"I Am Come Into My Garden"

 "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved." (S.O.S. 5:1)

  Keeping with that thought, if you will, the garden in enclosed and is protected. This is probably one of the most sacred things about our personal relationship with the Lord: we are protected! This is also the most sacred thing about His body, the body of believers, His church; the we, as a body of believers are guarded and kept by that which He has established on this earth, as it is in Heaven. And thirdly, Israel, His anointed, will never be forsaken and unguarded: He has declared it, over and over in His Word. 

  Long story short; we are His garden; both individually, collectively, and spiritually: One body; One in Christ Jesus! No matter how you slice it, it all turns out the same: His House, His Rules! If it is His garden, then He gets to establish which plants will be planted, watered, and pruned; when they are planted, how much water they receive, and how often they get pruned. In other words, your life is not your own! Doubt it if you want to, but came into this world to save us; He surely did not suffer and die to just pay a price for our sins: He did it to give us the victory over sin; a battle that we could have never won on our own! 

  If I seem a little hesitant to say something I should, it is only because there are so many different ways to say it, I can't quite figure out what door to enter in through; which door that needs to be opened. One thing is certain: if you are going to have Him enter in, you have got to open the door! The door to your heart, the door to your mind; the door to your private time, your employment, your marriage; whatever it is that motivates and causes you to turn your head, there is always a door; a way to enclose and protect whatever it is that you still call your own. 

  As we were! Isn't that what keeps us from moving forward? He grabs our attention, and then we relax and get comfortable in our condition. The third to the last thing that Jesus said on that cross, is that which we must take as our own, "I thirst!" If only my houseplants could talk to me, reminding me of what they constantly continually need; the thing that I remember to do, as I see them looking a little droopy, and then turn to do something else, forgetting to water them again.

  For this, I do not worry, as my Lord is my Gardener and Friend! "For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." (Isaiah 51:3) What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear; And what a privilege to carry, Everything to God in prayer... 

"But God commandeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." (Romans 5:8-11)