Lessons from a Rose Bush

I am not a gardener.  I am not going to even pretend that I have a green thumb.  I don't.  My husband, however, has two.  So the fact that I was messing with our rose bush today is huge.  But I wanted to.  Actually, I have wanted to work on them since spring arrived.  I knew that my rose bush, and it is technically mine as it was a gift to me, needed some attention.  The dead branches and leftover remains of once beautiful roses were now brown and overpowering my bush as new life was ready to spring forth.  But those dead things were hindering it to be the best that it could be.  Sure, it was evident that the bush could still be a rose bush and there would be blooms soon since there were new green leaves.  But all that brown.  The dead leftovers.  It was not helping it to be all that it was created to be.

Maybe you can see where I am going with this.  God likes to speak to me through analogies.  A lot.  Kind of like parables - He helps me understand and receive what He wants me to by giving me an illustration so that I can listen, learn, change and grow.  He spoke to me today and here are just a few truths He taught me.

- Recognize Pruning Is Required - 

As believers we need to examine ourselves.  We need to allow God to examine us.  For our good and His glory.  When we see an area of our life that isn't glorifying to Him we shouldn't ignore it.  We should address it.  We should seek the Gardener and ask Him to prune us.

"Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life."  Psalm 139:23-24 MSG

- Pruning Hurts -

Being pruned is not fun.  It's just not.  Who wants to sign up for that?  But we must if we want to be fruitful.  If we want to be our best for Him, the dead, non-fruit or flower producing parts have to go.  It hurts.  It takes work.  Vulnerability.  Humility.  But the Gardener - He is full of grace, He is gentle and does it so very carefully.  He will meticulously cut off the branches that are dead... because He LOVES you!

You know, I was poked by a thorn while I was trimming away today.  It went straight through my leather glove.  It hurt me.  When we are being pruned we sometimes end up hurting our Gardener.  Did you ever think of that?  I hadn't.  When we recognize that we've hurt Him and ask for forgiveness He forgives us.  He keeps working on us.  He loves us too much to let us stay that way.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." John 15:1-2

- Trust the Gardener -

Trust Him.  He knows what He is doing - He is our creator, our maker.  He knew what you were to be before you came to be.  He wants you to be your best.  You are beautiful and He wants to keep you that way.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."  Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT

"In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life."  James 1:21b MSG

I pray that you will reflect with me on what we need to allow God to prune out of our lives.  May you experience His amazing grace and powerful work in your life in a new way today. 

Not Perfection... DIRECTION!

Which direction are you going?  Are you going there on purpose?  Take a step back this morning and look in front of you.  Do you see the path before you?  Did you decide on that path?  Or did you seek God first and did He guide you there for His purpose?  What is standing in your way?  Is there an obstacle you are about face?  Or maybe you've just faced one.  Are you still moving, or did you stop and take a break?  Are you frustrated with your path? Is it not perfect?  Does someone else’s look nicer?  No curves or rough spots?

I want to encourage you this morning!  God uses all of our paths for His purposes – the smooth ones, the rocky ones, the ones that trip us up, the ones that have steep hills and low valleys.  He uses them all.  

If you are not seeking the Lord, SEEK HIM!  He has the best most wonderful path for you to ever be on – for this life and for all of eternity!  In life there will be hard times, rough times, confusing times – but there are also times of great joy and blessing!  If we are to go through this life, wouldn’t you rather it all be for something?  Wouldn't you want someone to be with you through all of it?  I know I would.  I want my life to have purpose, not just for today, but for eternity!    

If you are on His path that He has placed before you – MOVE!  Keep going forward, don’t stand still and don’t take a break.  Sure, you may need to take a stroll rather than run a sprint at the moment, but the point is to keep going forward.  We have never “arrived” in this life, so if you think you have, you are wrong…. get going, there is more work yet to be done, more life to enjoy, more blessings ahead of you!

Enjoy the path you are on.  If you are following Christ and you know He has placed you there, there is an eternal purpose for it.  He is right there with you.  Enjoy His presence; BE in His presence!

We are to watch how we live, and walk faithfully before God with all of our heart and soul.  Are you doing this?  Are you observing how you are living?  Are you walking faithfully before Him?  Are you walking with all of your heart and soul? 

No path any of us are on is going to be perfect.  I pray you are blessed today as you take your eyes off yourself and look outward to what He has in store for you.  We may not know what is before us, but if we have chosen His path, we know that everything will be just fine.  Why?  Because we’re with Him, and there is no other place I’d rather be!  How about you? 

Be blessed as you grow!

Inside or Outside?

Tonight my oldest son wanted to read from a new Bible we recently got - The Action Bible God's Redemptive Story, Illustrations by Sergio Cariello.  I think it is going to be a great version for our boys to grow up with - it is written and illustrated like a comic book.  Anyway, we've just started reading through it and tonight I read to him about Noah. 

Noah - a story we all know.  Even non-Christians are familiar with the story.  Tonight, through text and images portrayed in a portion of the story, God shed new light on it for me.  In a light that we can relate to today.

