MAKE ME LIKE GARLIC

I have a garlic bed that I want to convert over to something

else.  That is, a bed of something else.

You gardeners can laugh at me all you want.  I cannot hear

you from here.  But my futile efforts go something like this.

I first took the rototiller and went through the bed tilling it

up real fine and throwing out all the garlic bulbs I found.

Thinking I was ready to plant the next crop something delayed

me a few weeks.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.  

In that couple of weeks a whole mess of garlic started

growing again.  So, I hand dug them up, and,threw them 

in a bucket.  I did not want to let them grow somewhere 

else resulting in my simply dumping them on an old 

out side work bench about October the sixth or a few days

 before. That is the image above.

In the mean time I have done nothing, nothing, nothing,

to help the unwanted garlic.  They were left there on the 

bench to die.  In the image below you can see they have

gathered some fall leaves, but look, they are growing 

there on that wooden bench on November the ninth.

Back to the bed.

I thought I had it taken care of this time.  WRONG.

Small garlic plants began coming up about the size of

grass.  I tried raking them all out, or so I thought.  It

looked good - for a few days.  Then more small plants.

You guessed it.

I have not planted anything else in there yet.

What is my point?

God put life in a garlic plant that can be real hard to

kill out.  Because I have a relationship with Jesus Christ

I have the life of God in me also.  And I want that life to

be as tenacious in me as garlic's life is in it.

But garlic stinks.

If you smell it on someone's breath, yep.

But if you smell garlic bread being made,

you get hungry.  And, garlic is good for you too.

Regarding a Christian.  By that I mean a real 

Christian, somebody who has whole heartedly

turned to God and taken Jesus Christ into their 

life to be their Lord and master.  The Apostle 

Paul has this to say; 

"For we are a fragrance of Christ to God

among those who are being saved and among

those who are perishing; to the one an aroma

from death to death, to the other an aroma

from life to life."  

(2 Corinthians 2:15,16 NASB) 

May God help me make my life a pleasing fragrance

or aroma to God even if it "stinks" to the world.

SEARCH ME

A short time back I decided to convert a garlic bed to

a kale bed.  I took a tiller and went through the bed

very carefully and took out all the garlic I could find.

I have been delayed a few weeks from planting the

kale, and it also rained.  Guess what.  A few days ago

I noticed garlic sprouting up all over the bed.

The bucket full of small garlic in the above image is

what I had to dig out - AGAIN.

But, while digging the "fresh" batch of garlic a 

Scripture went through my mind.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me and know my anxious thoughts;

And see if there be any hurtful way in me,

And lead me in the everlasting way."

(Psalms 139:23,24 NASB)  

I could not help but think that if I ask God

to search me the way the Psalmist did, He would

find more stuff in me than I was finding in that

garden bed.

Frankly, I do not have the "guts" to ask God to

search me out.  I am afraid that He would find 

more than I could handle.

But, on the other hand.   The "Psalm" above was

written by King David.  And you remember that 

David was king because "he was a man after God's

own heart".  David was asking God to show him the

stuff that was in him that was displeasing to God.

Perhaps I should ask God to show me what is 

displeasing to Him in me.  It certainly would 

improve my relationship with Him.

LOOK ALIKES

It looks like garlic.

It grows like garlic.

It smells like garlic.

It tastes like garlic.

It even has a garlic name,

Elephant garlic.

But the scientist, botanist and smart gardeners tell

us it is not.  It is a leek.

You may go to church.

Give to the church.

Sing in the choir.

Teach a class at church,

 drive the church bus, 

and call yourself a "Christian".

BUT, if you do not have a personal

relationship with Jesus Christ

you are not a "Christian"

only a look alike.

"Jesus answered him,

'Truly, truly, I say to you,

unless one is born anew,

he cannot see the kingdom of God."

(John 3:3 RSV)

And at another place said,

"Not every one who says to me, Lord,
Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of my Father who
is in heaven.  On that day many will say
to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy 
in your name, and cast out demons in your
name, and do many mighty works in your
name?  And then will I declare to them,
'I never knew you; depart from me,
you evildoers.'
(Matthew 7:21-23 RSV)

HANG IN THERE LIKE GARLIC

Perhaps I should start this way.

What looks like garlic,

smells like garlic

and taste like garlic -

but is not garlic? 

You know the answer, "Elephant garlic".

The smart people tell us that "Elephant garlic"

is not a garlic, but a leek. 

[I understand "leaks".  Nearly everything

I have "leaks".]

So for you folks who like to pretend to be 

smart I am talking about  "Alliumampeloprasum."

And what is the big deal about "Alliumampeloprasum",

Simple.

I try to be honest and accurate - not like a lot of 

our so called "scientist" who take the facts they

want and mix them into whatever theory they can

concoct, and call it science.  Except, of course,

when I make it obvious that I am joking or jesting.

