"In The Garden"

“Once upon a time there was this exceptionally beautiful young girl. She lived in a home with only her father who dearly loved her. He was kind, attentive and caring, everything a girl could ask for. She was lovely in appearance both inside and out.
As this young girl’s days came and went she found herself growing into a very noticeable young lady. People would stop and take notice of her; young boys would find themselves staring at her. Her father had raised her to be humble and courteous, kind to everyone, but the temptation to play into the game of popularity began to draw her more and more away from the upbringing of her father’s wishes. Days would come and she would continue to move closer and closer to this juicy temptation…the temptation to just be who she wanted to be…free from her father’s wishes…to love whom she wanted and do what she wanted to do…”oh father…you just don’t understand…”

But how…how would she do this? Her father kept a very protective close eye on her…she had to think of a way to do this without her father ever noticing.

One day as she was alone in a beautiful park, enjoying all of its beauty…this very attractive young man tall, well built, with dark hair and an amazing smile came her way and of course took notice of her and decided to sit down next to her on the bench. After talking for a while this young man asked her if he could see her again…for lunch maybe…nothing serious…just lunch.
The young lady thought to herself… “lunch…nothing’s wrong with lunch…surely father won’t mind…I won’t even tell him…I mean it’s just lunch…right? I always go into the garden around lunch time…my father will never know.”

So the next day the beautiful young girl went off before speaking to her father into the garden to wait for the very attractive young man whom she was going to meet for lunch…but something just didn’t feel right in her stomach…she knew this was just not right…hiding things from her father…she had never done anything like this before…yet he was so attractive and seemed to be so nice and he said such complimentary things to her…he made her feel so alive so…special…so with not another passing thought she shrugged these feelings away and soon saw the young man coming towards her with flowers…and candy…

This went on day after day…meeting secretly in the garden for lunch…one day the young man decided he wanted more from her than just lunch…and began to make advances towards her…this made her very uncomfortable and she pushed him away…and ran for her father…as she ran the young man grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her back…and as he did another young man stepped in, a very tender and kind looking young man, a young man who worked with her father, he came out from the shrubs and struck the assailant down whom held this beautiful damsel in distress…

The small man took the girl from him bringing her to her father’s house making certain she was safe…as they approached the house the daughter noticed that her father was there at the door as if he had been waiting for her to come home…longing for her return home…hoping she come would back to him…

The young tender man looked into the father’s eyes as if to say all would be well…that he would take care of this dangerous young man with intentions that would certainly harm his daughter…and anyone’s else’s daughter for matter.

The young girl looked into this young man’s eye’s and saw a beauty she had never seen before…she had known him all her life…yet today…she saw him…really saw him…a hero…a true friend…a man who truly knew love…he had saved her…and then with that he was gone…disappearing through the over grown vined gates.

The pursuer of the young lady had now come to his feet and thought to himself, “How dare he intrude on him and his rightfully taken young girl, she belonged to him…no one will interfere with what he wants…because he always gets what he wants…and that was her…he would have her at any cost…

Just as these thoughts drifted in his mind, the tender garden keeper, the father’s helper, came into view…the dark brooding eyes of the strong man now glinted knowing this would be no challenge for him at all…and with one strike…took the gardener down… “there…finished…the girl would now be his…”

He would return to the garden each day…until she felt safe enough to return…and then when she returned…he would take her…and she would be his…for certain...

One day….no girl…
Two days…still no young beauty….
Three days...yet another day with no young maiden…but wait…was that her he heard in the distance? It was…he saw her…she was coming his way…so innocent and so naive to his looming presence…not knowing what awaited her at the end of the garden…

And just as the assailant sat awaiting her arrival…there stood before him a presence…a figure that seemed so familiar to him…he had seen this man before yet this time…something was different…there was a presence of power, of complete strength, a presence he knew he could not touch…fear over came him…he was terrified by this man’s eyes…he saw revenge in them and he knew revenge was his…and his alone…

With that the assailant fled…never to return to the garden…knowing he had indeed been defeated…now and forever…

