![\"Cucumbers,](\"https:\/\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2015\/07\/17\/13\/44\/cucumbers-849269_960_720.jpg\")
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The other day, I was out puttering in the garden when I happened to look down at one of my cucumber plants and there, as if by magic, was a large cucumber.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I looked under the leaves and found three more, each of which was about eight inches long.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And there was another large one over on a different plant, too! …and a couple more I better pick before they get too big!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, it’s not amazing that there would be cucumbers in my garden since I planted cucumbers, (obviously) but the amazing part was that I was pretty sure there weren’t any cucumbers at all in the garden just a couple of days before this.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And a couple of days after I picked those four large cucumbers, I went and looked and found ten cucumbers of perfect pickling size!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s like they just magically appear.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I wondered if the vines were setting fruit (okay, vegetables) in the dark of night, while I was sleeping, for the sole purpose of sneaking up on me with this unexpected abundance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Foop! Cucumber. Foop!\u00a0Cucumber. FOOP! BIG cucumber. Foop! Foop! Foop!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Day 1: No visible cucumbers.<\/span><\/p>\n Day 2: Cucumbers everywhere!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n One day, I am living a cucumberless existence not even considering that it’s about time I should be checking the garden for cucumbers and the next day I have so many I’m giving them away!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n You probably knew where I was going with this from the moment you read the title, and you’re right.<\/span><\/p>\n The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45 (ESV)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n When we are filled with the love of Jesus, we can’t help but speak out of the abundance of that love. We produce fruit the way the cucumbers in my garden produce cylindrical green vegetables.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jesus himself used a very similar metaphor:<\/span><\/p>\n “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (NIV)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s natural. It’s organic. It feeds and sustains us and the people who receive the gift we give when we love. It supernaturally yields far more than we would expect it to.<\/span><\/p>\n “And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” Mark 4:20 (ESV)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Some weeding is necessary to produce that crop.<\/span><\/p>\n Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Matthew 3:8 (ESV)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cucumbers are not violent or vicious vegetables. No one has ever met a cucumber that was biased or hypocritical.<\/span><\/p>\n But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. James 3:17 (ESV)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cucumbers abound and overflow with good things. They are completely legal in all 50 states.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,\u00a0gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22&23 (ESV)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As long as I’m posting Bible quotes, annnnnd the Kinship Christian radio staff is currently sporting a fine trivia prize wheel at local county fairs, it may just behoove you to know that the Bible does indeed<\/em> mention cucumbers:<\/span><\/p>\n Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.” Jeremiah 10:5 (NIV)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Today’s Praise<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,\u00a0so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,\u00a0filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ\u2014to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Written by Dan Jones<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The other day, I was out puttering in the garden when I happened to look down at one of my cucumber plants and there, as if by magic, was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 18:27:31","action":"delete","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}