First of all, YOU are an individual Son of the Living God. You are a unique expression of the life of God, and you [...]]]> This will by no means be a catch-all spiritual article. I will merely be attempting to put into words some of the lessons I have learned in the past year.

First of all, YOU are an individual Son of the Living God. You are a unique expression of the life of God, and you have all goodness inside of you. Nobody else can express in exactly the same way you do, which is so beautiful!

Just knowing this can cause evil things to fall away from you. Meditate on the fact that it is God, who is perfect and holy, love itself, and all power living inside of you. Imagine what that means. Can God and disease co-exist? Can God and poverty co-exist? Of course not.

What then will bring into manifestation that which you want in your life? Here is a secret- You must put it into your heart. You do that through your imagination, and feeling. It sounds really simple, but the truth is that you need to imaging yourself as you want to be, in the situation you want, with a good motive. You can’t use God to create evil situations for other people or yourself. Pick something. Imagine yourself in the condition you want to be in. Play games to convince yourself that its already true. This is the believing game. Know that God wants every good thing for you, so He is eager to bring your heart’s desires to you. Believe and imagine all good flowing to you all the time. Change your attitude. You must feel what it is like to be there in the condition you desire. You cannot create a good picture holding on to negativity, or just wishing things were different. When the thing lives in your heart, know that it is on its way.

This is very simplified and I am sure that I will be able to elaborate more in the future, but give it a try. Open up your imagination to all the good things your Heavenly Father wants to give to you. Even use this process to help someone else!

Hollyhocks are tall slender plants with leaves similar to grape leaves, with different lobes or sections. [...]]]> Today at the Lilies’ gardens we have an abundance of Hollyhocks. Our original plants came from a nursery, as most of our plants do, but these have been extremely fruitful plants, reproducing from seed all over the garden.

Hollyhocks are tall slender plants with leaves similar to grape leaves, with different lobes or sections. The flowers are mostly yellow or pink. Although there are a few other colors, like dark purple, ours are mostly shades of pink or yellow. Flowers surround the stem, mostly at the top, which can grow to be almost 12 feet tall. Our plants range from 4 feet to 8 feet currently, but in past years we have had them reach upward of eleven feet. This makes them blow around in the wind quite a bit, which necessitates staking, although the Hollyhock stem is generally quite strong. Flowers are abundant and bloom for what seems like an eternity. One variety has a single layer of petals with a strong central stamen, and another has at least two rows of petals. Of course, the flowers which have a single row of petals are easier to press for use in our cards and prints, but both are very beautiful.

Hollyhocks are known as such but their true name is Alcea, and they are native to southwest and central Asia, with some species native to southeastern Europe and even Egypt. (Wikipedia) There are many varieties of Hollyhocks, and I am not sure how many we currently have. I suppose 3 to 6 different varieties out of around 60 live in and love our garden.

In the Language of Flowers (www.languageofflowers.com) Hollyhocks symbolize ambition and fecundity. For those of you like myself, who might not know, fecundity means “producing or capable of producing abundance of offspring or new growth”. This definition is most apt for the Alcea. Of all of its characteristics the ability to reproduce is at the top of the list. We have found Hollyhocks abounding in places almost unimaginable. In between the bricks on one of our patios, we regularly find seedlings popping up. This is not to mention all of the abundant reproduction we find in other areas of the garden. Even in late summer we have new seedlings popping their heads up out of the ground, ever eager to begin their new lives.

Transplanting the Alcea is a bit tricky. We attempted it in late spring, and the tap roots of the plants were already a foot or more deep. Once transplanting was accomplished, the plants did not reach the height they normally would have, although they did survive.

Truth be known, we appreciate the Hollyhock for its nature, bold, fruitful and beautiful. It occupies a place in the forefront of our garden, intermixed with lilies and other wild flowers, which fortunately bloom at the same time as the hollyhock.

If someone in your life is ambitious and fruitful, consider sending them a hollyhock or a card with a hollyhock on it. Your message won’t be forgotten.

“I cannot be guilty of anything lest I be crushed and destroyed. Therefore I must guard against it by being ready to throw it off at every turn. I will examine every event and motive of everyone to be certain that I am not guilty [...]]]> Guilt is like a plague. It causes us to react to it and say:

“I cannot be guilty of anything lest I be crushed and destroyed. Therefore I
must guard against it by being ready to throw it off at every turn. I will
examine every event and motive of everyone to be certain that I am not
guilty of any wrong. I will excel at this; I must! ”

Guilt has crippled mankind and has produced two extreme reactions:
sociopaths who can be guilty of nothing and those who wrestle against guilt
day and night only to find themselves defiled by the exercise. The former
cannot be saved and must be avoided. They have their reward. The latter
must cease the contest to be delivered. As long as the wrestling match
continues, the defilement continues. We must refuse to engage our
opponent! He will leave the arena for lack of anything to do.