As the young maiden approached the end of the garden, this man of strength, this man of power turned towards her…she stopped suddenly…stunned to silence…her heart beating and breath now shallow…who was this man? Surely this was not the gardener? Was it? She was drawn to his eyes…there was such a presence of peace, beauty, tenderness and love? Love? Did he love her? Why did he look at her this way…she had never had anyone look upon her this way before…so pure…so….perfect…a love that made her feel safe…a love like….her father’s love…

He reached for her hand…and slowly without thought…she reached out and took his…with a twinkle in his eye and a grin from ear to ear…he walked her home…enjoying a beautiful afternoon in his garden with this beautiful young girl.
The End.

1 John 3:1-3
1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

John 14:1-21
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 15“If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

Ephesians 2
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

Eph. 3:12
12In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Why Turn Back?

Empty My Hands
The Power of the Cross Part 2
“Why do I keep sinning”
(1) You have been set free-why go back- We have the choice to sin…whereas before, we just did…sin was our master…now Christ is…so when we sin…we are choosing to reject the power of the cross and what Christ did for us! Returning to sin, rather than resisting sin, is like “A DOG [THAT] RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT” or a pig that returns to “wallowing in the mire”
Proverbs 26:11.
(2) Sin Suffocates and Imprisons you! WHY GO BACK! Sin is like using crack cocaine: it only takes one dose, and you are hooked by it. I’m sorry, I don’t care how strong you think you are…you CANNOT master sin, control sin, or even hide it! It will eventually master you!
Rom. 6:16 “All men are the slaves of sin or of righteousness”
(3) The Power of the Cross is life-giving…WHY GO BACK! Just like the Romans, we were once enslaved by sin, but that all changed when we came to faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. Our bondage to sin was broken in Christ.
Rom. 6:17 “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.”
(4) The Power of the Cross is the beginning of an obedience. Our choosing to follow Christ is an act of obedience. This is the tough part of becoming a Chrsitian with many people…becoming obedient to Christ and to His Word. Being a Christian is often times "sold" as this amazing thing...which indeed it is...but many people don't like this part...the obedient part. The turning away from who and what we have been (and been doing, thinking, etc...) and turning to GOD is so difficult and can be painful at times...but to begin to live a life committed to obeying God means a life full of freedom and joy and holy living!!

What happens when we turn back to sin…when we give into sin…
-We suffer
-Others suffer
-Our testimony of being a follower of Christ suffers
-God’s identity because our actions can suffer—meaning if we continue to choose to live a life a sin after professing a relationship with Jesus, yet you continue to live a life of being selfish, or being unforgiving, or using a abusive language to others…people will think to themselves… “I sure don’t want to be a Christian if that’s what their God is like”
-EVERYTHING SUFFERS!

SO AGAIN I ASK---WHY GO BACK! Is this sin that so easily entangles us (pride, pornography, cheating, lust, gossip, etc..)
Is it worth the “fix” you get from it? Really…when you consider what The Cross is all about…Your Freedom so that God is glorified…Let’s be honest here..I know I need to be
(5) The Power of the Cross is to give you grace! WHY TURN BACK!! To turn back to sin is to turn away from grace. Sin is stepping out of the realm of grace, Like that umbrella I have talked about. The umbrella of grace keeps us safe from the pouring down of sin that surrounds us...
Sin removes us from that place of mercy and forgiveness and leaves us in a place of darkness, hopelessness and spiritual death. I’m not saying that you can lose your salvation…but the Cross is more than just a free ticket into heaven…it is life, freedom and joy here on earth with Christ…in our lives…not on the back burner while we party it up thinking we are free from the punishment of sin, just because we are Christians…
(7) To turn back to sin is to walk in the way which leads to death, rather than to life. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). To leave the path of righteousness and to turn back to the path of sin is to leave the path which leads to life and to return to the path which leads to death. If we accept the truth and the Power of the Cross and the Word of God, then I ask you one more time...

WHY TURN BACK?