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AdAgrA 2020: A Living Parable

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Meeting the Master Gardener

John Dysinger

Walking (and Working) with God in the Garden

I'm going to share 5 keys to what I have found are really important to really connecting with God in the garden.

And then I'm going to talk about what I consider a living parable in the garden and draw out some lessons that I've learned.

And I'm sure there's many more that you can learn as we share together here.

Well, so the key number 1, expect it to be hard.

And you know, that seems so obvious in a way.

But yet, when we started out, somehow, I don't know, again, I'm just slow.

But somehow, I thought, since God, we knew God had called us to agriculture That somehow he was gonna just bless it and it was gonna be easy You know, I mean, I knew it wasn't gonna be easy, but it was gonna be wow This is amazing, God's blessing and everything's going great.

Our reality was it was gruelingly hard at times.

And it's like, And so the breakthrough came 1 night, I can still remember exactly where I was.

I was outside, I would just go outside to wrestle with the Lord and say, Lord, what is going on here?

You called us to this, And yet it seems like everything we do fails.

And, and it was like the proverbial light bulb went off.

It was 1 of those moments, of course it's gonna be hard.

He created man to live and work in the garden and so who's gonna try to keep you out?

The devil is gonna do everything he can And has he done a pretty good job of keeping people out of the garden?

I mean, he's got a thousand ways to keep us out of the garden.

You know, Jesus calls us to take up the cross, right?

I mean a cross is not an easy instrument, right?

While our first parents obeyed God, their labor in the garden was a pleasure, and the earth yielded of its abundance for their wants.

But when man departed from obedience he was doomed, that's a bad word, right?

Doomed to wrestle, that's a hard word, right?

With the seeds of Satan's sowing, and to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.

Henceforth, he must battle again, you know, this is fighting terms here.

He must battle in toil and hardship against the power to which he had yielded his will.

We yielded our will, but it's going to be hard.

You see these idyllic pictures, we put them up because we want you to think it's idyllic.

Okay, number 2, carve out space for quiet.

You know, again, I think we have these, these idyllic notions that, you know, we're just going to be out there in the garden, smelling the flowers and watching the bees buzz and, And it's just going to be this wonderful experience of communing with God.

Well, my experience is, yes, I have had those moments, but it doesn't just happen.

Even in the garden, it's too easy to have our minds filled with cares of this world or audio verse or podcasts or audiobooks or you know what I'm talking about.

You know, there are times, if you've got a really, really hard task, maybe you need to listen to a good inspiring sermon on audio verse to keep you going.

When you're in the greenhouse in the summer and you're just pouring buckets of sweat, you need some distraction.

So I'm not saying there's not a place for listening to audio verse in the garden, but what I am saying is that too often, we're not communing with God.

But wouldn't you rather learn straight from God himself?

And I confess that to, you know, because we're doing it as market gardeners, I'm often thinking of, you know, how can I do this more efficiently?

And you know, it's not about, we're not trying to get rich by any means, but we're just, I'm thinking if I can do this more efficiently, I don't have to work as many hours and so I can spend more time with that agra or this or that all these other good things I'd like to be doing.

So, you know, that's all time I'm not communing with God and I want more of this time.

In cultivating the soil, the worker knows little what treasures will open up before him.

While he is not to despise the instruction he may gather from minds that have had an experience.

We've got many of them down in the Ad Agra booth by people who are doing an amazing job of market gardening.

We can learn from them, but the vast majority of them are not even Christian.

So we're not going to learn the whole truth from them.

From the information that intelligent men may impart, he should gather lessons for himself.

This is A0I think I messed up the quote here.

While he is not to despise the instruction he may gather from minds that have had an experience and from the information that intelligent man may impart, he should gather lessons himself.

So the key is God wants to teach you personally, not just through me or through anybody else.

I love this last sentence, the cultivation of the soil will prove an education to the soul.

Okay, and so this number 3 goes along with it.

It was hard, there's so many quotes, it's hard to pick.

But again, it's good to learn from these other people.

But it's easy to start relying on them and going to them as your first impulse.

You know, if I've got a problem, I'm going to see what Connor Crickmore does about it or whatever.

