I need to get out in the garden and keep after those pesty 
weeds and the soil is moist from all the rain.  It was like a 
brick a few days ago, so I must get after it as it looks as
 though the nice weather is coming back and those weeds grow 
fast!  It is really cold and damp out, and thankfully I have 
gloves! 
   As I have been pulling weeds out of all my plants lately ,
 the last few days God has been sharing with my heart:
  if you go out and look at a somewhat established plant that
 has long
skinny shoots of blade grass here and there coming out of it? 
 Not alot, but enough that I can see it and it makes the whole 
plant look bad!  I get down on my hands and knees and my face
 right in there.. because their way deep inside the plant ,
 teeny little shoots of weeds, and I do mean tiny ,, the roots 
are so hard to get to and pull out, Especially with out 
damaging the plant, which is so pretty this time of year, 
tearing it kinda tears my heart!  But is impossible to save 
them from the things that are threatening to choke them out!
   Then all around the plant , each and every one is tons of
 really obvious weeds, there's alot , but their easy to get 
to with the hoe and yank out and not even worry about the 
plants that matter!  But the ones in the plant, my goodness ,
 some of them are like
weaved into the plant, wound in and out from way down in the 
dirt on up! If they weren't completely different plants I 
would never know they were there, and to someone else they 
would really have to look to see them, but right now they 
are only a little higher than the plant, and with some of 
them still down in the plant.  But they can't fool me cause 
I am their gardener, I know they are there, I know where they ,
 the weeds like to grow, and which kinds, and how deep their
 little straggling roots go! 
 Well I am sure you know where this is going,  Seeings how He 
is our Master Gardener,;
      but His care is perfect of course!  And He doesn't have
 to wait until our weeds, or sins are out growing in the soil! 
 He spares others of our sin when we are willing to listen,
 then not only are we spared of choking on them but others 
are spared of being choking as well!  He sometimes has to 
allow pain to remove from us what is killing us!  For the 
good of everything, and though it hurts so much to have
 those roots that strangle us so ripped out from around
 the very depth of who we are  , we know we are safe now,
 in His Hands, caring for us, feeding us, loving us!  
What a garden we live in!!!!!!
4/23/98
Story 1
    Ray pushs garbage every morning around the Pike Place 
Market in downtown Seattle.  One morning this elderly 
homeless man walks up to him, and Ray being the nice
 guy that he is, says " Good Morning!" and "How are you?"
 to this guy.  Well that was all it took and this man went
 off and told him everything in the world he hated, and 
he hated everything! From the streets where he lived 
the police that worked there!  Then after a gruling 5 
minutes of spewing out hate.... at least, he simply said
 " Well thats it I guess"  and walked away aparently 
feeling better himself but leaving poor Ray just shaking 
his head in amazment that anyone could hate so much 
on top of that share all of it with someone else!
 And did it have to be him? 
   
    Well this story made me think of something else 
I read, and re-read and then some more.  Only this 
is in the Bible, and in this book of Ecclesiasies 
King Solomon was expressing the feelings of life 
with out God.  But the coolest part of the book 
to me is the very last chapter, starting in verse 12:13 
in Ecclesiastes  reads as the following out 
the "New Internatonal Version"  Bible 


 " Now all has been heard;
  here is the conclusion of the matter:
  
  FEAR GOD AND KEEP HIS COMANDMENTS. 
     for this is the WHOLE duty of man
For God will bring every deed into judgment, 
including every hidden thing, 
whether it is good or evil. "

   

  What does one have to do with the other? 
 Well the thing is to me is what in the world 
is the purpose of my life?  I used to wonder 
all the time, and after 41 years of searching,
 I believe this here is the answer!  Why if our 
whole duty is to serve a God who is our Father 
would man expect to be happy if we don't!  Weither 
you believe in God or not, you can't deny King Solomon, 
and he said this, he learned this through his life,
 he learned this above everything else to be true,
 and right!  For all men!  
 

    I spent almost all my life , so far anyway,
 searching for a purpose, seeking peace for my soul.
  But never found it until He found me!
 That was almost 7 years ago, and I can honestly 
tell you after experiencing almost everything under
 the sun, God is real and true!  The God of the Bible,
 Father of Jesus Christ is alive and real and
 waiting for all men to be saved unto Him!

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