Heading Home

In ancient times, when a Persian king wanted to bestow a special honor on one of his citizens, he granted that person the status of being a companion in his garden, which gave the person the privilege of walking in the garden as a special friend of the king.

In the beginning, God granted man the privilege of being His companion and walking with Him in His indescribably, beautiful paradise garden, which He created for man’s first home. It contained no thorny bushes, no stones of obstruction, no offensive weeds, and no broken stumps. All was perfect for man’s delight...to walk in the garden with his Maker.

When sin entered the garden and broke this companionship, it was necessary to bring man back into fellowship with his Maker. Through the salvation Jesus offered on the cross, man was brought back into perfect union with the Lord.

This is now heaven’s delight. How sweet is that companionship that we can enjoy, walking in an atmosphere of fellowship with our Beloved that can be compared to a garden?

Solomon wrote so intimately about his loving relationship with the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon, which not only represents a husband and wife but also represents the church as the bride and the Lord as our Bridegroom.

The Lord says of us as Solomon said of his precious bride, “You are like a private garden, my treasure, my bride! You are like a spring that no one else can drink from, a fountain of my own.” (SOS 4:12 NLT)

The Shulamite said, “I am my beloved’s (garden) and my beloved is mine!” (SOS 6:3a Amp) She told her beloved, “You are a fountain (springing up) in a garden, a well of living waters, and flowing streams...(You have called me a garden, she said)...blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out (in abundance for you in whom my soul delights). Let my beloved come into his garden and eat its chicest fruits.” (SOS 4:15-16 Amp)

Songs of the garden have always been in man’s heart. Charles Austin Miles penned a song in 1913 when he wrote the words and music to the beautiful hymn In the Garden. His inspiration for the hymn came after reading the biblical account of Mary Magdalene and the others visiting the tomb of Jesus. He wrote these tender words...

“I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses

And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.”

I wonder...am I that resplendent garden that my Beloved loves to visit? Am I a lovely, fragrant field, full of sweet-scented blossoms, or am I a patch full of stink-weed?

When I visit my Beloved for companionship in His garden of Easter gladness, my soul thrills in His presence. He walks with me. And He talks with me. And He tells me I am His own. “And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known.”

May you walk in precious companionship with your Beloved Lord in a special way this Easter season.

(I felt led to repost this.)

Whirring lawnmowers. Annoying blowers. This was how my morning started. How could I attain quiet for a conversation with the Lord?

I walked to my family room window and looked out. Bazillions of beautiful blossoms arrayed the trees, and, at the same time, spewed out their allergy-packed pollen as thick as fog, prompting tissues to peek out of all my pockets. A brisk breeze released the grip of the “helicopters” on the maple trees, as the tiny descendants concealed the ground in a blanket of ancestry.

These sights and sounds heralded the profusion of nature’s new, spring season.

As I stood there gazing at God’s hand of creativity, a brief, spring sprinkle fell delicately on our patio, animating the dried seedlings to hop and dance.

Giggling at the delightful sight of dancing seedlings, the thought crossed my mind: sometimes the blustery winds of a new season blow against us, and we succumb by loosening our grip on the Lord as our Vine of nourishment. In letting go, we find ourselves lying on the ground, disconnected from our fellowship with Him.

When this happens, we usually misunderstand the point of what has come our way. Yes, sometimes the enemy blows his hot blast of affliction upon us, but, other times, it is God’s sweet breath of purpose.

Along with His wind of purpose, God occasionally sends showers, whether as gentle dews or great downpours as an answer to our prayers. Either way, we are not always hopping and dancing at the answer He provides.

When we learn to welcome, with open hearts, all the elements of each new season in our lives, whether heat, cold, rain, or drought, as being the gentle guidance of the Lord to rejuvenate us and bring about a new season of growth in our lives, praise and thanksgiving will begin to emerge from deep within us.

Starting down in our toes, praise will begin to bounce around, creep up into our throats, and dart out our mouths, causing our spirits to delight and dance before the Lord.

When you feel like a dried seedling lying on the ground, do you welcome the spring rains of circumstance that fall upon you? Do you understand that they are sometimes the answers to prayers? Do you dance in praise to the Lord for them?

