Pruning His People

John 15:1-3

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 

Jesus is the source of life, all life. He is the branch from which a Christian derives life. We are the vines that are created to bear much fruit and bring glory to the Gardener (the Father). Our loving Gardener actively cares for us, even when we are bearing much fruit, in order to increase our fruitfulness (LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF CONTROL). He knows that this also deepens our faith, and increases our spiritual endurance.

• An extremely important part of this process is pruning. For me this is the most difficult act to preform in my garden, because, unlike God, I lose sight of the "joy before me." When early spring comes around, and I know it is time to prune back my roses, I cringe. I can see the new growth. I am so excited to watch the blooms come to life, (this is my emotional response). I also know (my logical side), that if I prune them well, they will produce many more blooms and for a longer period of time, so I cut. I cut dead wood, shape unruly (unnecessary activity) foliage that will keep the sun from the plant, and shape the plant for the place it sits in my garden (it's purpose).
• Just as we cannot grow unless we are connected to the branch we also will not produce fruit, or know the full extent of peace and joy without pruning. This is the job of our caring gardener. I picks up vines that have fallen to the muddy ground (bad habits, or sin). He ties them back up so they can soak up the sun. He removes unnecessary foliage so the rays can reach the rest of the heart of the plant for nutrition. He gives life and takes away what is causing stunted growth (activity for the sake of activity or pride). Those extra leaves look pretty and full, but they are getting in the way. Pruning is an act of love. 
  
• 
  My job is to actively abide, soak up the sun, and rest in His care. He will cause my life to produce abundant fruit. I submit to the process. 

• When and how to prune roses:
• The best time to hard-prune roses is late February to early March, just as the bud casings begin to form. You want to be sure that freeze is over. The goal is to open the center for light/air, removed dead areas, and avoid crossing canes. 
  
• This is your chance to shape you plant for it's place in your garden. Cut just above an outward facing at a 45% angel. 

https://youtu.be/aBWy0cLwUWY

Waiting for Spring

Spring and Summer are past. Almost all my flowers are gone now, with just a few roses and dahlias hanging on. The leaves are covering the back acres, and there is frost each morning. When I look out in the morning it seems like a long wait till Spring again. The work that I have to do between now and Spring is not the fun work of Summer, with new blooms, beautiful scents and warm afternoon. Now is the time to prepare for new growth. It's cold, dirty and I am completely unmotivated, but it must be done.

Now is the time that my rose starts push down roots for Spring blooms 

Now is the time I prep seeds to plant in the greenhouse come January. 
 

Now is the time to separate by bulbs, plant new ones and prep old flower beds.

Now is the time to prepare for the growth that will come. 

Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up"
James 5:7: "Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains"
Romans 8:25: "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently .

In my own life it often feels like I am always waiting for something. I don't enjoy the times of preparation, I want quick results and easy answers, however these lead to shallow roots. The best flowers come from deep, well established roots. 

When I have down time, between Bible Studies or events, is the time I need to hunker down and be sure that my Spiritual disciplines are firmly in place. I can pushing down my roots into God's love. This is the time to fertilize my Spirit with His truth. It can feel boring at times, and often I might wonder if anything is happening at all, but roots grow beneath the surface, unseen, but vitally important to production of good fruit.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Hope Wirta

Rooted Biblical Counseling

Weeds, Calories, Sin and Bills: The Struggle is Real

  “Cursed is the ground because of you through 

painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 

It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will 

eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you 

will eat your food until you return to the ground "

                                                        (Genesis 3:16b-18 NIV)

                                                                                         

                         Every evening at watering time, I see them. They poke their evil little heads out from my flowers beds, between my rock walls, and in any crevice they can find. I pull them, spray them, stomp on them and dig them out by the roots, but no matter how diligent I am, those weed seeds find a way to take root. I once had a friend tell me "sin, weeds, dirt and bills, you will fight them tell the day you die". She was right!

A month ago I planted another little patch of wild flower. I watered diligently as my baby plants began to grow, but low and behold the seeds were mostly weeds. I had received a bad batch. In order to spare the actual flowers I had to wait until they were big enough to tell the difference. It was TORTURE!

It took me hours of careful digging to separate the weeds from actual wild flowers.

