Earth Psalms - November 2011

November 18, 2011 | 0 comments

To add to my blog on Insecta-Palooza:  the Venus Fly Trap gave me a picture of how temptation and sin work together.  The sweet sticky liquid looked so good, promised so much.  Temptation looks beautiful, sweet, fun, rewarding.  We are enticed and lured into sin which captures and holds us prisoner.  Like a fly, we enter into temptation to sip the sweetness we thought was there and find ourselves stuck and sinking into acid that dissolves our character and devours our lives. 

The Venus fly trap is beautiful; a stunning creation of God.  So is Satan, one of the most beautiful creatures God created.  His outward appearance covers the evil pride of his inner being.  Satan knows how mankind loves and is drawn to beauty.  He makes sin look beautiful, too, until we give in to it and see it for what it really is, and remember Satan is a liar and a murderer and will never change.   He hates God and stabs at the heart of...

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November 14, 2011 | 0 comments

I’m told there are different times of the year to prune trees; energy-filled summer or dormant winter.  But why prune at all? 

Pruning cuts away the diseased and storm-damaged branches.  It thins the tree’s crown and branches, permitting more air to circulate and light to penetrate.  Air and light are essential to flower production.  Without flowers, there is no fruit.  Pruning removes obstructing branches that break off and make wounds in the trunk, exposing the life of the tree to insect invasion.  Pruning strengthens the tree for fruit production and shapes it into something of beauty. 

We need pruning, too, and not just once a year.  What does God use to prune us?  Scripture, life experiences, good and bad, the natural world.  We learn through hardship.  We learn through pain.  Seldom do we give thanks for the pruning, even though God tells us to give thanks for all things.  Everything...

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November 4, 2011 | 0 comments

Gophers live underground in tunnels.  They pull down anything edible; agricultural crops, backyard vegetable gardens and landscaping.  Gopher mounds pop up frequently on the elementary school lawn across from our church.  One gopher has managed to dig a maze of furrows all through our backyard, though he hasn’t succeeded in getting into our vegetable boxes where I’ve planted bulbs.  We have a thick screen underneath to keep him out.

Gopher holes can destroy a school playfield, a lawn, a golf course. Gophers helped drive the  Russians out of Fort Ross here in California.  Horses cannot gallop over a field pocked by gopher holes without risk of breaking a leg, not to mention eating all the beets that were meant for borst.

The gopher reminds me of other things that pull down what is good under cover of darkness. 

Doubts and fears.  Pride.  Bitterness.  Gossip. Unholy philosophies that deny the existence of God....

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