On Goodness and Gardens

Hey, Y'all,

Today's RSTs come from a book called "You Can Go Home Again" by Jack Provonsha...kinda got me thinkin', hopefully you too...

“God is gracious by definition. No one can, or ever needs to, merit divine acceptance. The presumption that God requires our goodness in order to respond in kind is a negative and false answer to the question about His essential friendliness.” (pp. 101,102)

“The question is not ‘How good do I have to be?' but ‘How good do I get to be?'" (p. 107)

“It is a newly created garden He asks me to cultivate. I do not create it myself... Rather I dress and keep it as His new creation... And when those weeds of yesterday, those old habit patterns, reappear as I till this new creation--as inevitably they must--they appear as alien weeds I can attack from strength and not in weakness. Gradually they disappear forever, one by one--and I rejoice in their passing.” (p. 109)

“If we would but keep our eyes on that creation and not on our own selves and our own relative attainments (or lack of them), every day doing the best we can to dress and keep that garden, how glorious would be the expression of divine grace in our lives.” (p. 111)

“One thing more about that garden. In Eden, Adam and Eve didn’t make things grow. Plants sprouted as they do now in the light of the sun and in moist, fertile soil. Just so, as we do our best to dress and keep the garden God has created in us, He will provide the nutrients and the water and the sun (Son) to make it grow.” (p. 111)

So, what is this "garden" God creates in us and how do we nurture it and keep it? Think about it for a minute...more tomorrow...but you've been prayed for today.