THE SPRINKLER EFFECT

I love to garden, but I hate to water. The bane of summertime to me is watering. In the midsouth where we live, it gets HOT! We haven't even turned the calendar page to July yet and the heat indexes have been in the 100s this week. 107 for today, to be exact!

It doesn't take much of that kind of heat to bake your plants and to undo all the hard work you put into cultivating your flowers and plants. So the only alternative we have is to water relentlessly. Most gardening experts say you need to water once a week to a depth of one inch. Well, let me tell you that you can water to the depth of one inch today and 2 days from now, you will need to water again in this heat.

We have a very large yard...almost 2 acres. Now all of that is certainly not in flowers... a large part of it is yard...which is my husband's territory. But I do have quite a few beds that are all around the edges.

When we built our house in 2003 my husband installed a sprinkler system into the flower beds around the house. They worked great that first year, but as the plants and shrubs have grown he has continually had to re-adjust the sprinkler heads. I finally gave up on the front bed as it never seems to get the right amount of water or in the right place. The outer beds throughout the edge of the woods and around the shop all have to be watered another way as they do not have the sprinkler system.

Several years ago my husband devised a way to hook the sprinkler heads that you usually stick into the ground into a car jack so that we could move them around from bed to bed. Ingenious as it was, they are still heavy! The other alternative is to use a hose and keep lugging it back and forth from place to place. Neither way is fun.

The carjack sprinkler system is the easiest, no doubt, because you can set it and leave it. However, I began to watch how the water was thrown around and as I sat and watched it one day, I surmised that not much water was really getting to the depth of one inch. So I decided to conduct a little experiment. I took several Cool Whip bowls (better know here as Mississippi Tupperware) and placed them throughout the area being watered just to see how much water actually accumulated in them. Just as I suspected, it was about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch, and that was after at least an hour of watering.

You see the problem with sprinklers is that it just throws enough water out there for it to "look" wet, yet not enough for it to really soak the ground. So the flowers lap that up in a few hours and the next day when the sun comes out, they bake again, starved for lack of water.

Some people are like that. They go to church on Sunday to get their weekly "sprinkling" of the Word. The preacher sprinkles a few words on them, they feel good for having gone to church and then they leave, never to pick up their Bible again til the next Sunday and the next sprinkling. During the week they get pummeled because they are all dried up for lack of the Word.

The only way for the Word of God to really take root in your heart is for you to soak in it, or as Max Lucado says "marinate your mind in it". The Word is designed to change us from the inside out. God promises that it will not return void. But, if we do not take the time to read it, to meditate on it, to soak in it, if you will, it will never do us much good.

When my garden only gets sprinkled, the flowers begin to wilt, leaves curl up, the ground begins to crack open and they will fail to produce any more flowers. If all you are getting in your life is a weekly sprinkling of the Word, your life will also be dry and will not produce the fruit God intended for you to produce. So, what kind of Christian are you? A soaked one or a sprinkled one?

DADDY

"Daddy"

Just the sound of it evokes feelings of warmth, love and security.

A familiar saying truthfully declares that anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Daddy.

In scripture, the term "Abba" is our modern day equivalent to "Daddy". It is a more intimate word than "Father". It is the term Jesus used for God, the Father. It is the term He invites us to use as well for He longs for us to have that intimacy with Him.

There are three very important men in my life who are all daddies.

The first is my husband, my life partner of 36 years. I cannot imagine my life without this man. My heart is at home with him. He has stood by me, been faithful to me and loved me unconditionally all these years. I have been blessed beyond measure to be married to him.

Not only has he been a wonderful, faithful husband, but he has also been a terrific daddy. When I play the videotape in my mind of him as a dad, I see one constant that stands above all else. He was always present in their life. From the moment they were born, he was there. I can still see the huge smile that lit up his face as each of his children were born, how he tenderly held them in his arms, how proud he was of them. I recall how he got down on all fours to play with them when he would come home for lunch in those early days of our marriage. He played with his children at every stage of their life. He coached them in sports, he cheered for them on and off the field. He never missed a game or a cheer competition in all the years that they were in school. Yes, he was and still is, always there for his children. They know their Daddy loves them, is for them and will be there ….no matter what. How that blesses my heart!!

