Desert Cove Seventh-day Adventist Church, 12400 W Desert Cove Road, El Mirage, AZ (2026)

11/24/2025

Pictured below is a side by side comparison of root knot nematode, Its a parasitic roundworm that cause those knots in the roots of trees and ultimately kills them.
This is what bitterness does to you if not treated with the love and forgiveness only Jesus can bring your heart. Pray and ask God for "new heart and a right spirit."
“looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;" ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭15

10/23/2025

Too much rain mingled with burying the root crown killed my kumquat tree.... but the spiritual lesson taught...

You can do too much of a good thing. There are examples in the Bible as a warning to us. Martha is the first example that comes to mind, she was so worried about serving the disciples and the Lord she actually got upset at her sister for not helping and asked Jesus to tell her to help serve. Jesus tells her, "Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." Mary chose to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to Him. We can get so caught up in doing the good things for the Lord we can lose our relationship with Him and ultimately our eternal life because we're too focused on the work. That will never save us, only the relationship with Jesus can and will.
That class of people that will get so distracted by the works God has asked us to do, will take part in hearing that terrible heart wrenching rebuke from Jesus Himself, "I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." They're rebuttal will be Lord, Lord have we not done many wonders in your name? But they never knew Him...
in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, Paul speaks of having tongues of men and angels, gift of prophecy, have faith to remove mountains, sells all his goods to feed the poor and even give his body to be burned at the stake and don't have love, you have NOTHING at all. You can still do "good things" but they'll never save you, only a loving relationship with Jesus and faith in His precious blood to cover your sins. But that doesn't excuse you from not doing anything either, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead... I will show you my faith by my works." James 2:17, 18. There's a balance and that can only be found by keeping your eyes on Jesus and following Him by faith, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬.

10/17/2025

“The seed is the word of God.” -‭‭Luke‬ ‭8‬:‭11

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” - 1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬. When we show love to one another, even the tiniest of acts, the Lord can use it and germinate it in the recipients heart. Much like the tiny basil seeds, they're tiny and were unknowingly sown in the area you see outside the beds, God provided the rain on His time and the growth in His time and now we have a small forest of basil. THAT is what Jesus can do with your small, thny acts of love that we overlook so easily.

“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men," -‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭23‬

09/30/2025

That Was Easy

"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." John 7:24

When reading the parable of the wheat and the tares, I was always under the impression tares was a general term for any kind of w**d, and if any of you with yards called dandelion a w**d and you spray round up on them, you need to repent because dandelions are a nutritional powerhouse! Every time I would go to the garden and pull w**ds around the seedlings, I would say, "Lord, that was easy and I don't understand the parable because I just pulled this w**d without uprooting this evening." Separate, smaller, lesson real quick, with seeds, sown on fertile, good soil, we must lay the doors to our hearts wide open to the sower of life daily, so He can go through and "create a clean heart." Psalm 51:10, in you and I. Since we cannot cleanse our own hearts, we need Jesus to go through and keep the good seed from getting choked out by thorns. We need Jesus tending the garden of our hearts which He promises to do in Isaiah 27:3, "I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment, lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day." This is the only way those seeds reach fruiting age.
Back to the original lesson, have any of you seen tares? This is where the Lord answer my question, here is a side-by-side comparison of wheat and tares. Incredibly similar to the untrained eye, we would have no clue how to differentiate the two, which is why Jesus told the servants not to gather them up, so they would not accidentally uproot the wheat in the process. In Matthew 13:29 Jesus didn't want them doing it because it was a lesson to you and I that He did not commit to knowing hearts or motives into our hands. So we have no idea who is a wheat and who is a tare. Judas was a tare and the other 11 had no idea. Judas walked right next to Jesus and honor Him with his lips, but his heart was far from Christ. Jesus tells us we will know who is a wheat and a tare in Matthew 13:30, "at the time of harvest." So in the meantime, quit focusing on your brother's spec and worry about the plank in your own and that doesn't mean we let sin go unreproved, 2 Timothy 3:16, "all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness." But always with love. For example Paul calling Peter out for his hypocrisy and Galatians 2 and another present example is, if you have a brother or sister telling you how they are altering their timesheet at work to get extra pay and know it's wrong, anything that is open and deliberate rebellion, scripture is profitable for.
It is only at the harvest time, the wheat and tares are revealed, and we see the evidence of God's character in the wheat and Satan's in the tares. When the wheat is ripe, it is full of fruit, bowing low, ready and willing to die to self, for others, and to share the fruit of God. But the tares stand tall, proud, and a fruitless at maturity.
So are you a tare or a wheat? If you're fearful that you are a tare, go to the Redeemer of the world who lives to make intercession for you (Hebrews 7:25), the Searcher and Cleanser of hearts, and pray what David prayed with all sincerity and Psalm 139:23–24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my anxieties and lead me in the way everlasting." Then get up knowing the Lord is not slack concerning His promises (2 Peter 3:9) and the good work, which He began in you, He will complete until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). Amen.

