James 1:19-21: Our Salvation Garden
Friday, November 4, 2022
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
How do we best lead with our ears? From what source does God’s righteousness flow? When might the Word landscape our lives?
God says: There are too many words in your lives. Rather than shout and rant at one another, watch and listen. Rather than criticize and complain, praise and celebrate whenever possible. My righteousness flows from my love and ebbs toward you in direct proportion to the amount of openness you show to my creation. The Garden of Eden is not a mystical place that exists in the misty past or the hazy future. My garden of paradise grows in your hearts. Allow me to prune the fruit trees and vines that they might bear more fruit. Permit me to send gentle rain, heavy torrents, beating sun and watch as I draw something beautiful from both the driest landscape and the densest jungle. Nothing can stifle the love I want to share with each and all of you. Come, put aside your pride, bring your humble heart to me. Work with me in my burgeoning garden of salvation.
God speaks to us constantly. We hear the Word best when we practice leading with our ears. We live God’s righteous love when we put our anger behind us and take on God’s humility. We create salvation gardens with God when we allow the Word to govern all that we say and do.
Enter the word righteous or humility in the blog search bar and explore other posts that open this concept for us.
Click on the garden images on this post to read more on James 1 and the concept of a salvation garden, or visit: http://www.flowingfaith.com/2011/07/making-a-salvation-garden-of-your-life.html or http://limitlesslaura.com/cultivating-your-inner-garden-a-course-in-happiness/
The Washington Post – October 30, 2015
Read about the blooming malva flowers in the arid Atacama desert in South America after rain at The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/10/29/the-driest-place-on-earth-is-covered-in-pink-flowers-after-a-crazy-year-of-rain/
Images from: http://www.flowingfaith.com/2011/07/making-a-salvation-garden-of-your-life.html and https://www.pinterest.com/pin/406168460119827057/
The Noontimes 
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