Keith Wishum informs us that Lucy Richardson moved to a house near the state capitol building in Frankfort, Kentucky.  Lucy’s elderly neighbors got her interested in gardening, and soon she had a yard full of beautiful flowers.  She enjoyed seeing passing tourists peek through the fence to see all the blooms.

To maintain the gardens, Lucy often found herself working outside from sunup to sundown.  She enjoyed being outdoors, though, and she especially enjoyed seeing the pleasure her flowers brought to others.  She sometimes delighted a stranger by picking a bouquet and handing it across the fence.  She even gave flowers to street people, common in her urban neighborhood.

Early one morning, Lucy was working next to the sidewalk when a homeless man who was a regular in the area passed by.  Normally, he just shuffled by, but on this morning he stopped and spoke.  “Excuse me, lady,” he said.  “May I tell you something?”

"Sure," Lucy replied, expecting a compliment on her flowers.

Instead, he said, “Whoever owns that house works you way too hard!"

Lucy found that amusing.  The gentleman didn’t understand that she was working hard, not from a sense of duty, but out of love.  To Lucy, working in her gardens was not a chore, but a privilege. *

You and I are called by God to be saved from our sins and to serve Him.  God doesn’t want us to serve sin because it separates us from Him and leads to death (Isaiah 59:1-2; Romans 6:16, 23).  But since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), we all find ourselves under sin’s cruel bondage.

But God can set us free from the bondage of sin so that we can serve Him!

“Serve God?” someone may ask.  “That sounds like forced labor, too!”

Consider 1 John 5:3 – “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.  And His commandments are not burdensome.”

“‘Keep His commandments.’  That still sounds like forced labor!” says the objector.  But notice, John adds “And His commandments are not burdensome.”  How so?

One reason is because of the great love that God has for us.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Why?  So that we can be saved from our sins and serve Him instead – not out of dreaded duty, but from a heart filled with great gratitude!

As Keith Wishum astutely states: “The more we comprehend the great debt from which God releases us, the more we see serving Him as an honor.”

God will deliver from the bondage of sin and death and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).

So how does YOUR garden grow?

Won’t YOU accept God’s offer of salvation and eternal life on His terms?  Won’t YOU dedicate your life to serving Him, motivated by the tremendous Price that He paid for your salvation?

-- David A. Sargent

* Keith Wishum, “For the Love of God” in A Word from Williams Road (1/10/17).  Keith serves as the Minister of the Williams Road Church of Christ in Americus, GA.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org