08/23/2025

The Sower

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1
We had to have our septic tank pumped a while back and haven't gotten around to installing risers and in thankful to the Lord we didn't.
How many of you are currently or have wondered what is my purpose? What does God want me to do for Him? Why am I here in this job, this state, born into this family? We have all wrestled with some type of this question because we lack trust during the growing process. The times where the Lord is gracious to show us why He allowed what He did, our response is usually something like this, "I should have just trusted knowing He was doing something higher than my ways and thoughts." Jesus is keeping His promise to us, "as living stones, being built up into a spiritual house." 1 Peter 2:5, one brick of faith at a time so that we may, "be confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6.
We had a pepper plant grow that I did not plant, I actually planted this variety two seasons ago, this seed travelled from the garden to the compost bin where it sat for four to six months. Then I dumped that compost back into this trough and this seed made its way down into the hole of our septic tank and settled into the little bit of soil that was there initially gets watered from the little bit of runoff, has the perfect amount of shade at the right time of day, perfect amount of direct sunlight, and protected from the wind. As it's grown overtime the water had eroded the soil creating more soil around the plant for its expanding roots because underneath it's just concrete, or a rock for its foundation! Only God can make something like this happen, perfect conditions in a crappy situation! But in all seriousness, He makes this happen for the sake of an object lesson to speak to our souls. Ezekiel 14:23 God says, "you shall know that I have done nothing without cause that I have done in it." Every single thing that has happened in your life, it has been allowed by the Lord for a purpose. We must learn to trust Him even in those extremely difficult situations where we are tempered to murmur or doubt against Him. But we must claim the promise in Romans 8:28, "and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
How many of you have seen a cactus growing in a gutter here in Arizona? Most of us have seen big healthy w**ds growing in asphalt or in the seam of a sidewalk. Every time you guys see an anomaly growing like this, this is your reminder from the Lord to remember 1 Corinthians 3:9, you "are God's fellow worker, you are God's field, you are God's building" planted exactly where He wants you so you can bear fruit where no one else can.
So brothers and sisters, trust your life fully, completely and unreserved into the hands that were pierced for you, despite what you see or don't see, for it is written, "we walk by faith, not by sight." Amen.

08/02/2025

Happy Sabbath friends! Hope y'all have a blessed day spending time with the Lord on His special day. ““If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the Lord honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.””
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭58‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

07/28/2025

GMO Fruit (God's Manufactured Organic Fruit)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23. "And God said, 'See I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of the earth, to you it shall be food.'" Genesis 1:29. This lesson is based on real fruit, not the GMO garbage that is seedless. God's word always has multiple lessons to it. We just have to peel the deeper layers back like an onion to find them. God giving us fruit with seed for food was also a spiritual lesson. In Luke 8:11 we learn, "the seed is the Word of God." A second witness is found in 1 Peter 1:23, "having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever."
In John 15:16 Jesus said, "you did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should bear fruit." In verse eight Jesus also said the Father is glorified when we bear much fruit and because of that we are His disciples. Jesus has given us the commission to bear fruit because when we share fruit God has grown in us. He is sharing His truth through His seeds with His fruit! When we are bearing fruit of love, peace or patience we, through Christ, are sowing seeds of love, peace or joy in someone's else's heart! Our actions will always be louder than words. 1 John 3:18 says, "My little children, let us not love in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth."
Which leads me to the next lesson, John 12:24 Jesus says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it produces much grain (or fruit)." If you were to leave fruit to die on the ground all those seeds would then germinate and produce new plants that bear fruit. Some fruit can have hundreds of seeds. When we die to ourselves and allow Jesus to bear fruits in us, seeds are being sown and souls will be won to Christ!
So whether God has made you a peach yielding only one seed or a pomegranate that yields the most of any fruit at an average of 1400 seeds, be faithful so you can hear our Lord say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord." Amen.

06/30/2025

“I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved."