The second man in my in my life is my son, my firstborn. My heart is filled to overflowing with love for him. I love his smile and even more the sound of his laughter. I loved the strawberry blonde hair that once graced his head and that now looks so beautiful on his baby daughter. He is a new daddy. His first child, a little girl, was born 7 months ago. I would not take a million dollars for seeing the look on his face when she was born. It was priceless. My favorite photo of him shortly after her birth is one with a single tear rolling down his cheek. Asked if she had him wrapped around his little finger, he replied, "Three times". Not long ago, he was looking at her when she suddenly awoke. As soon as she saw his face, she smiled. Her smile said, "It’s my daddy!"

And last but not least, the third man in my life is my son-in-love. Our family feels truly blessed to have this young man in our lives. We are so thankful to God for giving our daughter such a fine man. He was an answer to our prayers for her. He is kind, compassionate, fun-loving and has a smile that lights up his whole face. He is a wonderful father to his little three year old daughter. His job allows him to be home with her several days a week. That has been a blessing to both of them. He is a constant presence in her life, not an occasional blip on the radar as some daddies are. He loves her with everything that is in him and she knows it. And, he loves her mommy just as much, which is also a blessing to them both and to us!

Sadly, not every man is a good daddy. But I am blessed to have three of the best daddies in the world in my life. And today, I pray God’s sweetest blessings upon each of them! Happy Father’s Day, Larry, Curt and Josh….I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

FRACTURED LIVES

For some reason when I purchase new azaleas, I leave the tag on them. I keep intending to take them off and put them in my garden notebook, but at the moment, it's not convenient or I forget or I think "I'll get it later..." . You know how it goes.

The other day I was walking through our woods, looking at all the flowers when I spotted one of those labels and decided it was way past time to retrieve it. It had been on there a couple of years and was so faded you could barely even make out the name anymore. When I reached for it, it literally disintegrated in my hand. I mean it was just like confetti!! I was amazed. The next day I happened to be in the other end of the flower bed and saw another one I had left ,though this one had not been on there quite as long. The picture was perfect, not faded at all. I reached for it and to my utter amazement, it did the same thing....completely disintegrated into a million tiny pieces.

I couldn't help but think how very much like our lives that is. We look good on the outside, all put together, colorful, and happy. Yet the rains and wind, storms and heat have beaten upon us til suddenly we shatter into a million pieces, no longer able to keep up the facade.

God does not want us to crumble. He wants us to stand strong, to withstand the storms, clinging to Him. He wants us to put down deep roots into the soil of His love so that when the storms DO come and the heat of turmoil beats down on us, we will only grow stronger. He wants us to "be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth his fruit in his season; his leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper." Psalm 1: 3

Those tags on those azaleas had no protection. They were exposed to the elements day in and day out. They had no source of food to maintain them. They had no one to shelter them. But we have a Master Gardener who feeds us with His Word, who tends us, who shelters us in the storm. He longs to nurture us, cultivate us and cause us to blossom with beauty for all the world to see. He wants more than just a "picture" of a flower, He wants us to be the real deal!

WHO IS THIS KING OF GLORY

"From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord's name shall be praised."
Psalm 113:3

Some people really hate contemporary music. I am NOT one of them! I think most people who do have never really listened to the words. In their defense, I realize that in some venues, you can't HEAR the words for the music. However, if you want to hear scripture put to words, just tune in to KLOVE radio and you can awake to the sounds of the scripture, too. What a way to start your day!!!!!!!!!! Below is what I awoke to this morning!!

Who is this King of Glory

That pursues me with His love?

Who is this King of Glory

With Strength and Majesty?

The Lord of Heaven and Earth

Creator of all things

His name is Jesus, precious Jesus

The Lord Almighty, the King of my heart.