As the saying goes…

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass...it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Joel 2:23 says, “Rejoice in the LORD your God! For the rains He sends are an expression of His grace.” (The Life Recovery Bible NLT)

Prayer: Lord, May I recognize those things that come into my life as being elements of guidance and growth so that I may follow Your lead and welcome them with dancing feet in praise and thanksgiving. In Jesus’ name, Amen.



This post is also shared with Weused2bu.com. I hope you'll hop over and visit them!

“And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one.”(Matt. 6:13a NKJV)
(This is the seventh segment of The Model Prayer series.)

The negative side.

Lead us not into temptation.

In other words, “Lord, do not carry us into those situations where we might succumb to seductions or enticements to sin, or trials of our fidelity.”

But does God actually guide us into those situations that would suck us into a lapse of faith or holiness? Of course not. James said, “And remember, when someone wants to do wrong it is never God who is tempting him, for God never wants to do wrong and never tempts anyone else to do it. Temptation is the pull of man’s own evil thoughts and wishes. These evil thoughts lead to evil actions and afterwards to the death penalty from God. So don’t be misled, dear brothers.” (James 1:13-16 TLB)

Paul encourages us to “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Eph. 6:11NIV), so that we “do not give the devil a foothold.” (Eph. 4:27 NIV)

The positive side.

Deliver us from evil.

The word deliver means to rescue or preserve from, rush or draw for oneself. Evil is described as hurtful, annoyances, hardships, pressed and harassed by labors, denotes evil that causes pain, sorrow, bringing toils, perils, of a bad nature or condition, or wicked.

In other words, “Lord, draw us to Yourself and away from those wicked, hurtful perils and conditions.”

If we willingly succumb to the dangling lures and shiny baubles of the enemy’s seductions, we venture out of God’s protection.

One of my favorite murder mystery movie series is Agatha Christie’s Poirot, the great Belgian detective. Once, as his “little gray cells,” as he calls them, pondered a puzzle of clues, he said, “The devil himself dances among us; we just don’t see him.”

He was right. The devil and his cohorts waltz around, dangling temptations before our eyes and ears to steal our joy, kill our faith, and destroy our fellowship with God. They do all they can to dance around us, to divert our focus away from God and to delay or defeat His answers to our requests.

We always have a way out, for the Word says, “God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Cor. 10:13b NIV) We just don’t always use it, do we?

David pleaded with God, “Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies.” (Ps. 141:4a NIV)

What captivates our hearts? What attracts our eyes? Are we focused on worldly possessions, temptations, and thinking or on all that the Lord says in His Word?

~~Lord, “Don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” (NLT) Draw us to Yourself and away from the evil that would seek to cause us pain, sorrow, or other perils. May Your Word be stored in our hearts to keep us from sinning against Your love. Amen.~~

Fellowship. What is fellowship?

Is it just Wednesday night supper at church? Is it just gathering to enjoy the company of other believers?

What is the meaning of fellowship in the New Testament? The Greek word used most often is koinonia, which means partnership, joint participation, to share in common, community, communion, communication, distribution, contribution, intimacy, and so on.

Here are a few scriptures using koinonia...

* joint participation
“They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.”
(2 Cor. 8:4 NIV)
* sharing in common
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:44-45 NIV)
* communication
“As you share your faith with others, I pray that they may come to know all the blessings Christ has given us.” (Philemon 6 CEV)
* contribution
“For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.” (Rom. 15:26 NKJV)

These scriptures describe fellowship in terms of outward expressions of action. Another one describes the gathering of believers in the early church, “They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46-47 NLT)

But there is another side to fellowship. It is not only an act but also an experience. It is having an intimate relationship with the Lord, as Paul said, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:9 NKJV)

Paul wrote of his desire, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.” (Phil. 3:10 KJV) We share in the intimacy of Christ’s fellowship, participating in the benefits of what He accomplished at the whipping post, in the judgment hall, on the cross, and through His resurrection.

But what happens when life’s events, trials, and sorrows invade our hearts, straining that scarlet cord of fellowship?