He who taught Adam and Eve and Eden how to tend the garden, desires to instruct men today.

There is wisdom for him who drives the plow and sows the seed.

Before those who trust and obey him, God will open ways of advance.

Let them move forward courageously, trusting in him to supply their needs according to the riches of his goodness." Beautiful.

White talking to the faculty and students at Hillcrest School, which was just outside of Nashville.

How many of you've heard of Hillcrest School?

But she said to them, you are not working alone.

When you are tempted to become discouraged, remember this, angels of God are right around you.

They will minister to the very ground and the earth, causing it to give forth its treasures." It chokes me up.

You know, God is out there with us in the sweat and the toil and the angels are wanting to minister to the ground.

Larry Lesher

The Sower & the Seed

Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this day, the opportunity to be here at this conference, to grow in a knowledge of mostly, hopefully, and prayerfully who you are.

That we would not just take these things for granted, but that you have given us these living parables, that you have given us these object lessons and these tools at our fingertips to grow in a knowledge of who you are, that you are gracious to us, that even in these parables you've given us tools to make a living, that we could have food and sustenance for ourselves, that we could have a means by which to take care of ourselves on our farms and on our homes and our gardens and that you are forever pouring out your blessings upon us.

Help us to receive them, help us to realize them and recognize them as they're happening and not take them for granted.

Help us to be able to hear your voice, that small still voice sometimes and that we would look to you for guidance and direction that we might learn of thee.

Even now I pray you would hide me behind your cross, that you would use me as a tool, that you would speak through me, that you might have a message for your people.

Lord, I pray for each person here that they would not just be hearers of these things as we said in the last lecture, but they would be doers.

That they would put these things into practice and they not be found slothful in the work you've set before them.

Father I pray that I too would not be slothful in the work you've set before me, but that we might glorify and honor you, that we might be a fit vessel in your hand, that we might be found worthy to stand in that day I pray in Jesus name And for his sake we pray, amen.

All right, so this class is called Sower in the Seed.

So if I'm not loud enough, just say, hey speak up, I'll try to talk louder.

I'll try to talk loud to begin with, but just in case.

I want to start with a quote from Reflecting Christ.

It says, There is no chance work in this life.

The harvest will determine the character of the seed that has been sown.

You will not be able to hide in the harvest.

So we'll get started here with the first quote.

It's going to be Christ Object Lessons, page 17.1.

In Christ's parable teaching, the same principle is seen as in His own mission to the world, that we might become acquainted with His divine character and life.

Christ took our nature and dwelt among us.

Divinity was revealed in humanity, the invisible glory in the visible human form.

Men could learn of the unknown through the known.

Heavenly things were revealed through the earthly.

God was made manifest in the likeness of men.

So it was in Christ's teaching, the unknown was illustrated by the known, divine truths by earthly things with which the people were most familiar." I have a question.

What is the principle of Christ's parables?

What do you see here that is the principle?

I have a thought, but I am curious what your thoughts are.

He says, the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen in the things he has made.

I was thinking of in Paul's writings, he says that The physical precedes the spiritual.

The principle that I saw here that I thought was interesting that I drew, I don't think anyone was wrong in their statements.

What I saw was he's revealing divinity in humanity.

He came in human form to reveal the nature and character of God to us.

And he did that in himself, but he also did that in his parable teaching.

What is his mission to the world according to this?

It says, Christ's parable teaching, In Christ's parable teaching, the same principle is seen as in his own mission to the world.

What do you think his mission to the world was?

So that divinity could dwell in man, but mostly and most pinnacly was that God would his character will be revealed to man.

So Christ dwelling in us, we have a part to glorify our Heavenly Father.

It's revealed through Christ and through Christ in us, the vindication of the accusation Satan has leveled at our Heavenly Father.

My observation was, it was to reveal divinity and humanity.

In Christ Object Lessons, you know what page that is?

That's actually the first thing in Christ Object Lessons.

I think it's important sometimes to look at the first thing in a book.

Because it kind of sets up the rest of the book for you.

All right, so we're gonna go to Signs of the Times, March 27, 1893, paragraph 2.

Now a lot of people tell me I read a lot of quotes, and I'm gonna tell you why, okay?

