A Man of the Earth

Today is my official return to the earth where my dad spent so many years of his life.  I know, I know...that sounds a little overly dramatic for putting in a garden.  However, we don't realize all the strands of our lives and how they stay connected to one another until certain life events renew or reveal the connection.  I grew up on an acre lot in a small Michigan town just on the outskirts of the Metro Detroit area.  We lived in a village only 2 blocks from the main crossing. Yet, our land had been in our family for over 100 years and for 100 years 2/3 of our lot was used for planting crops of various kinds.  As time passed on and other lots were divided up and sold  for lots for homes, our family's lot did not, and every year the big ole' garden was planted. 

By the time the 1980s rolled around our town was pretty full and a very typical suburban village with houses lined up and down streets one next to the other.  It never occurred to me that our garden and the 1/2 acre of corn growing on our lot in the middle of our village was at all peculiar.  As I turned 10, I no longer had any interest in the garden or helping out with it.  As my dad got older and his health diminished, the garden grew smaller and smaller.  About the time I left for the Marines, our large lot was divided up into 3 smaller lots and sold off for two more homes to be built in what used to be our back yard and garden.  The Zilkie garden heritage was gone, having died off through the tyranny of progress and technology.

Well today, "The Earth Strikes Back".  With Julie leading the charge, the Zilkies are putting in some raised beds for our own garden and the children's hearts have returned to their fathers.  I am putting our raised beds together, mixing the perfect soil without any weeds, leaving behind the old method of rows and spaced out planting.  (My dad would be amazed to see how much different and easier gardening has become in the past 25 years.)  Most importantly, our children are thrilled to use the tools to assemble the beds and are excited to be given their own sections of garden to care for.  I think I am a little better casting the vision than my dad was which helps a bit. 

On a personal note, there is something very spiritual about gardening.  Gardening is a metaphor for life.  In our present day we want and expect everything to come immediately.  This is also true of our relationship with God.  And yet God says that we are "like a tree planted by rivers of water" (see Psalm 1).  A tree does not grow overnight but over a long time and as a result of consistent nuture and care.  Also, being involved in something mysterious like watching a little seed become a big, beautiful, food producing plant 4 months later, while all I do is water, is quite amazing.  God has a plan, and He has engineered that plan in the life of every seed and in our own lives as well.  We need to have a vision for His plan and patiently water each others hearts and souls as well as our own, watching with anticipation for the signs of growth He brings about.  I am seeing this growth and God-activity every week at Rooftop and in my own family. 

As you consider your life this spring, you may not be planting a garden, but I want to encourage you to reflect a moment if you would.  What seed is God planting in your heart and soul and how does He want to see that grow?  What is He asking you to do in the area of watering that will allow a "harvest of righteousness" in the months ahead?  It won't happen overnight, but one day after many days, you will look and see a spiritual sprout break through the ground of your life. Feel excitement just as children do that first morning  the plants in our earthly gardens have broken through the earth and are on their way to a bountiful harvest. 

New Small Group

Our church recently finished a 6 week series on "Money" and interestingly it was one of the best message series the church as ever done. One of the follow up steps for that is us Zilkies hosting a 14 week small group covering Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (FPU) material. Julie and I have listened to Ramsey for years, going back to our days in Grand Rapids. We like his approach to money and especially money struggles that so many people find themselves facing. So when the opportunity to take some Rooftoppers on a maiden voyage through FPU, Julie and I were excited to do so and to also host our first small group here at Rooftop. 

Well, last night was our first meeting and it was great. Our group is filled with various people who felt God prompting them to take a step or steps of action about money as they were part of our recent series. To kick off our group we invited a wonderful couple from our church to share their personal story and journey. They have had significant financial and other challenges, went through FPU years ago, and are now experiencing the joy and freedom this material and ministry can provide. They were open, humble, and so very wise in their sharing. Then everyone who attended shared what they hoped God would give to them from their time in the course...and no one mentioned "money". Rather, people wanted peace, wisdom, to change their spiritual and financial legacy with their children, to hear from God more clearly, etc.

It was a privilege to host and be a part of the group. If you could say a prayer for the men and women who are taking this journey with us, we all need it and would greatly appreciate it. I believe God will want to minister to all of us in the depths of our heart and I am so excited to witness it and experience it firsthand. What we think, feel, and believe about money is such a core component of our spiritual lives and God really wants to minister to all of us in this area.

