Week Four: Master Gardener Day 22: Tender Shoot April 17, 2016

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"Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of

unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the LORD, until He comes

and showers righteousness upon you."

(Hosea 10:12)

Day Twenty-Two Devotions:

MORNING MEDITATION

AFTERNOON DEVOTION

EVENING PRAYER

MORNING MEDITATION

Glean the Word: Matthew 18:21-35

Glimpse of Glory: "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." (v. 21b, 22)

Our Lord cares deeply about the inner life of His servants. He wants complete possession of His children so we can live a life of loving fellowship with the heavenly Father. This week our Master Gardener continues His tender cultivating work within our hearts to reveal the condition of our hearts and to see if the seed of His Word has taken root. "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants" (v. 23). The rule of God's kingdom is love. Our obedience to the law of His kingdom is demonstrated in our love for God and love for others. Whatever we have received from God we are to share with others, and at the top is His forgiveness. "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8).

This parable of the kingdom not only shows how great our debt is, but also how great the compassion of God is. "The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go" (v. 27). Our sin-debt is an impossible debt that can never be repaid. Only the spotless, sinless, sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross could wash our sin away. His forgiveness is an act of mercy and love that we don't deserve. "Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace" (Luke 1:78-79). It is this depth of sacrifice the Lord is asking us to show our fellow man. The way the Lord has treated us is how He expects us to treat others. "Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" (v. 33). The way we respond when we've been mistreated reveals the true nature of our hearts. Because of Christ's forgiveness our hearts have been set free, but when we refuse to forgive our brother we put our hearts back in a prison, and we lose the liberty that the Lord gave to us and the joy and peace that accompanied our freedom. "This is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart" (v. 35). Freely we have received, and freely we should give to others. It is not up to us to determine who deserves the kindness and mercy of God, it is His alone to give; and if He has given it to us, we should be happy to share it with others. Let us take time today to praise God for the tender mercy He has shown us in pardoning our sin, and then spend time in repentance to loosen any bitter root that has taken hold of us from withholding His great mercy from another. "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).

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AFTERNOON DEVOTION

Glean the Word: John 21:15-23

Gift of Grace: "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin" (Exodus 34:6-7a).

Our God is a God of restoration and reconciliation. The Lord restored Peter to fellowship and communion with Himself and then restored him to his original commission and entrusted him to feed His flock. Before we can truly forgive others from our heart, we need to personally experience the forgiveness of God in our own heart. Because Peter experienced the Lord's forgiveness, he was set free to do God's work. He understood the greatness of God's forgiveness because of the extent of his own failure. When Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love Me?" The magnitude of the mercy he had received, only multiplied his love for the Lord, and showed itself in obedience to God's call on his life. "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven - for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little" (Luke 7:47).

Jesus is the Tender One (Ezekiel 17:22). When the tenderness of God touches our hearts, we are enabled to tenderly care for others and express His love to them the way it has been shown to us. The Lord desires that we dwell in and walk in His love. Our highest duty as Christians is to maintain our love relationship with the Lord. It is out of this vital relationship that we are able to tenderly express God's love and care for others. He only entrusts His work to those who truly love Him, because only those who love Him supremely will truly love and care for the lost and needy in the world. The Lord wanted Peter to not only catch people for His kingdom, but also to care for them. Only by having the fullness of God's forgiving love deposited in the depths of his heart could Peter "take care of" and "feed" God's sheep. Everything grows out of our love for God. The more deeply we love Him and desire to grow in His love, the more we are able to tenderly care for and bear with other people. When we are restored to a right relationship with the Lord we become a powerful force to advance His kingdom in the world. Let us pray and ask the Lord to reveal anything in our heart that is hindering our ability to serve Him whole-heartedly, taking time to confess areas of unforgiveness, and then be willing to forgive those who have hurt or offended us. "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity" (Colossians 3:13-14)
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EVENING PRAYER

Glean the Word: 1 Peter 3:8-17

Fruit of Repentance: GENTLENESS

Evening prayer focus: Prayer for the Persecuted Church (click on the image below for our evening prayer).

"We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering." (2 Thessalonians 1:3-5)

This evening, draw close to the fire and experience the warmth, love and light of Christ as we come boldly before the Throne of Grace and join our hearts together in prayer:

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