6.20.2014 SOW ONE FOR GOD, ONE FOR THE EARTH, ONE FOR YOURSELF

this was shared with me yesterday as i came along a street in the frankford section of philadelphia.
the goal of the day was to give out as many invitations to a free blockparty to be held this sunday afternoon in the parking lot of st. mark's episcopal church.
she, a friend who were sitting out on an open second story patio and i began talking about the block party and then went to Jesus.
she is hispanic background and told the story of how God prospered her father in his native land. his plants would always thrive and bear much good fruit whereas the plants of others near by withered and died. this all came about because i had brought four five-gallon buckets full of little tomato plants to philly to see if anyone would like to plant one or two. i told her that i had decided to make this year a year of sabbath rest for my garden and not work it or plant anything. when she asked why i said that i had always wondered how in the world the israelites could live every 7th year when God told them to not plant or work their fields but let them lie fallow...and then i saw the verses where God promised to give them so much they would have enough to live through that year of no planting and no working (guess they all went on 'missions trips' or something!)...and as a result decided to do the same this year (i have been gardening for more than six years)
just to see what would happen...and that God gave me, literally, hundreds of healthy little tomato plants...and carrots growing all over the place!! not to speak of other garden plants, not so plentiful, also sending up some new plants. that's when she shared the above story.
as she shared a sensed that this was a divine appointment for me..that God was showing me a bit of a different way to go..not only with how i garden but awakening a little dim spark of a desire to truly die to myself in every way so that, being dead, God might out of one dead bring forth much fruit. O may God mercifully work to fan this little spark into a flame that would end in a heart totally given over to Him and totally dead to me...that men would know nothing about me but would end up genuinely praising God!