Dress and Keep part 3
Let's really get into this and talk about what we're talking about. Dressing and keeping the garden--the first command man ever got from the Lord--is putting on the whole armor of God (dressing) and guarding (keeping) your heart... by keeping it open. Keeping it open to love and not shutting it down or letting it get hard and stoney. Look at 1 Kings 8:61, "Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day." LET your heart be perfect. WITH God. That's the only way it works. Because it's HIS heart beating with love in OUR chests. He IS love. Where there is love, there is God. And where there is God, there is love. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. So in order to dress and keep our garden--ourselves, our hearts--it's all about love. Jesus is the true Gardener. He is the one who prunes us when we need pruning. Our loving heavenly Father who chastens and corrects us when we need to be chastened and corrected. The voice from behind us (the finished work that is in our past, and speaks to our present) that gets us back on track when we turn to the right or the left and get off that straight and narrow path that leads to life. Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. That's what He's concerned with. And the thing that makes the abundant life abundant... is love. He came that we might KNOW the ultimate truth of the universe--that God is love and He loves you. He came that we might know who God really is (love) and in that way know who WE really are (His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased) and in that way BE who we really are. Who we really are, just for the record, is who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. Our true identity is Jesus--God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh, love in OUR body. So the dressing and keeping that we do is simply receiving the dressing and keeping that He has done. He clothed us. Remember when man ate from the wrong tree, and his eyes were opened and he was ashamed of his nakedness? He tried to clothe himself. With leaves from that tree. And God said (paraphrase), "Your nakedness doesn't bother me. Never has, never will. But, because it bothers you, I will clothe you. With myself." And He clothed them with lamb skin. He has always, and will always, do what needs to be done. Give us what we need. Above and beyond. Exceedingly more than we could ask for or even think of. Because He loves us. He wants us to do more than merely survive. He wants us to thrive. He wants us to enjoy this life He has given us. He wants us to enjoy the love that He has for us. And, since love is giving, we enjoy what we have by sharing it. By giving it away. We dress and keep our own garden... by dressing and keeping the gardens around us. And that DOESN'T mean we force our opinions on others. It means if we see a need and we can meet that need... we do it. It means if we can help someone... we do it. It doesn't mean we trim someone else's trees so that they look exactly like ours. Variety is the spice of life. What's best for me isn't necessarily best for you. And vice-versa. You can be you and I can be me and we can still fellowship and get along. I can be all thing to all people. And still be myself. Just do what you do, but do it in love. Let God trim your trees, so you look like the garden HE wants to have. Cast what is not needed into the fire. Be lean and mean. I've got everything I need, and nothing that I don't. If all you have is love, that's all your experience, because that's all you'll be able to give away!