* Do we loosen our hold on that cord, putting a distance between God and us and hindering our flow of intimacy with Him?
* Or do we shorten that cord, drawing closer to Him?
* Do we draw near to Him with our lips while our hearts yearn for other things?
* Does God then say to us as He did to the Israelites, “These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” (Is. 29:13a NIV) If we do this, we miss out on the most precious of all relationships and all it offers us.

What keeps the passion and intimacy going? Sound like a marriage? Guess what? It is! A holy marriage. We are the Bride and Jesus is the Beloved Bridegroom. Just as it is necessary to keep the communication door open in our earthly marriage, it is necessary, and even more so, to keep the communication door open in our heavenly marriage.

Is intimacy with the Lord missing in your life? Do you long for those tender whisperings of the Holy Spirit?

Spend time sitting at your Beloved’s feet, fellowshipping with Him, for only then will love deepen, resulting in that intimate relationship with Him.

I pray you will draw in that scarlet cord of intimacy that you may experience the Lord’s presence in a new and special way this glorious Christmas season.



~~This post is part of the One Word Blog Carnival at BridgetChumbley.com. Hop on over to read the other blog posts on Fellowship.~~

The Passover meal celebrated the Lord’s deliverance of Israel out of Egypt’s bondage and from the plagues God sent on Egypt, including the death plague, which was halted for the Israelites by the blood of a lamb smeared on the doorposts of their homes.

Before the onset of the first Passover, God told Israel, “Every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household,” (Ex. 12:3b NKJV) and, after smearing the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, they were to roast it and eat it in anticipation of what the Lord was about to do.

For us as Christians, because each of us has taken a Lamb into our heart’s home, smearing His blood upon its doorposts, we are able to celebrate communion, commemorating our release as God’s people from bondage, the plagues of life, and the deliverance from the eternal curse of death.

In order for us to partake of Jesus’ life through the Lord’s Supper as a vital part of our Christian walk, we need to understand cleansing and commitment, for sharing in communion is more than just a religious ritual.

According to ancient, Hebrew traditions, if two joined in a covenant and ratified it with a meal, which included the breaking of bread and drinking of a cup of wine, it meant they were eating and drinking of each other.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus said, “I assure you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But those who eat My flesh and drink My blood have eternal life, and I will raise them at the last day.” (John 6:53-54 NLT)

Today, we Christians don’t give enough serious thought to what we are doing when we participate in the Lord’s Supper. In order to have our hearts right before God to take part in communion, we must…

…first, get right with others. Jesus declared in His Sermon on the Mount, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.” (Matt. 6:14 NLT)

We forget that forgiveness is not optional! No right relationship with God can prevail apart from forgiveness of others. If we do not forgive others, then what is the point of commemorating what Jesus died to do for us?

…then, get right with God. “But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matt. 6:15 NLT)

Therefore, we cannot engage in the bread of fellowship or the cup of covenant with an accumulation of unforgiveness in our hearts, as Paul warns us, “So if anyone eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily, that person is guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking from the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup unworthily, not honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.” (1 Cor. 11:27-29 NLT)

We do not take communion to get right with God; we get right with others and God before we place that wafer on our tongue or lift that cup to our lips. Unfortunately, many Christians take communion all too lightly, not grasping the full intent of these verses.

…then, we seek communion at the Lord’s table. Partaking of the communion table is a physical testimony of a spiritual conversion, affirming that we have bound ourselves to Christ in covenant.

Paul said, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16 NKJV)

If we call it ‘communion,’ does that click in our finite minds what that means? The Greek word for it, ‘koinonia,’ means partnership, joint participation, fellowship, to share in common, intimacy, and so on.

Through communion, we take part in the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and His blood. In sharing the bread and the cup, we share in the intimacy of His fellowship, participating in the benefits of what He accomplished at the whipping post, in the judgment hall, on the cross, and through His resurrection.

What Paul said stands as relevant today as when he said it, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Cor. 11:26 NIV)

Oh, please, my Christian brothers and sisters, please see the crucial importance of having a right heart before God that you may share in the fellowship of the Lord’s Supper worthily.

I pray that, after reading this, you will never again enter into the Lord’s covenant meal the same as you did before. May this be life changing for each of you.