A Disturbing Article This Morning...

This morning I came across a disturbing article, disturbing in both its informaiton and seeminly truthful observation of the Christian Church at large of which I am a part...

In a number of places around the world, it is open season on Christians. We read of Christians burned out of their homes and slaughtered in Pakistan. Most recently, at least 500 Christians were murdered in Nigeria. The attackers in all cases are Muslims, inspired by the warlike message of their Prophet. AFP reports on the Nigerian attacks:

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Washington led calls for restraint on Monday after the slaughter of more than 500 Christians in Nigeria, as survivors told how the killers chopped down their victims.

Funerals took place for victims of the three-hour orgy of violence on Sunday in three Christian villages close to the northern city of Jos, blamed on members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group. ...

"We have over 500 killed in three villages and the survivors are busy burying their dead," said state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong. "People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses -- many of them children, the aged and pregnant women."

Do you remember the "massacre" at Jenin? Of course: Palestinians initially claimed that 500 had been killed, but it turned out that there was no massacre after all. In Nigeria, on the other hand, no one disputes that more than 500 Christians were slaughtered by Muslims. So where is the outrage? I don't know what denomination those Nigerian Christians were, but Lutherans are the most numerous Christian denomination in Africa. I'm a Lutheran, but I have never heard a single word from any church source, local or national, about the mass murder of African Christians. No one seems to care.

No doubt readers can refer us to some Christian sources--evangelical, most likely--who have tried to draw attention to the plight of Christians in Africa, the Middle East and Asia who are being exterminated. But any such effort has wholly failed to gain traction in the "mainstream" Christian community.

Why? I can't explain it. Maybe "mainstream" Christianity is dead, except as an appendage of secular liberal opinion. Maybe, as the world's largest religion, Christianity has become so diffused that New World Christians don't much relate to their co-religionists in Africa and Asia. I don't know. What I do know is that it is much more dangerous to publish a cartoon of Mohammed than to slice apart a Christian with a machete.  

 http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/03/025796.php

Here is another link with more info:

http://toddpruitt.blogspot.com/2010/03/slaughter-in-nigeria.html


Why are we American / Western Christians so deaf to the struggles of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who suffer for Jesus?  Have we no appetite for the reality that following Jesus is not as easy as we know and experience here in America?  Sadly, I do not know the answer to this question...

How the Kingdom of God Works...

Julie and I have been very encouraged these past several months with all of the amazing things we have seen God do in the lives of different people. God is doing something special, and although we are not sure exactly what, we are so blessed to be witness to it. However, in God's economy true spiritual growth and the advancement of the kingdom of God has a cost. That cost is...Me. If you are going to be a part of the true spiritual work that God wants to do, it will cost you your life.

The past several months we Zilkies have had a tubal/ectopic pregnancy, Julie has had two visits to the hospital, Julie's mom's husband of 9 years passed away, and during our trip back to see them the whole family got the flu at the same time (that really was an awful 24 hours). During our drive back yesterday, God used these difficult events in the Zilkie family to bring up some hard stuff in my life and in our marriage. Some of “the stuff” that we never even knew was there. Please pray for Julie and I as we "go there" and ask God to reveal, convict of sin, forgive, and heal our hearts in the things that God is showing us. It is not easy to surrender to God...

Ever since I recommitted my life to Jesus Christ at 17 I have wanted nothing more in life than to see the God of the Bible reign and be recognized as the same almighty and sovereign God in our lives today...because He is. Yet, to be a part of that and by His grace to be a leader in that, I know it will require the same thing it required of Jesus, all 12 of his disciples, and millions of followers of our Lord Jesus since...death.

Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

During our recent baptism service, one of the Rooftoppers shared about the horrible stuff that happened to her before she gave her life to Jesus. She commented about all the people who say how "unlucky" she is to have gone through her troubles. She however, sees it differently. She stated in her testimony that she sees herself as the luckiest person in the world that God would love her so much that He would stop at nothing to break through her pride and self centeredness to pour His grace into her life. She sees her hardship as a necessary human part to surrendering her life fully to Jesus Christ. Oh, that all of us who "follow Jesus" could truly believe and live out those hard yet beautiful words.