May 1976
PARADISE
Paradise is my Garden,
an orchard of trees,
a place of peace and quiet,
where the air is clean and fragrant.
It is the Eden of my delights,
designed for the sons of men and attained by faith.
No tree shall any longer be forbidden.
Those who have partaken of the Tree of Life
shall be able to eat of the Tree of Knowledge.
Both are my trees, and each serves its own purpose.
Is it not good to be “like God”?
Is it not good to know His love, and to share the divine nature?
s it not good for man to have acute discernment of
“what is good and what is evil”?
Think not that the Serpent lied to Eve concerning my ULTIMATE INTENTIONS for mankind.
But he offered her an impossible
ROUTE OF ACHIEVEMENT,
based upon direct disobedience to my word.
And did he not try the same on my Son?
He offered him all the kingdoms of the world.
Was not this the goal for which the Messiah came?
My Son’s rebuke came not because of the GOAL
but because of the ROUTE which he offered to obtain that goal.
There are no short cuts to the glory of my presence.
There is no joy without first the suffering,
no mountain of Zion without first
the valley of the shadow of death,
no feasting without fasting, mourning and weeping.
My way is not attractive to man
but it is the best way, the perfect way, and the only way.
My Son has shown this way to the world.
His death and resurrection are memorials to all mankind.
They are not monuments to be gazed upon,
but examples to follow.
Place MY sons in the garden and they will not abuse it.
Place the sons of darkness in the same garden
and they would wreck it.
Hence the Cherubim have been stationed there.
Who can pass through the vail upon which
the Cherubim were embroidered?
Only those who have been the way of the cross,
those whose own veil-of-the-flesh has been rent from above.
My hands alone are reserved for this task.
None other can touch it for it is holy.
Precious indeed is the death of my saints.
Their tears have I kept within my bottle.
Those who walk in the spirit,
work in the spirit,
and worship in the spirit,
shall overcome the flesh.
THEY shall enter my Garden
and enjoy my presence in the cool of the day.
I shall be their God,
and they shall be my people;
I shall be their Father,
and they shall be my sons;
I shall be their Head and they shall be the members of my body,
married to their Lord for ever.
Here are the words of a very well-known and beautiful little song composed by Eleanor Farjeon in 1951. The whole concept of the Garden of Eden is delightful, and we must never think about it as fantasy, or just a figure of speech. There WAS a real Garden, there still IS a real Garden, the Paradise the Lord promised to the thief on the cross, and there WILL BE a Garden on this earth once again in the future. God has given us many treasures to think about, pray about, and look forward to with certainty of expectation.
MORNING HAS BROKEN
Morning has broken, like the first morning,
Blackbird hath spoken, like the first bird,
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the world.
Sweet the rain’s newfall, sun-kissed from heaven,
Like the first dew-fall on the first grass,
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning,
Born of the One Light Eden saw play,
Praise with elation, praise every morning,
God’s re-creation of the new day.
(And no doubt the “dawn chorus” of the summer bird-song, is meant to remind us of the sons of God and the stars who sang and shouted for joy when they watched the creation of this world. Job.38:7-8)
