“The Garden of Bitterness”
Revelation 22:2
Our imagination runs wild as we think on what the first garden looked like, and then we are overwhelmed with sadness as we realize what we lost there. But in the end, we will gain it back, and more. But today I want to discuss the third garden; the one that is not so glamorous, but overlooked and disregarded, and even avoided. The garden of Gethsemane. In this garden is bitterness, turmoil, and desolation, even loneliness. But in it flows “the river of the water of life.” Think of it my friend, without a Gethsemane there could be no New Jerusalem! Without the dreadful night in this garden, there could be no beautiful sunrise of the morning of eternal hope of glory!
Gethsemane’s necessity led to our reconciliation to God by the death of His precious Son on the cross. Redemption is not taken as serious as it should be. It is too lightly thought of; our carnality has cheapened its truth. We gave up our rights and gained privileges by the grace of God. I must never forget Gethsemane, because if I do, I will lose the value of redemption and my actions will regard it as cheaply bought, and I will miss God’s best for my life. “I am not my own, I am bought with a price;” I will serve Him!
“Gardens”
The garden in the beginning,
Grand beauty I see.
The garden in the end,
Paradise, must be.
But what of the garden,
We tend to neglect?
The garden of bitterness,
“Gethsemane!”
~ Tom Milam
Daily Jewel:
“I am not my own, I am bought with a price.”
Bible Reading Schedule: Ezra 3-5
Weekly Memory Verses: 2 Peter 3:9-12
9 ¶The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 ¶Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
No comments:
Post a Comment