In the book of Matthew Jesus teaches this principle as He explains the Kingdom of Heaven to his disciples.

Matthew 13:24-30
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;  but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Although God calls us to be "fruit inspectors" as we choose our close friends and associates, we are also reminded not to judge the hearts of others. Romans 12:3 reminds us to regard ourselves with "sober judgement", to serves others (Phil. 2) and to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. We are to shine like a light in the world and draw others to Christ by our love and kindness. That doesn't mean approving of evil, but any word of truth should always be motivated with love to edify the listener (am extremely difficult task in my estimation Ephesians 4:29).

Speaking should be done less and, prayerfully, listening should be done more. Proverbs 17:28

I grow weary of pulling weeds but when I do I am reminded to keep an eternal perspective. Do not grow weary of doing good (Galatians 6:9). It can be hard to tell weeds from flowers at time, but thankfully God knows. I am called to water, abide, and keep my roots pushing deep into the love of God, and push my petals toward His light. The rest is up to Him. He will do the separating in His time. I

Plants that Repel Weeds:

Some flowers repel weeds by forming a thick ground cover that keeps sunlight from getting to the weeds and suffocating them. A few of them are:

Creeping Flox

Creeping Thyme

Cranesbill Geranium

Sedum

Sweet Woodruff

 Hope Wirta

Roots First: Cold Starting Seedlings

 

Roots First

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things  grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.  For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

(1 Corinthians, 3:6-11)

I never had the time to advance beyond a beginner’s level for gardening. My success in growing plants was limited between raising kids, ministry responsibilities, and running a business. The most I could grow were a few roses, tiger lilies and some ground cover. I tried a few other varieties off and on over the years but they failed for various reasons; Some had the wrong sun exposure, were being watered incorrectly, lacked care, or had pests. It was a time when not many flowers graced my space. My approach to my yard was haphazard and unintentional. That was until 2 years ago; with our kids grown and having families of their own, we found ourselves in a large house that we didn’t need. We packed our lives and traded a tiny yard and big home for a cozier setting on two acres. My yard became a blank

canvas. I was excited to fill it with color. I bought dozens of seed packets, watched zillions of YouTube tutorials and since it was late fall decided to try some cold starts. I soon discovered that seeds come in all shapes and sizes, and that not all are suitable for cold starting. Out of the 20 seeds I started about 12 actually produced any seedlings. My Bachelor Buttons and Sweet Peas went crazy; I had more than I knew what to do with. Shasta Daisies did great, as did Marigolds, Hollyhock and Cosmos. The milk jugs protected the little seedlings from frost in February and when spring arrived I was able to transplant them into their places in the yard. It is so much fun when you look into the milk jug and see the seedlings pop up their heads, but don’t be fooled. Those three weeks that you are patiently waiting to see those green heads pop through, there is a lot going on below, even though you can’t see it. Healthy plants start with healthy roots.

Healthy roots require the right type of dirt, water and temperature. How you prepare the soil and plant the seeds matters. After that all you can do is wait. You have to trust that the process will work……the roots grow first then you see the result. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus with others can be intimidating and exciting all at the same time. At first due to fear, or a lack of knowledge, we may not see many seedlings grow. Let’s face it, God is the one who created the seed in the first place. It is His Gospel we are sharing. He created each seed that we have the privilege to plant. If He doesn’t make it grow, the perfect soil, light and water won’t force the miracle to happen. Our part is to learn as much as we can so that we are prepared when he provides the opportunity to plant a seed in the soil of another soul. Being ready to plant those seeds entails taking the time to know His word, and being close to Him. We may not see results right away, but don’t be fooled. The Holy Spirit is drawing out the roots below the soil. Some seeds will produce beautiful plants, while others may rot in the ground, but we can’t force growth. We do our part, and trust His process for the rest.

