Godsway Media LLC

Wow, it is good to be back!  Sorry for the delay (over two weeks) of no blogging, but my personal laptop, containing all of my site information, log-ins, etc., has been “in the shop”.  It arrived home this afternoon, just in time for me to type up some devotional thoughts that have been stirring in me all week long.

I put in a small garden patch this week at our house.  It can’t be too big, since we live in a mobile home park.  I had an area that had been a kind of flower, stone, and wood chips garden spot for the past six years, and I thought it was perfect size.  I planned it all out…drew a diagram even.  I picked beefsteak tomatoes, green sweet peppers, yellow sweet peppers, “slightly” spicy red peppers, round (yes, round) zucchini and yellow summer squash, lettuce, and burpless cucumbers.  My hope is to have enough to can some sloppy tomatoes, some relish, and some bread and butter pickles when the time is “ripe”!

I first removed all the rocks, even our scripture-engraved rocks and angel statues, etc., from the planting area.  Next came the piles of red and brown wood chips, and the dissolving garden material underneath them that kept grass and weeds from growing.  What a job, all the general clean-up.  I guess I didn’t realize what could hide itself among a few wooden signs and wood chips, even in some sod that had grown over the edges.  It was amazing.  Five heavy bags of garbage later, we were down to the bare earth.  It looked rich, black, and inviting for my veggie plants.  I just knew we were going to have a huge success.

Then we stuck a spade into that beautiful earth.  ROOTS!  It was absolutely inundated with roots from a nearby tree, and from (apparently) some bushes or something that had been planted there before.  I have never seen so many roots in my life.  So we chopped up the top six inches or so as best we could, and I got down on my hands and knees Monday and Tuesday, and began to pull roots.  I was amazed at the series of roots I found…interconnected, twisted, tangled, and deep.  Below the top soil, I found extremely wet, extremely rich, black clay.  It was like jamming your fingers into inches and inches of Play-doh, and it was killing me trying to get those roots out.  But I did the best I could, and by Tuesday night, we were looking forward to a Wednesday planting.  The piles of roots were astounding, but at least they were gone from my garden.

Wednesday, I bought some beautiful plants and returned home to begin the process.  On my hands and knees once again, I dug the first hole for the first beefsteak tomato plant.  And I pulled out a root the length of my arm.  It happened over and over, but eventually, I got my garden planted, and it looks wonderful.  But it makes me wonder what I will dig up after harvest time this fall when I take a roto-tiller to it.  How deep did those roots run?

Jeremiah talks about a situation similar to this.  In Jeremiah 4:3-4, he gave the word of the Lord:

 ^3-4Here’s another Message from God
   to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:
“Plow your unplowed fields,
   but then don’t plant weeds in the soil!
Yes, circumcise your lives for God’s sake.
   Plow your unplowed hearts,
   all you people of Judah and Jerusalem.
Prevent fire—the fire of my anger—
   for once it starts it can’t be put out.
Your wicked ways
   are fuel for the fire. (Message)

God is calling us, as worshippers in Spirit and in truth, to begin to break up our “fallow” ground, our hard ground, our hardened hearts.  We’ll be amazed at what we find under that top surface.  Roots of sins long-forgotten, now tangled and woven together, nearly impossible to remove.  Ground that is rich, yet so sticky it nearly sucks us into returning to our past.  And the only way to remove it all is with His help…..and on our knees in prayer.

Worshippers, let Him help you to open your heart,,,,really open your heart.  Begin the process of cleaning out the mess that life has left behind.  You will never be done until He comes again, but the process can be so satisfying.  Painful?  Yes, definitely.  But the harvest is coming, and your life will never be the same.

Back on Monday with some Christian music updates!

Shari