also be described as a garden, with different fruits and plants growing.
We have weeds in our lives and some are easier to see and root up (at the front of the plant), but most of them we need God's help to really get to the root of it (behind). (Matthew 13)If we let these weeds grow, they choke out the good plants in the garden , but if the weeds are taken out, the good plants flourish and grow strong. It is similar with our lives, the problems in our lives presently are quite evident but those ones in our past are hidden. It's easier to just leave them or perhaps wish that they would disappear, but they do affect our future.

My question.... what weeds do you need God's help to root up so that you can move forward and flourish in the future?

Traveling

So technically my traveling is two days, but I left Australia at 2:30pm sunday, arrived in San Francisco at 11:00am Sunday and am going to be home at 11:30pm sunday. Kind of like time travel....

So one of my prayers before leaving was that I would sit by someone nice on the plane and that they would be able to keep me company in the airport for awhile. And as I'm walking onto the plane I throw in a quick, God can there be a Christian too! So I make my way to row 40, look to the right and see a man and woman. I claim my window seat and am introduced to the people sitting in my row. Mena and Christian.... haha God very funny :)

Anyways Mena turned out to be a great traveling companion and we got to talk for ahwileand when our plane landed she suggested we hang out together in the airport until her flight left. So awesome and I got to help her out a bit too, by offering duct tape to temporarily mend her suitcase and sharing my lunch since she had no credit cards!
So far so good, now less than 6 hours left until I can board my plane...

Count Down

Wow, to say that my 5 months at Capernwray has gone fast, now THAT would be an understatement. The time has flown and I have learned so much. Plans have changed, and so have I.
People keep asking me what I'm going to be doing when I get home and there is no short answer. Capernwray Australia is closing down for a semester to really rethink where they want and need to be, that means I will be coming home and not returning to Australia after a few weeks.

I am a plan oriented person and when I learned that "my" plans had changed I wasn't too stoked. However, God reminded me that I shouldn't be following "my" plans but HIS. This has definitely been one journey that I have been on, so when I gave my plans and future to him I've experienced peace and essentially no worries. *essentially because if I try to take my future back into my hands, there is stress.

 So, God hasn't revealed his entire plan for my future yet, knowing would cause me to plan.So his timing is perfect timing.  He has slowly been revealing bits and pieces and it is incredible as well as exciting. There is less than a week left before I fly home, and I will miss all my new friends in Australia very much, but I am ready to come home and really put everything God has been teaching and showing me into practice!