BITS and PIECES
A random collection of news and views compiled by Frank McClelland for the Toronto Free Presbyterian Church.
243rd Edition – May 18, 2025
THE LORD’S GARDEN
“A garden enclosed is my sister” [Song. 4:12].
We are enjoying the return of spring with its new foliage on the trees, and the tulips and daffodils coming into full bloom. It also reminds us of the Lord’s garden which is vastly different from the world.
The garden of the Lord is beautiful when compared with the howling wilderness of this present world, which exhibits the marks of the curse – thorns and thistles.
When we get plants for our gardens, we pay the price and they become ours. What a cost it was to Jesus to redeem us. He bought us with His life’s blood. He could have said, “Let them die – they are miserable sinners” but instead He paid the price of our sin and planted us in His garden.
Like all natural plants we are weak at first. We are tender and delicate but by the help of His Holy Spirit we “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” [II Peter 3:18]. Under the rays of the “Sun of righteousness” [Malachi 4:2], and refreshed daily by “the water of life” [Rev. 22:1] we can become strong and mature Christians.
Flower beds need continual weeding. Little weeds become big ones and, if left alone, will soon take over the garden. That is why it is imperative that we root out ‘little’ sins ere they develop and become a major problem in a believers life.
THE FLOWERS IN THE LORD’S GARDEN
In any flower garden there is a variety of plants, each one having peculiar strengths and weaknesses. The Lord’s garden is just the same. Believers are all different but they are all needed.
Some are like the dahlias and peonies – gaudy and showy but with little fragrance. Some Christians are like that, bright and showy but with little of the fragrance of Christ about them.
Others are like the primrose and violet. They have little show but they have a sweet fragrance. Some believers bear a quiet testimony but the fragrance of the Lord is always about them.
Other Christians are like the house plants. They need continual care, and they can’t flourish in the cold. They tend to have little strength, but the Lord shelters them, and carefully nourishes them.
The crocuses are hardy and bloom even in cold weather. This sort of Christian is needed today with the coldness of apostasy swirling around much of the church.
No garden is complete without some roses which bring forth their best fragrance after a shower of rain. Sometimes it takes some affliction to bring out the best in some believers.
Lavender has a fragrance but it is not valued until after the plant’s death. Dorcas was a great woman [Acts 9:35ff] but it was not until after her death that her friends recounted her “good works and almsdeeds.”
Are you a precious flower in the Lord’s garden, bringing beauty and the fragrance of Christ to a dying world?
THE WONDER OF SPEECH
Most people can communicate with one another by speech. Vibrations pass over our vocal cords, and these are transformed into recognizable sounds by the shape of our mouths and our lips and palates.
At one time everyone spoke the same language until, at Babel, the Lord confounded that language [Genesis 7:11]. Hence, today the multiplicity of languages and dialects. In the early days of this church most people spoke either English or French, but now Toronto is a melting pot of nations, and the church is a microcosm of the city.
It is a blessing to see all the different nationalities in the congregation, with their different languages and cultures, united in their common belief in, and worship of, Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Our sympathy goes out to those who must learn English as a second language. It is not an easy task, but necessary to communicate with an English-speaking society. The good thing is that the infinite Lord is not limited to one language so when we pray privately in the language we are comfortable with He hears, He understands and He answers our prayers. His ear is open to our cries, in whatever language.
