Gardening Bible Study: The parable of the Wheat & the Weeds: Matthew 13:24-30 & 36-43

Matthew 13: 24-30 & 36-43

1.             What does this tell us about Jesus (the sower)?

-                He’s wise/prudent

         Isaiah 11:1-5                                                        

                  -          He’s patient

-                He is aware of the challenges/circumstances we face.

       Hebrews   2:17-18 & 4:14-16                                  

-          He has our best interests in mind

        John 10:10-11  

                                        

-                He expects us to bear fruit.

               Matthew 25:14-30

2.             What does this tell us about the devil (The enemy)?

-                He’s into destruction/harm, not good/gain.

-                He works in the dark

-                He’s patient too

-                He can be frustrated/beaten

1 John 4:4                                       

3.             What does this tell us about the fruits of the devil (the weeds)?

-                They often look a lot like good things

         2 Corinthians 11:13-15            

-                It often takes a while before their badness becomes apparent.

-          They can become intertwined into our lives once we let them get    a foothold.

-                They can be overcome, but only with divine help & patience.

4.             What does this tell us about the wheat  (us, presumably)?

-          It must co-exist, put up with evil

          John 16:33                                                 

It will ultimately be delivered from evil, but only with Jesus’ help

-                It is expected to bear fruit.

         John 15:8                                                    

-                It can only bear fruit if it surrenders to Jesus

         John 12:24                                                 

5.        How do we deal with the Tares?

                                    Psalm 37:1-11                                                    

Gardening at Christmas: prayers for friends in the southern hemisphere

We can’t grow much food for the hungry this time of year (although we still have kale in the ground), but we can help others who are doing that right now—through prayer.

The North Ringwood Uniting Church in Melbourne, Australia, has a garden ministry with the same mission as ours—growing produce for the hungry. Its summer down there now, and they are in the midst of gardening  season. They have asked for prayer about the following:

“For a continued good harvest  (the next few months are busy picking time from our spring planting)

For rain during the hot summer months  (we have a huge tank and irrigation system but on really hot days extra hand watering is needed).

For workers time and energy to attend to the garden during the holiday season and heat of summer.

That our vegetables are well received by our clients at North Ringwood Card and taken home, prepared and eaten.  (Some of our clients and not educated well into the importance of consuming fresh vegetables.)

That our clients feel the love of God through our volunteers at North Ringwood Uniting Church, when they come for their food assistance.

For our intellectually disabled young men who attend the Welcome Garden Centre.   That their work in the garden will be helpful to them and that they will grow to know the nurture and love of God through us."  

Let's lift them up every day!

Pretty much final harvest number for the year: 17,323.3 Lbs.

We have harvested everything that really counts, and came up with 17,323.3 Lbs for the 2012 growing season.  There are odds & ends still in the ground, but they probably won't add up to more than 100 or 200 Lbs., and we won't know for another month.

That brings us to a total of 39,323.3  Lbs. since Kelly Hern stepped out in faith to start the garden.

At the risk of being repetitive, the same thought keeps coming to me:

"Now 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!" Ephesians 3:20-21 

Here are  the charts , for the visually oriented:

VOTE!

GOD IS GOOD: We've Passed Our Goal & Are Still Going Strong!

Our goal this year was to produce 12,000 Lbs. of fresh veggies, and God has given us more than that. As of today we're at 14,142.3 Lbs. We still have a lot of beets, turnips, and mustard greens in the ground; more green tomatoes to harvest; and have just planted kale in hopes of one more crop before the ground freezes (and maybe one that overwinters into next spring!). 

Please join us in thanking God for His incredible generosity.

"Now 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, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!" Ephesians 3:20-21 

A little off topic, but worth checking out

As you might of noticed, there's an election coming up. Here's an interesting piece on what scripture says about good leaders. It doesn't suggest a particular candidate, just sets out scriptural standards to measure candidates against. Its at:

What scripture says about who to vote for

This past week's harvest...

..totaled 626.12 Lbs.  That brings us to 2,069.7 Lbs. so far this month and 10,874.6 Lbs. so far this year. Here are the details:

Filling in the Spaces

Our mission is to grow as much high quality produce as we can—the more we grow the more folks are fed. To do that we try to make the most of the finite amount of bed space we have. Empty spaces result in less produce and less people being fed.  We’re not perfect in filling all the spaces all the time, but we do try.

            One of the ways we do that is by planting extra crops in empty spots within beds. Earlier this season we put squash plants in the otherwise empty ends of the tomato and pepper beds. We recently sowed mustard greens in several spots where kale or turnips didn’t fill their beds as completely as we expected. The extra food generated by those add ins doesn’t come right away, and its impact on our overall production is subtle, but it does come eventually and it does increase our overall fruitfulness. Plus it’s really cool to see those extra plants grow where nothing was.

            Galatians 6:8-10 tells us that the same dynamic can be present in our walk with Christ.  Verse 8 tells us “those who plant for the benefit of the Spirit will harvest … from the Spirit” (Contemporary English Bible). Verse 9 acknowledges that it will take some time for the resulting crops to come in, but promises that it will be worth the wait. 

            So how do we do that? By looking for otherwise empty, unproductive, spaces in our day-to-day lives and sowing seeds of Godliness there. Turn the radio off while you’re driving and pray or think about a scripture passage you recently read/heard.  As you do mindless chores, think about the good things that God has provided you and thank Him.  Ask God to get/keep you on track in your workday by praying every time you wash your hands.  Or, as Galatians 6:10 implies, look for simple acts of goodness to do in the midst of your day and do them.

Those little things are the spiritual equivalents of sowing in empty spaces in a garden bed.  They may not instantly or completely transform you, but they will in definitely increase your fruitfulness over time and you (and others) will enjoy the resulting growth.

One final note—this is not mere theory, it definitely works. I devoted my commuting time to prayer during Lent, and was so pleased by the resulting closeness to God that I’ve (mostly) kept that up since. And that is experience is not unique to me; check out the classic Christian book Practicing the Presence of God.