The sunflower is today's topic in "Growing with God". Sunflowers are heliotropic, meaning a plant or organism that turns or grows toward the light. As young sunflowers grow they track the sun from east to west, which is exactly how we need to be walking daily - eyes fixed on the Son. As Jesus says in John 12:32, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself." We have all been bitten by the serpent in the wilderness in some way, and God gave us the simple remedy through Moses - look and live.
Now when I would go out to the garden in the morning, I was always amazed that the sunflowers were already facing east! This was shown to me to mean a few things: it was reorienting itself in anticipation of the sunrise, much like we are awaiting Christ's return and He tells us to "watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming". Second, the sunflowers go through a period of darkness, it's by faith the sun will be there in the morning. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen." Hebrews 11:1. We go through dark times as Christians but we have faith He will see us through it. Psalms 23 is a perfect example of that. Lastly, there was a study conducted with sunflowers. If you have a centered light source, after about 48 hours the sunflowers stop its tracking movement and no longer rotates from east to west. Which shows that the sunflowers create a habit as they grow toward the sun, much like we need to create a pattern of following the Son.
One last interesting nugget God built into the sunflower— when it reaches maturity its final resting position faces east! We know Christ is coming from the east. We could see this as when we mature or expire on this earth our hope and eyes will be fixed on Christ returning.
Romans 1:20 sums it all up beautifully, "For since the creation of this world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and divine nature, so that they are without excuse." Through droughts, storms, and darkness, like the design of the sunflower, keep your eyes fixed on the Son of God. Amen.

06/02/2025

Vacation Bible School!

06/02/2025

There is still time to register as a VOLUNTEER.

05/25/2025

We are continuing our lesson from the sap last month and onto the graft itself this time. We often associate pruning as a painful process in our walk with the Lord, a necessary one, but in order to be pruned we must first be grafted. First you take two similar branches, Christ and yourself, cut them and wedge them together so the two shall become one. Second, you take protective measures to achieve a successful union between the two. I wrap mine in parafilm tape which helps keep moisture or water locked in, we know water is symbolic of the Holy Spirit in scripture. Then I wrap it with electrical tape to ensure a tight connection, which God showed me this is us clinging to His word in order to have an intimate bond with Him. Lastly I wrap mine with foil to protect from any sun damage, this is where God initially protects us as babies in the faith from the adversary. Now for a while it appears nothing is happening, but inside a miracle is taking place, a transformation, the two becoming one. The new life emerges, buds begin to swell, green shoots spring up and then small branches begin to form in the first season. You rarely get fruit on a new graft in the first season. It takes time, with seasons and storms before fruit appears. When that second, third or tenth season rolls around and its time for that tree to bear fruit, beautiful fragrant flowers appear, then bees show up to pollinate. Now bees are symbolic of the Holy Spirit ministering in our life through bible study, church or our fellow brothers or sisters. Now bees can peacefully pollinate but what happens when you try to swat bees away? You might get stung! The same might happen when you swat away the truth being presented to you. I'm sure Peter got stung a little by Paul and David from the prophet Nathan when the truth was presented to him. But we need pollination in order to bear fruit! Fruit takes time to develop, it doesn't appear overnight after pollination, as nice as that would be, but there's no reward in that. Fruit is so much sweeter when you put your blood, sweat and tears into caring for it. As I was proof reading this Wednesday night, God showed me about birds that come and peck your fruit and destroy what would have been good fruit. This could be family or friends that come in and lead you to act or respond in a way contrary to Christ. That bird pecked fruit is ruined and is plucked off, cast aside and forgotten. When we take our eyes off Christ and fail to allow Him to bear fruit in us, we ask forgiveness, He forgives us and casts it off and "will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43:25). The beautiful truth here is there's still more fruit on the branch waiting to be shared with others so they may "taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8) So don't get distracted on the spoiled fruit, our sin, on the ground. The grafting to bearing fruit process takes a lot of time, so don't be discouraged if you feel you should be doing something you're not, or not at the same level as others. Even when a tree is full of fruit, every branch has fruit at different stages of development. We're all in this work together and the True Vine produces ripe fruit in His perfect time. John 15:5 says, "I am the vine you are the branches, he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing."
Even after all this time has passed the tree and branch still bear the scar, which is a reminder of what Jesus did for us in saving us from our old life of sin. That scar is our own personal testimony to Christ and His love. His life blood or sap (from last months lesson) flows through the scar (our testimony) and into the branch to bear fruit for His glory.
Now one last thought came to my mind to ask the Lord. Why do some grafts not take and how does this apply to a spiritual lesson? God showed me. He gives the exact same protection, guidance and care into every graft, "for there is no partiality with God." -Romans 2:11. It's simply come down to the graft, or that person, doesn't accept the invitation to become one. They never grow because there's no life in them and they could be sitting here in church or watching online right now. God gives a wake up call in John 15:6 where he says if you don't abide in him you will be cast out and burned, which sounds hopeless to those who are not abiding in Him. But the God we serve does not sow hopelessness. When we read in Romans 11:23 the Lord promises, "if you do not continue in unbelief, you will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again!"
I encourage you to fight the good fight and cling to Christ. Our redemption draws near! Amen.

Desert Cove Seventh-day Adventist Church

11/24/2025

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