HOW TO: COLD START SEEDS

ITEMS REQUIRED:

• 1 Gallon -Clear- Jug 

• Exacto knife or Scissors

• Clean Dirt

• Water

• Seeds of your choice

• White Duct Tape

• Marker

• Spoon

*NOTE: Recycling old milk and water jugs are cost effective and easy. I acquired them from family and neighbors. 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Put holes in the bottom of jugs (roughly the size of a pencil)

2. Cut/slice jugs horizontally (leaving the handle intact)

3. Fill bottom portion with dirt

4. Pour warm water over bottom of now dirt filled jugs until soaked

5. Let water drain

6. Mix seeds with a handful of dirt

7. Sprinkle seed/dirt mixture into jugs

8. GENTLY press seeds into dirt with the back of a metal spoon

9. Seal jugs closed with duct tape

10. Label Jugs

11. Place Jugs outside in a warm sunny spot and protected from extreme weather

12. Check on seeds after 2-3 weeks 

13. Lightly water jugs when top soil is dry
    

Introduction to: Devotions from the Greenhouse.

 

“For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations.”

(Isaiah, 61:11)

Today marks a new season: It’s the first warm day of May. I brew my coffee, pour a cup into my favorite mug, and add plenty of sweet cream. Then I head out to see who has decided to bravely poke its little green head out of the dirt to say good morning. I walk slowly through the dewy flower beds, enjoying the smell of the dirt mixed with decomposing leaves, and observing any signs of spring foliage. The thing about plants is that you can’t hurry the process; You are forced to yield to time. As Solomon states in the book of Ecclesiastes: “there is a time for everything, and this is a time of growth.”


You can be as frustrated as you want, but flowers bloom on God’s timeline, not yours. So you may as well grab some coffee and enjoy the season one day at a time.

In Oregon, we have a nice long growing season (zone 9a for you gardening nerds) where we get to enjoy beautiful flowers. We enjoy it more because we have just endured 8 long months of a cold, grey, windy, and rainy season. We earn our green state, and when June hits, it’s all been worth the wait. It’s no wonder that the Bible is scattered with plant metaphors and symbolism as they help us learn life lessons and teach us about the Kingdom of heaven.

Waiting for Spring each year is just a taste of the longer patience we exercise as we hope for the beauty of  God’s future promises: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis, 8:22). No matter how patient or dedicated you are, it can be hard to admit that the end result  of gardening is largely out of our control: the weather can surprise us, pests can sneak past our defenses. Sometimes we can do everything right, but that doesn’t ensure that our plants will always thrive. I am often surprised when a seedling that by all rights should have shriveled up and died takes off and astonishes us with gorgeous blooms. 

In my own life, I have times of rain, times of growing, and painful times of pruning. Then there are those sunny days when everything works out just right, my day has blossomed like roses. I would love to take the credit for these beautiful days but just like the flowers in my garden, there is a lot outside of my control. It’s difficult to admit: I don’t know what I need. Philippians 1:6 advises: “He who began a good work in my life will complete it.”. I choose to submit to His work because only He can search my heart and mind. Only He knows what I need to change and grow. To have peace and joy I must trust in the process of the Creator. I must place faith in the Master Gardener of my soul for His provisions: His love, attentiveness, timing, knowledge, and wisdom. The way to find peace is to remember this; That in winter, spring always comes eventually. So when I feel that first warm day, I pour a cup of coffee. I take a stroll through the garden and look for the small signs: That the work He is doing is producing growth. God always keeps His promise and He will not fail to finish what He has started.

Hope Wirta

A Long Winter and The Promise of Spring

            "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; 

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you 

a heart of flesh.”

(Ezekiel 36:26)

    Every year I dread the months of January and February. I live in the wettest part of Oregon. I don't mind the rain in fall and spring, it is usually light, warm welcome. However, in January and February it is brutal. The rain comes in with a cold driving wind that cuts through any warm clothing. All the leaves are off the trees, and raked away, the flower beds have been winterized and the grey, dark dreariness of the winter wait sets in.

While I slosh through the pouring rain toward the Greenhouse to prepare for the next Spring planting. I choose seeds, pant them in seedling pots and wait. I wait for seeds to grow, wait for winter to pass, wait for the rain to stop and the sun to come out from behind the clouds; I wait.

Every day I check the seedling, adjust the heat, check water and watch for mold or pests. It is a slow process.

I wait.

Maybe I should find ways to enjoy winter, but my heart longs for the warmth of Spring. I know it eventually will come, just as it has every year, but why does it feel like winter is twice as long as Spring and Summer combined?

Then one morning I see it; The first bud, the first leaf, the evidence that Spring is on the way.