The Holy Spirit cannot finish the work in us as long as the cloud of guilt
remains. The cloud is kicked up by our constant groveling in the dirt with
guilt. Cease wrestling with otherʼs opinions! Cease constantly examining
your thoughts and reactions and motives. These things are the Holy
Spiritʼs responsibility not yours.

Learn to delegate.

Cease feeding the Giant.

ʻOne little stone will fell him!ʼ That stone is truth.

You are not guilty. How can Christ be guilty? He has triumphed gloriously!

Welcome to Christʼs life, uninterrupted. It is no longer yours! Neither you
nor the opponent can defile that! Hallelujah!

-Pastor Jerry White

The Bible teaches us that death, sickness (slow death), poverty, and every kind of [...]]]> It is commonly said that “Jesus died to forgive your sin,” but why do I care? What does that mean today? In a society where Jesus increasingly seems irrelevant, what does it mean that Jesus took my sin?

The Bible teaches us that death, sickness (slow death), poverty, and every kind of evil came into this world because of sin. Basically we become separated from God because of sin, but that gap has been bridged through the gift of God, His Son, Jesus, who is the Christ.

Just to clear things up, everyone is initially considered a sinner. So you are not especially bad, nor does God expect that you can all of a sudden act perfectly. What He does want is the humility to see that we are incomplete and incapable of pleasing God without Him.

The Bible is relevant to society today because we as humans and all of the earth around us came into being through God, and He is everywhere around us now (In Him we live, move and have our being.) So we are only separated from Him through our unawareness of Him. We were created to live in union with God, not separate from Him. When we struggle for independence, thinking ourselves able or desirous of live apart from Him, we only deceive ourselves. The only true life is union with Him.
Guess what, you can’t really exist without Him anyway, He is the very life that you are, and your life is in fact only a gift, which we will all discover in time.

God is not a God of wrath, waiting to destroy His own children, but a God of infinite compassion, wanting only to have a large family.

To return to my original point, we exist in a state of death by default. Science seeks to cure mankind’s ills by studying the obvious, which is good and admirable, and God-inspired. However the only real cure for these things is the removal of sin, which does not happen by good works, although those are good. It can only happen by a free gift of love, in order to show us His love. You see, God had this whole picture in mind from the beginning, and you are walking in a path that was destined for you long before you can remember. God wants you to know that you are loved, and that He actually came as a man and died to prove it to you. I don’t know anyone else who show love to that extent. We think of God as mean and nasty because He requires death as the penalty for sin (or disobedience). But what we don’t most often see is a God who knew the incapability of His creation, so pre-destined Himself to take the fall, all just to prove that He is a God of Love, not hate or death.

So if something within you is stirring, its God’s spirit, and you should just say “Thank you” for taking my place in death, so I could be re-united with my Father and life a life that is full of wholeness, prosperity, and Love, for all of eternity. You were chosen to love Him. Thank you for restoring me to relationship free from hindrance or guilt in the very presence of God. Please come into my heart and remain there forever, thank you God. Now YOU have the divine nature, too! Also, please give me the Holy Spirit to guide and lead and comfort me, and give me life, and abide in me forever. Thank You.

Jesus is really God, and man. He could set you free because He alone could live without sin. Being God He had the perfect nature within Him, being man, He was able to step into our place. We were all made by Him, and even now our very breath is His life. When He died, He was perfect, but He was taking the place of every man for all time, if we only acknowledge His great love. When He died, all of sin and death and every form of sickness died with Him. (are you getting the significance of this for today?) No matter what your problem, its root cause is sin, not necessarily your own. But it has ALL BEEN WIPED AWAY. Yes, every problem, every fear has all been taken care of. It is really that simple. It is the simplicity of it all that is so beautiful. This is faith. God just wants you today to say, “Thanks, God.”

Its not just that all of your problems will vanish into thin air, and they will if you will let them, its now that you get to walk in true order and unity with the One who made you in the first place. Now you have entered into His kingdom, where He rules. Which is great because nothing opposed to Him can stand, but more than that we can have love, and He lives in our hearts.

Now that you have seen Him, and He is in you, join me in telling the whole world what a wonderful God we have relationship with!