---Third Day

I don't have a God I can put on a stand

Or a God I hold in the palm of my hand

I have a God that's holding me

And I don't have a God that I can create

In the place I live with the money I make

I have a God, He made everything

So I don't need a temporary man made deity

When I got the real thing

I got the real thing

He's the Lord of all the earth

The maker of all things

He alone is the one true God

Kingdoms rise and fall

But even through it all

He remains

The one true God

I don't have a thing that I got on my own

I don't have a care that I carry alone

But I have a God who's carrying me

I don't have sin that He doesn't forgive

And I don't have a heart that is worthy of His

But I have a God who still loves me

So I don't need a temporary man made deity

When I got the real thing

I got the real thing

Who is this King of Glory

The Lord strong and mighty

Who is this King of Glory

The Lord strong and mighty

Who is this King of Glory

Who is this King of Glory

He's the Lord of all the earth

The maker of all things

He alone is the one true God

Kingdoms rise and fall

But even through it all He remains

THE ONE TRUE GOD!

Hope this gets your day off to as good a start as it did for me!! Just think about that first line today, if nothing else. The King of Glory pursues you with His love!!!!!!!!!! (By the way...those songs got their roots in Psalm 24: 8-10)

---Mark Harris

LET ME WRITE YOU A PRESCRIPTION...

Are you weary, worn out, sad, mad, worried, anxious, lonely, afraid of what lies ahead, brokenhearted, disappointed, disillusioned, exhausted, overwhelmed, overextended, or ready to give up? Then please let me write you a prescription. It is Proverbs 17: 22,

"A merry heart does good like a medicine."


And, just in case your heart does not feel merry today and you need a little help, let me offer you another prescription:

TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

In a court of law in America, one who is about to testify is asked to place his or her hand upon a Bible, raise their right hand and swear to "tell the truth and nothing but the truth".

Truth seems to be an elusive thing these days.

When I was growing up and even in my young adult years, I never doubted what I saw on the 5:00 news or what I read in the newspaper. I assumed that it was what it was...just as they reported...the TRUTH.

However, as we've all seen in the past few years that has become a thing of the past. Our news media for the most part has become very liberal and they report what the liberals want reported, or at least they report through a liberal lens. This makes it very difficult as very critical issues are now on the table in our country. Our economic crisis, health care and our relationship with Iran and Israel are such life-altering issues that TRUTH must be sought or we will find ourselves in such deep trouble that we will never be able to recover as a nation.

As we have watched the news of the last few days and seen what is taking place in Iran where thousands, if not millions, of Iranians are risking their very lives to protest what they feel was a tainted election, we realize that knowing the TRUTH is even worth dying for for many.

Prior to the election, Iranian government began to shut off communication to the outside world. They stopped the internet, FACEBOOK and other forms of media outlets in hopes of keeping the world in the dark to the TRUTH of what was going on. Yet many risked their lives to take photos and video and post it to YOU TUBE and Twitter became an overnight phenomenon as they used it to get the TRUTH to the rest of the world of the suppression that was going on as protesters were killed in the street.

Thankfully, nothing that drastic has taken place here.....yet. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to get to the real TRUTH, to know if what we are seeing is really the true picture or if what we are hearing is the TRUTH or just the current "spin" .

I'm afraid that the average Joe Citizen is just going about his daily life as usual, oblivious to the changes that are taking place all around him...not only here but around the world. Changes that I believe are ushering in the last days as prophesied in the Bible. It's as if the majority of the country is asleep at the wheel and I'm afraid many are going to be jolted out of their minds when the train wrecks and the world as we now know it is no more.

Sound pretty far fetched? Not at all if you read your Bible.