In my day to day life, I don't see a lot of change in my habits and behaviors. It feels like I live in an internal winter, waiting for changes in my heart and behaviors. I have my devotions and pray. I do what I can to walk with the Spirit and not carry out the desires that I know come from my flesh (Galatians 5:16), but these behavioral changes are usually skin deep. It's the Spiritual growth that brings the good fruit of Spring.  Every now and then I get a glimmer of good fruit, I see God use my in a way I did not expect, or I get to introduce someone to the Gospel, and they respond. It's in those times that I know God is doing the work He promised. It is the Spiritual fruit of Spring.

The seasons are a great reminder of the consistency and faithfulness of God. The sun, the seasons, the seeds all do exactly what God designed them to do. If God can perfectly design the universe, then He can also change my heart of stone. He will finish the work He started in me the day I chose to follow Him. 

Satan would like me to doubt God's promises, he would like nothing more than for me to live my life in the cold constant winter state of shame, doubt and fear, never believing that God will bring Spring. 

God reminds me to get into the Greenhouse and prepare, because winter will end and Spring is one the way. When I feel that God is not using me, or old habits and failures try to send me into a shame spiral, I need to get to the word and plant seeds, or spend time praying scripture preparing the soil of my heart for new growth. 

Spring is just around the corner.


How to prepare perennial and annual flower beds for the winter months:

1. Dead head any dying flowers or cut down dead foliage.

2.Remove debris or dead leaves before frost time comes. Leave the base of the plant.

3. Keep the ground moist until it freezes over to keep plants alive until hibernation sets in.

4. Apply mulch in late to mid November (old leaves that you have gathered ahead of time works well)

This will protect the plants in the winter months.

5. For annual flower beds remove the dying plant and decide whether to compost or dispose of them.  Add compost to the ground and wait for Spring. 

Hope Wirta

Flowers with Hope and

Hope's Palette

 

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God's Garden

 Matthew 6:32  " Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry  about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

    I love my backyard. Each year as it get's a little better than the year before. My perennials are maturing and bushing out, I have more experience with placement and care, and I am beginning to get the hang of growing flowers in the greenhouse. It is truly my happy place. It's dirty, sweaty, thorny work, but I love it. 

Then I leave my backyard and go on a hike. I see the lush greenery, the mossy trees and I think, WOW! God is a gardener at heart. I look at the variety of wild flowers and realize, His garden is perfect and basically cares for itself.
When I plant a seed and water it, If conditions are right it grows.  It was perfectly created by God to do what it does. I just get the joy of watching the magical process. God gave me gardening to bring me joy. 

Did God need Adam and Eve to tend to the garden of Eden? I think not. He let him them, because He loved them. He wanted to give them rewarding fun work. 
At times I forget that this garden that I enjoy so much, is beautiful because God made it beautiful. He allows me to play with His wonderful flowers, trees and plants. 

We have the same problem with our day to day lives. We forget who made our days. We get so wrapped up and worried about things that we have absolutely no control over. We spiral into thinking that we can manipulate what will happen obsessing it into being. We "water" the seeds we want, but we don't make them grow. We lose countless hours of peace and joy by ignoring God's wisdom and imperatives. 
Cast your cares on me (literally throw them!!) I am the one who make flowers (or plans) grow.

Fear Not!
Do not worry about.....
Be anxious for nothing!

We have disillusioned ourselves into believing that after God created the universe it somehow got our of His control and into ours. Our disillusions of grandeur are a lie of Satan. 

Don't be deceived. 

Trust the truth you know.

To trust like a child is to be in awe of our Father. He is right there beside you ALWAYS watching your steps.
Luke 18:17 “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 
Matthew 6:25-32
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 

 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Starting Seeds: Paper Towel Method

The paper towel (or coffee filter) method of starting seeds works great for large seeds, or hard shell seeds. It is not optimal for small seeds as they may not have the strength to root this way.

• Soak you seeds for 24 hours in hot water
• Place a paper towel in a strainer and strain out the water.
• We a paper towel and gently move seeds on to the new paper towel.
• Fold the paper towel over once, make sure it is moist all the way through.
• Place the paper towel in a baggie, squeeze our access air and place in a warm sunny place to germinate for 2-3 days.
• Using tweezers transplant rooted seeds to starter tray or pots, water and watch them grow.