KEEP GROWING

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.

John 15:5

My sisters and I were attending our Dad's funeral in California. In that time, we drove around a lot just viewing the sights. As I recall, my aunt, who was hosting us, stopped at someone's house. The nice thing about our visit to a friends home was that we girls just walked around the well-landscaped yard.

My aunt caught up with just as we approached a beautiful fruit tree. The grapefruit hanging on that tree was something none of the three of us had ever seen. You would just want to grab one of them off the tree and dig in.

Much to our surprise our aunt came up to us and asked how we like the lemon tree. LEMON TREE??? She had to be wrong. People don't see lemons that size no matter how classy a grocery store is. These pieces of fruit looked like grapefruit in every way...they just couldn't be lemons, but they were.

As it turned out, not only were they lemons but she pulled one off of the tree and just began peeling it. She handed each of a piece. It smelled like lemon and looked like lemon sections except they were huge. We knew what would result with taking a bite....puckered up faces. Nope...it was like biting into delightful lemonade, sweet and refreshing.

Because those lemons had been left to ripen and mature on the branches, those lemons flourished. Like with anything else though, when pulled from the source, a lemon's life, and growth stops and dying begins. Apart from it's source of sustenance, it would never grow to it's full potential.

What about our spiritual maturity? Have we taken advantage of our life source? A believer can be saved enough for Heaven, but what about now? If we don't keep a strong connection with our Father, we can become small and sour in our testimony before others. God wants us to stay fully connected to Him so we will grow and mature in Him beyond any of our expectations.

Father God, thank You for the privilege of having a close connection with You. Help me to want to grow and mature in You, not for my glory but for Your glory alone. Forgive me for the times I pull away from You...draw me back, keep me close. I love you..In Jesus precious name....Amen 

GREAT THINGS

The LORD has done great

things for us, and we

are glad.

Psalm 126:3

Recently, I read the above verse and for good reasons, and I felt very convicted by it's message. Thanksgiving has been THE time of year we are supposed to take time to count our own personal blessings. Supposedly, such blessing counting only includes just the previous year.

During the course of a year, we may feel a kind of gratitude off and on depending on the blessings that have come our way. The writer of this above Psalm is writing out of joy. At that time God had brought back captives back to Zion. That was really a big deal for those folks who had been away from their homeland for such a long time. Their response to returning was that of joy and singing in celebration of being free and in their land.

That was a really big event for those folks who had known captivity for such a long time. I'm sure God was thrilled with the adoration of the people. We can look through Scripture and read of God's goodness to people in so many ways.

We may know nothing of their circumstances and joy. They had known captivity for years. We may never know that kind of captivity but we've known our own captivity times. When in captivity, there always seems that there is no way out.  The above verse alone doesn't give us the sizes of our problems. It also doesn't address anything small.

Standing alone, a simple statement comes from the verse. In fact that statement is written two times in both second and third verse: “The Lord has done great things for (them) us.” We can't just think of God's goodness in terms of the past. He didn't just work for those captives but continues to do great things for us right now. I'm determined to be more aware of God's goodness in my life. I want to be more grateful for the great things He does in my life everyday while taking note of the numerous ways God shows Himself in what we would consider the smaller blessings of life.

Dear Father, You show us Your love for us in so many wonderful ways both in huge events and the every days of our lives. Thank You for loving and caring for us in so many ways that we sometimes overlook. In Jesus' precious name...Amen 

 

ALWAYS NEAR

Be strong and of good courage,

do not fear nor be afraid of them;

for the Lord your God, He is the

One who goes with you, He

will not leave you nor forsake you.

Deuteronomy 31:8

It's almost unimaginable what Joshua was facing. Moses was gone and Joshua found himself stepping into the sandals of Moses to lead God's people into the Promised Land. God gave him many words of help and encouragement that could have been hard to absorb in those moments. Most of those recorded words we now have in our Scriptures aren't quick for recall, but the above verse is one believers have hung onto for a very long time.Over the last several months, I have been and will continue to be one of those believers who clings to the promise of Gods ever and ongoing presence in my life. There are two key words in this verse to note....leave and forsake.

Leaving in most cases refers to a temporary absence. It indicates a person leaving will usually return at some time. We may leave for work, leave on vacation, leave for church or a military person coming home on leave. The word usually refers to a going and coming process but still indicates a time of being away.

Forsaking is a totally different word. Forsaking indicates a permanent leaving with no return in sight. Forsaking is often a quick exit from one's life, be it a job, family, friends and is usually done in the middle of great hurt, anger or severe offense. I've usually heard the word with respect to family members but can apply in other areas. Just about the only forsaking I have known as being a good thing is when a person forsakes sin and wrongdoing in their lives.

This precious verse is found twice in the Old Testament that I saw and it referred to Joshua. However, the verse is repeated in part in the book of Hebrews. In all three places, we believers are promised that God is going to be a constant presence in our lives every moment of our being . He is a party to our every tear, disappointment, time of joy, words of praise, physical pain and loneliness. It's another of God's I WILL statements we can claim all the way into Heaven.

Father, help me to relax in the knowledge that You are with me at every moment of everyday. I pray I won't ignore Your presence but will recognize Your being such a part of my life and that I'm never alone. In Jesus' precious name...Amen

WALK THE WALK

Therefore, we were buried with Him

through baptism into death, that

just as Christ was raised from the

dead by the gory of the Father, even

so we also should walk in newness

of life.

Romans 6:4

We all learned to walk at some point. For parents, our first steps where celebrated and the news of it spread to friends and family members. It's an activity we rarely give any thought to. In 1956, President Eisenhower began programs stressing physical fitness. Race-walking had become somewhat of a sport prior to that, but with this new emphasis on fitness, ordinary walking became a major means of exercise.

There is no doubt that ordinary walking can be a healthy thing for the human body. Lots of emphasis in our day is given to physical fitness, diets, etc. but for many people, physical fitness has almost become a religion. Walking gets us to where we want to go whether from one room to another in our houses, shopping at a mall or casually walking in one's neighborhood.

There is another kind of walking that may be more important than our casual walk in a park. The walking I'm talking about has to do with our walking WITH God in close relationship. Notice I stressed that word “with” because it's an important word. Recently I brought attention to that concept in a lesson I was teaching in Sunday school. It had convicted me in the sense that there are times I don't walk with God, I walk ahead or even in back of Him. His desire is to have us walking right with and along side of Him. There are times I get ahead of Him with my own plans or ideas. Other times I may be lagging, bringing very little to the relationship to really being with Him.

Our spiritual walk will take some effort on our parts. It takes drive and dedication but the Holy Spirit sweetly strengthens and encourages us in our walk. As God's children we are called to walk the walk and talk the talk lovingly with enthusiasm as we take each step with Him.

Father, I love You and want to be in consistent walking with You because You are the most important person in my life. In Jesus precious name...Amen