In Joel Rosenberg's recent book, Epicenter, he gives great light to the Ezekiel 38 and 39 passages that foretell how Israel will be attacked by a number of nations. He outlines to us just who those nations are and how they are aligned. One of Russias's allies in this attack will be Iran, who until just recent years was an enemy of Russia. Yet right now, even in the midst of all the turmoil brewing in Iran, where is Ahmadinejad? In Russia!! He is there meeting with Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev and leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to continue building a political and military alliance between Russia, China, Iran and Islamic countries in Central Asia.*

It has never been more important for us to know the TRUTH. We must be in the Word so that the TRUTH can fill our minds and our hearts. We must search out the TRUTH in the media, not just believe everything we see and hear. We must not fall prey to those who would lead us along like lambs to the slaughter. We must open our eyes and ears and be alert to the signs of the times around us, always ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. We also must not take our freedom for granted. We have been blessed for 200+ years, but that is no guarantee that it will always be so. If we are not careful, we may wake up one day to find that our world as we knew it is gone and something we are not going to like is in its place.

Timothy warned us " This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come........evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived........therefore preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine...and they shall turn away their ears from the TRUTH....but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist [tell others about Christ!] and fulfill your ministry. " II Tim. 3 & 4

We must pursue TRUTH, the whole TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH. Jesus said "I am the way, the TRUTH and the life." (John 14:6). If we follow Jesus, if we pursue Him with all our hearts, we will know the TRUTH. On the other hand, those that follow Satan will NOT know the TRUTH. For "he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the TRUTH because there is NO TRUTH in him!" John 8: 44.

HONESTY OF A CHILD

Have you ever noticed that you do not have to teach a child to sin?

We teach them to walk, to talk, to hold a fork, to drink from a cup, to blow their nose, to swing, to tie their shoes and a hundred other things. But, we do NOT have to teach them to sin!

We are all born with a sin nature, fallen descendents of fallen Adam. We cannot NOT sin. We are born spiritually dead, but physically alive. But when we, by an act of faith, choose to put our trust in Christ, we are made spiritually alive. We do not, however, lose our sin nature. It is still very much alive and well! The difference is that we now have a new nature as a result of our new birth IN CHRIST. The Holy Spirit has come to take up residence within us and He desires to direct our thoughts, our actions and to guide us in the way we should go.

Now, unlike before, we have a choice. We can now choose to either yield to our old nature...the sin nature...OR we can choose to yield to our new nature and be directed by the Holy Spirit.

Our 3 year old granddaughter is a strong willed child and very independent. Neither of these is a bad thing. In fact, if that strong will is trained to yield to the Holy Spirit in the years ahead, it can be a great asset. But for now, she is a typical 3 year old. When there is something she does not want to do, she has learned how to stiffen her back, cross her arms, poke out her bottom lip and emphatically say "NO!" or "I Don't Want To!"

Recently I've been trying to teach her about the verse from the Bible that says "Children, obey your parents" [and Mimi and Papaws, etc]. The other day as we were reading one of her favorite books, Peter Rabbit, I saw a great object lesson. I began to explain to her how Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail were good little bunnies because they obeyed their mother; but Peter Rabbit was a naughty bunny because he did NOT obey his mother and he got into all kinds of trouble. I went on to explain that because they obeyed, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail got to have a dinner of blackberry pie and cream whereas because he disobeyed, Peter got into all kinds of trouble, lost his clothes and nearly lost his life. Now while the good bunnies were feasting on pie and cream, he was sent to bed with some nasty tea because he caught a cold from hiding in the watering can.

Kyleigh listened intently as I explained. Then I asked her, "So, which would YOU like to be like....the good little bunnies: Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail or the naughty bunny Peter?" She thought a minute and then with an impish grin she said, "I want to be like the naughty bunny!!" The honesty of a child!!!

I say honesty because is that not exactly how many of us feel sometimes? When faced with our choices, don't we often really WANT to do wrong thing? That is our sin nature egging us on. When someone ticks us off, we immediately think exactly what we'd LIKE to say to them. It is a choice. We can yield to our sin nature and do or say what we feel like doing. Or, we can yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to show us what we really need to do or say. Because in the end, although the pleasures of running amuck through the garden trying to flee the gardener might give us a momentary thrill, wouldn't we really rather be home eating blackberry pie and cream ?