Teachings – Spring in the Garden

SPRING IN THE GARDEN

UNFOLDING TWENTY-EIGHT

WHERE WE ARE

We have come a long way, and to think we are half way through Pastor Spurgeon’s The Teachings of Nature in the Kingdom of Grace! It has been quite a journey – for me at least. Now that we know how our heavenly Father looks upon us as lovely, fragrant flowers… our abode in a protected garden, the spring shut up, fountain sealed… and our Bridegroom rightfully expects us to bring forth lovely spices and fruit… we move to the seasons in the garden.  

SCRIPTURE

Isaiah 40:8

“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

Job 38: 27-29

“To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?”

SPRING IN THE GARDEN
UNFOLDING TWENTY-EIGHT

“That which is sown in the garden springs up from out of the ground because there is vitality in it.”

“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Therefore, do we assuredly look for a blessed spring time, we wait to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living; yea, we expect to see the universal reign of the everlasting Gospel.”

Why do we think that our time is unique? Is it not apparent that each generation has faced the same trials and difficulties – though of different forms and enemies? 

“The seed under a clod waits awhile till all its surroundings become propitious, and then it begins to germinate.” 

Oh, if only I can take that to heart, dear Lord! Oh, to wait with patience, trust!

“The stupendous wheels of Providence as they revolve are full of eyes, and all those eyes are fixed upon Christ and upon His cross, and as they turn upon their mystic axels, they revolve forever with one design… “

“If we were to see performed upon this stage, in a single moment, the turning of one grain of wheat into a full blown ear, we should exclaim, ‘Wonderful!’ and regard it a miracle. But if God is pleased to take some few months… ?”

“It is God that sendeth, ‘Spring, the Awakener,’ to fill earth’s bosom with flowers.”

Thus, Pastor concludes his discourse:

“As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and peace to spring forth before all nations.”

THOUGHT GOING FORWARD

If the Evangel of Spring is the evangel of revival and new life; then what can be said metaphorically of winter, summer and autumn? Are we prepared for the seasons that come and go in our lives? There are times in the winter of my life, I find a dormancy of spirit. I think of the dried, withered apple that still clings to the tree of an autumn memory as the wind and snow blows outside the window of memory. Is that my winter’s contribution to the body of Christ? A by-gone work? Really? A dried out fruit from yesterday, branch swept… a now inedible fruit barely hanging? What – who keeps it there? It must fall – doesn’t it? It must drop if a way is to be cleared for the new spring bud! If not, what then? Winter, forever?

Or, how about the Evangel of summer? What can be said of summer? What is it known for? Recreation, the sun… warmth… heat… but is my recreation Christ?  What happens after the newness, excitement of spring passes into the heat of summer? Do I remain planted by the still waters? What of autumn? What could be said of fall? Keep in mind these evangels are a part of God’s creation. Did the seasons exist before Adam’s fall? 

IN TRIBUTE TO SPURGEON’S LOVE OF SHORT RYHMES

Did winter live before the fall?
I mean Adam’s – not the season.
Was there a time I gave my all?
without His strength and reason?