I read a lot of quotes because I don't think what I have to say is of much value, but I think that the Bible and the spirit of prophecy are of limitless value.

And if we can read these quotes and wrestle with ourselves to try to understand these quotes by the spirit, by the rules that we've been given, to look at these things, I think we do far better than listening to men.

I know myself well enough to know that I'm not interested in what I have to say, but what God wants to say to us.

When the soil has been prepared for the reception of the seed, the sower cast it in, and by Processes which men cannot control or understand.

The seed begins to grow and advances to maturity.

Jesus compared the growth of the kingdom of God to the sowing of seed and to its development into the full measure of maturity.

The seed is the Word of God and the soul who receives it is said to be born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, which liveth and abideth forever." Wow.

What is the, what do you think the theme of that little, that short paragraph there would be?

At least for me, it stands out that processes which man cannot control understand, kind of the mystery of God's life in that seed.

Matthew Dealy

Spiritual Insights from Plant Health

Dear Lord, we're so grateful that we can be here, and we pray that we could learn powerful things that would stick with us, that we could apply in our lives, and that would become real, that they would become more a part of our living parable that you are trying to guide and direct, Lord.

And we thank you for each and every 1 that's here.

And we pray that you send your Holy Spirit to guide and direct.

All right, so God has surrounded us with nature's beautiful scenery to attract and interest the mind.

It is his design that we should associate the glories of nature with his character.

If we faithfully study the book of nature, we shall find it is a fruitful source for contemplating the infinite love and power of God.

So we're going to talk some about Photosynthesis, and I'm not an expert on this.

I'm learning But I think there's a Lot of valuable lessons, so we're going to be talking about it Basically the goal here is we're going to talk some about the plant photosynthesizing and the person photosynthesizing.

So in this scenario, which we're going to use quite a bit and we're going to kind of build and expand upon it, we're going to say that This is a church building and these green dots are the people okay, and Then we have the sun which I spelled S0N Right you guys kind of Get where we're going with this okay, so I have some videos that are going to kind of talk about it because I couldn't get it all in a powerpoint, but So how do you guys think that we create healthy plants?

Do you think it's through the soil or through the plant?

So basically we put fertilizer, we put, you know, amendments, we do these things right and that creates the healthy plant, healthy soil.

Maybe I should, How do we create healthy soil?

Is it through the plant or through amendments, fertilizers, those kinds of things?

When you say the plant, do you mean the seed?

Like the tomato plant, the tree, any kind of plant.

Through the individuals or through the group?

I think a lot of the things that we do as a church is more geared towards the group.

You know, we have evangelistic meetings and things.

Sometimes I feel like we have evangelistic meetings to try and encourage the church members to come.

But We don't do a lot of things necessarily that are focused on the individual.

And I think some things we could do is like, we have Sabbath school, and we encourage the little kids to memorize their memory verse.

But why don't we as a church have a memory verse that we, you know, every week we say as a group.

There's lots of things we can do that will encourage individuals.

So here's a video, we're going to jump right in.

And there's a lot of things that I've learned.

And There's a lot of things that I've learned and there's a lot of things that I think are pretty easy to see the spiritual comparison.

So I think this one's about 3 or 4 minutes.

You can get to the same place both ways, right?

And it's going to go a little more into detail in the next video, but it takes decades to get to the spot.

And I kind of think this is similar to when we become Christian, there's Lots of things that the Lord calls us to do.

He calls us to healthy eating, to dress a certain way, to talk a certain way, to do these kinds of things.

And when you do these things, it helps in your spiritual walk.

But if that's your driving focus, your goal, it doesn't get you down the Christian road nearly as fast as Christ coming in and doing those things for you, right?

And you might not ever get to the same place.

So he talked about photosynthesis and basically the only way from what I understand that new energy gets into the soil is through photosynthesis.

Right, so without the plant, all you have is sand, right?

Because the plant is what brings the energy in.

So the question is, have you ever been in a church that's full of sand?

For some of you, we had a picture up here before where it had a bunch of plants.

And without the plants photosynthesizing, eventually you get sand.

And I think this is what happens in our churches.

