Monday, December 29, 2008

Christmas Tea Message continued...

As promised, I'm going to let my Mom finish sharing the message she believes God gave her . It seems that I was right about letting her share it, as I've had lots of comments for her about it. Hope you like the rest of it as well, and that it touches your heart with God's love for you, as much as my Mom touches my heart with her love for me.


Thank you all for your comments, and thanks, OC, for letting me have this opportunity to share. Today I want to finish the subject I started yesterday … how people and God’s promises are often like roses...


People have a tendency to want to do things their own way… force open the rose before it is time for it to bloom, but when we do, we really mess it up. If we do mess things up, but turn and ask God for help, He will graciously come and do a miracle for us a lot of times, IF we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, repent, and turn from our sins. Remember, sin is doing what we aren’t supposed to do according to God’s Word, OR not doing what we ARE supposed to do.


Wouldn’t it be better to follow Him from the beginning, and “let the rose open” in HIS time instead of messing things up first and THEN asking for His help.


If you have a Rosebud that God has given you… a person that He has given you to love; a friend, child, husband, etc., that you want to see in full bloom NOW, remember the Rose of Sharon that was given to Mary… He grew in God’s time… He had to FEEL the thorns to know what they feel like to us, and He is STILL patiently waiting on GOD’S time to receive the fulfillment of HIS destiny… To become that King that will bring peace to this world…


It must be hard for Him to see all the sin and suffering that is going on down here, but Jesus is waiting until God is ready to take the Roses from the garden in this world to the banquet feast of Heaven…


We need to trust God to bring that Rosebud that we love to its full bloom… We are the gardeners and caretakers, as the first man was in God’s garden… Maybe we were always meant to be caretakers of the things that God gives us to do… We are to: water by giving them the living water of life (through our modeling), feed (by teaching them the Word of God), and pull out some weeds (like when our kids are little and we are bringing them up before they leave our care).
One thing, though, that we need to remember, is that God said that once the weeds have grown up with the wheat and become part of the field, HE will do the reaping and separating in their lives. All children will sin and have to make their own choices as they grow up, but even after they leave OUR care… they never leave HIS!
We are to continue to do our part of the job: water -- feed -- care for (show HIS love through our lives) those Roses. We need to be VERY careful about pruning (judging), and let the MASTER gardener do that part of the gardening.

Sometimes, as we tend the Roses that God has given us to tend, we may get pricked by the thorns, but that doesn’t mean that we should quit tending them… They still need the water and food of God’s love to come to full bloom. This is very important to remember, especially if you do foster care.

Roses are beautiful when they are cared for properly. Wouldn’t you love to be able to put a beautiful Rose, or two… or a dozen… in our Lord’s hands…when He calls us to that Heavenly Banquet?

Roses are to share as well… Once they have bloomed in our hearts… like the promises of God’s Love, Joy, Peace, the gardener usually gives them to others to enrich their lives.


Go and pour out the perfume of the Rose of Sharon on those lives He brings to you, and don’t show them the thorns of self…

3 comments:

betty said...

beautiful!!! I'm going to print both parts out to think about; just awesome what the Lord gave you! thanks for sharing it with us :)

betty

ocmist said...

From Linda, OC's Mom: I'm glad you liked it and that it touched you... Every time I read it, and that's a lot, it speaks to me again, and I usually cry. God is just so good to us, and He doesn't even expect us to clean our own lives up... He will help us do it through His Spirit in us when we let Him and try to follow Him daily, seeking Him first. We are so lucky to have a God of Love.

Nancy at the Farm said...

Thank you for sharing your Christmas "Tea" message. We printed it off for Mum - she likes that sort of thing. And it will probably be good to have around when Dozer goes ballistic after reading my entries. Then again, I am not so sure he reads all that well. We'll be in touch!

Love, Cooper