So, to be exact, these photos are not true garlic,

but "Alliumampeloprasum".  But to us simple 

folks it taste like garlic - and that's good enough.

The "garlic" in the image above is in an area of the yard that

was an Elephant garlic bed a couple of years ago.  The bed was

taken out - but the garlic continues to come up anyway, even

with constant mowing over it.  Garlic hangs in there.

And the garlic above is in an area of the yard that was an 

Elephant garlic bed three or four years ago.  But the garlic still 

persists in coming up.  Garlic hangs in there.

In another area of the yard (Not pictured.) what you smart people

call "Spanish Roja" and we common folks call "ophioscorodon",

the garlic keeps coming  back even after being mowed over and

mowed over and mowed over.  Garlic hangs in there.

I love this photo because it is some straggly garlic plants that

I was trying to save, but did not have room to plant.  So I just

laid the plants down on a bare spot and put a little dirt on top

of them.  I did not even plant them, but they were happy and 

came up anyway.  What a lesson, garlic hangs in there.

What is the big deal about hanging in there?

About two thousand years ago God told us that this

period of time we are living in was coming.  He even

told us what people would be like today.  And, it is 

just like he spelled it out.

However, he told us a lot more.  Things that you do

not want to hear.  But they are going to happen anyway.

God told us that there would be a great turning away

from faith in God.  You see it happing right now.  He

also told us that a time is coming when there would be

a one world government or system.  And a one world 

religion. You can see the signs of that happening 

even now.

However, the man at the top of that government or 

system is not from God, but Satan himself.  And

anyone who gives their allegiance to that world 

system  and religion is bound for the Devil's 

eternal hell.

The point is,

get your faith rooted deep in God and his 

Son Jesus Christ.  Then hang in there like

garlic.

HOW DO YOU SMELL?

What is your odor?

Last year when I took possession of a piece of property, 

that had been abandon for twelve to fifteen, years the 

garlic above was the only green thing on the place.

That was on January the 15th.  So every thing else was

dead for the winter.  But it was not in a former garden,

but on the side of a ravine in the woods.

How it got there, only God himself knows.

One of the things that amazes me about garlic is the 

way it will "hang in there".   Even under my care -

where every thing else I try to help - dies.

Garlic reminds me of two Scriptural truths.

l.  One of course is it's tenaciousness.   Despite some

church doctrines, from Genesis to Revelation the 

Scriptures have a constant, reoccuring theme.   

For example, Matthew 10:22.

"...but he that endureth to the end shall be saved."

2.  Then there is the odor.  Now that comes in two ways.

a.  If it is on some's breath -- well that is not so good.

b.  But if you are hungry, and some garlic bread is being

made -  Wow!  We will not even mention the health

benefits.

What has that got to do with our life???

If we are a Christian,

"For we are like a sweet-smellng incense offered

by Christ to God, which spreads among those who

are being saved and those who are being lost.

For those who are being lost, it is a deadly stench

that kills, but for those who are being saved it is a

fragrance that brings life...."

(2 Corinthians 2:15,16 GNB)

Our life should be such that it produces,

a deadly smell to the world because of our godliness,

but a sweet smell to the kingdom of God.

  

RENEWED HOPE FROM GARLIC

I AM NOT A GARDENER.  I AM NOT A GARDENER.

I AM NOT A GARDENER.

However,

Since retirement I have been "playing" with a few plants.

(O.K.  Killed a bunch of plants.)

My favorite is garlic because it is harder for me to kill.

I have been playing with garlic for four or five years.

As a result I have learned two or three things about garlic,

if I could just remember what it was.

This year I put out several different kinds of garlic I

wanted to try.  [I know.  It works best for me in the fall.

But I am not always in the mood in the fall.]

However due to the drought, it looked like a complete loss

for several that good money had been paid for.

While walking around the "forsaken" garden plots

one day - Praise God - I found these plants.

The top picture is an "elephant" garlic that somehow

survived.

The above picture is the result of cloves brought in from

Bangkok Thailand, and promptly killed - all by myself.

This one is "Fred's" garlic.

Fred has been dead for years now.  But in a gardening effort about

20 years ago he gave me a garlic start.  He did not know what kind

of garlic it was.  Only that it was, Good.

Of course I soon gave up on my gardening efforts, including the 

garlic.  But after about 20 years of total neglect, in the bushes,

 under a tree, here is some "Fred's" garlic trying to go again.

Praise God.

Through this God drew my attention to the apostle Paul's comment.

"For this reason we never become discouraged.  Even though our

physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being

is renewed day after day.  And this small and temporary

trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory,

much greater than the trouble.  For we fix our attention, 

not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen.

What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot

be seen lasts forever."

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18 GNB)