The question is, how is it possible When we have 50% of crop biomass below the soil surface in the form of roots and root exudates, at the same time, we also frequently hear that many crops deplete soil organic matter.

And the question that I am asking is, how can both of these be true at the same time?

And there's multiple possible answers to that question.

But it led me to just the process of asking these questions led to some, to the uncovering of some really fascinating research, which I believe that all of you will find very interesting in your crop production systems.

So to begin with, When we look at a plant's total sugar production over the course of its entire lifetime, that total sugar production from the moment the seed is planted until the time when the crop is finally harvested, we can consider that total sugar production as being a total of 100%.

That total of 100% is divided into 4 almost identical quadrants.

And I should point out as well, there is some variation here amongst different crop types.

Take reproductive versus vegetative crops, for example.

So there can be some differences from 1 crop type to the next, but this general guideline holds true for the majority of the crops that we are producing in the field.

So the total sugar production is divided into 4 almost identical pieces, where we have 50% below the soil surface and 50% above the soil surface.

The 50% that is below the soil surface is divided into root biomass, where 25% of the total sugar production is used to build root biomass and 25% gets sent out through the roots as root exudates to feed soil biology.

Above the soil surface, 25% gets used to build plant biomass, and 25% is utilized to build fruit, assuming that we have a reproductive crop.

Now, this is really interesting information.

And when we consider that 50% of the total sugar production, the total energy production is below the soil profile, there is a tremendous amount of carbohydrates and amino acids, There's a tremendous amount of sugar that is in the soil system.

When we have a really healthy crop, and we consider the amount of biomass that an average crop produces, we cannot put on enough organic materials, we can't put on enough molasses or enough sugar or enough humic substances economically to match what a really healthy crop can accomplish.

So the piece that I'd like to point out however is that obviously this sugar profile, where this total of 100% is divided into 4 equal pieces, that distribution doesn't all happen at the same time.

There are different stages of plant development in which the sugars are patterned differently and are compartmentalized in different places and different pieces.

So if you look at the different stages of plant development, and during the seedling stage, when the plant is still small, The majority of the sugar production at this stage is going upwards to the upper part of the plant to build plant biomass.

And only a relatively small proportion is going to the root system.

In fact, actually, when we look at this, 50% of the toll is going at this stage even into the root system, but nothing is being contributed to fruit.

All of it that is going up above is going into plant biomass.

When the plant becomes a little bit larger, when we begin entering the framing stage, we now have sugar production in the various sugar sinks going in 3 different directions.

We have a sugar sink at the top of the plant, which is the apical meristem, where we're building plant biomass.

Then we have root biomass below the soil surface.

And we have sugars compartmentalized into these 3 different sugar sinks.

When the plant begins entering the framing stage, and actually we get to the point where we have very rapid plant development, a smaller amount of the plant's total sugar production is going to plant biomass, and the majority is actually going to root exudates at this point.

So this is a very critical stage of plant development.

When we look at this, you might ask the question, well, the plant is building plant frame very rapidly at this stage.

Why are they only sending a minority of the total carbohydrate and total energy production to the sugar sink at the top of the plant?

And what is happening here is that the plant's total sugar production as an actual number is increasing very quickly because we have a larger plant biomass.

So as the plant frame becomes much larger, it begins producing very large quantities of sugars, more sugars than it actually needs to build that plant frame itself.

Series

Meeting the Master Gardener

Walking (and Working) with God in the Garden

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Home Gardening

4- Steps to Productive Soil

1h

True Education

Communion with God in Nature

1h 1m

Intensive: Gardening 101

5. Gardening 101: Natural Remedies

51m

Special Interests

The Sabbatical – Binding Burden or Bountiful Blessing?

56m

Plenary Sessions

Final Charge

1h 14m

Special Interests

When Farming Leads Souls to Jesus

44m

Creation, Agriculture, and Evangelism

3. Practicing the Pattern

52m

The True Medical Missionary

56m

Short Course: Gardening 101

Gardening 101- Part 4

51m

Morning Plenaries

Wheat and the Tares

45m

Personal Preparation

Personal Preparation- Part 3

1h 9m

How to Know God's Will for My Life

How to Know God’s Will for My Life

41m

Sound Doctrine