The image is of the ark ready to go.  Finished, prepared for the rain and the storms.  Noah and all of his family are inside, yet the door was not yet closed.  Some of the people were continuing to bash Noah for his ideas and craziness, when one man says "Either he's crazy, or he knows something we don't."  There is more dialog, more images and then the rains start.  The storms start.  Some people wonder if Noah was right.  Some are still discrediting his words, even though it is raining like it never has before.  Time passes, storms come and then all of a sudden, "Look!  The door of Noah's ark is closing."  "But who is shutting it?  Could it be Noah's God?"  And then it goes on to say, "But it is too late.  The people who have spent their lives rejecting God now see that God has finally rejected them.  And the rains pour steadily for 40 days and 40 nights." 

There are a few things you need to hear from this story of Noah that are so very relevant for today.  First of all, the door is not yet closed!  This is great news! Second of all, I am not going to hold back information from you that you may not know - I want to share.  God wants to share too - He has this book, a great book!  It is a letter just for you it is called the Bible, you may have heard of it - get one and READ it.  He will speak to you, teach you and grow you through it.  And third, I am not crazy - and neither are the others that believe in and are saved by Jesus Christ. 

Noah was described as a righteous man, faithful and true to God.  Are you living a righteous life before God?  You may ask, how do you live a righteous life?  The answer, you have Jesus living in you.  You believe in Him and what He did for you on the cross.  You ask for forgiveness and repent of your sin and live a new life, a new way for Him through the power of His Holy Spirit living in you.  When you do this He clothes you in His righteousness before God.  That is the only way to live a righteous life - His work, not ours.   This is so important, please understand this:  it is all about what He has done, not what we could do.

Ok, so I know that statement above was brief and if you want more information about how to become right with God please ask me!  But what I want to get here is that there is an urgency.  Things are happening in this world that do not make sense.  Things that are going so very wrong.  Sin lurking on every corner in every imaginable venue, terrorist acts, natural disasters, craziness in politics, sickness, death, evil just everywhere.  Much like the days of Noah.  But in today's world and timeline I have two words for you; birth pains.  (Mark 13)   

There is going to be a day when God is going to close that door once again.  Are you on the inside, right with Him?  Or you on the outside, without Him?  It has started to rain again, I see the rain clouds, the drops are beginning to fall.  There is are two options.  Are you going to stay dry?  Or are you going to choose to get wet?

Oh I pray that you are on the inside.  I pray that you are right with Him!  He wants you to be - that is why He made a way.  I am sure that He has offered you time and time and time again His grace and forgiveness.  If you haven't accepted it yet, or if you have veered away from Him, won't you come to Him today? 

Time is ticking.  There is a fact that each person on earth can agree on:  each day that comes is one day closer to the end.  Whether it be the end of your life - your last heartbeat.  Or the end of these days as we know them.  I can throw out words like rapture or tribulation, but the bottom line is that in the end you will want to be with Jesus.  Your God, your creator, your maker, the lover of your heart and soul.  You will want to be with Him.  There is only one way to do that.  Won't you do that today?  Live for Him, knowing His blessing and His abundant grace the rest of your days here on earth and knowing that you will continue that and so very much more with Him for all of eternity. 

Inside or outside.  Your choice.  I pray you make the right one.  Now is the time, come on inside! 

In ALL Things Honor Him

"Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims.  You know the old saying, 'First you eat to live, and then you live to eat'? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that's no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!"     1 Corninthans 6:12-13 MSG

Time To Deal With It

So here I am this morning, ready, really ready, to get rid of some sin in my life that I have been dealing with for a very long time.  Sin that I have been allowing to be there, allowing to be hidden, or pushed under the rug to deal with later, but no more – I am going to deal with this now.  The sin…. gluttony.  Yep, eating… over eating... yes, unfortunately even obsessed at times.  I don't want to be consumed by this any longer.  This is something many believers struggle with and no one ever addresses it.  Well, today I am – I am ready to get rid of this entanglement and enjoy being one step closer to Him.   I can’t do this on my own, He is going to have to be my strength – good thing He promises that He is just that for me!  I am calling on Him to help me with this.  I don’t want to be skinny or some supermodel… I just want to be healthy; I want to have energy for my husband and for my boys.  I want to be strengthened to do the things He has planned for me to do – and I want to do them well for Him!  So, here we go, another chapter to my life about to begin…. One that isn’t going to be easy, but it is going to be worth it in the end.  Don’t get me wrong… this is no diet or exercise plan.  This is going to be a change of my way of life for His glory!

Fall In Love With Jesus All Over Again…. He is waiting for you!

There are so many reasons why we fall away from Jesus these days:  ignorance, laziness, distractions, foolishness, stubbornness or even being hurt by others, unfortunately even by those inside the church.   If you have fallen away from Him, my prayer is that you will find Him again.  He is waiting for you with open arms.

HE loves you.  Let me tell you again, He LOVES you!  One more time, He loves YOU!  He does.  His Word says that He does, and His Word is so very true.  I have been delving more into the Bible this year so far and it has been amazing.  The way that my day all connects together from what I am reading is amazing – there is wholeness to daily life.  He is growing me in knowledge of Him and His truths and is filling me with His wisdom.

Do you read your Bible?  Do you have a Bible?  If so are you in it every day?  Do you understand it?  If not get a version that you do understand what it is saying.  I would encourage you if you have a problem with understanding the meaning of a certain scripture pray about it.  Pray that He will reveal its truth to you and what He is trying to teach you.  Have a copy of The Message on hand – it is helpful in putting scripture into our everyday language.

Need a place to start?  I would encourage you to begin in the New Testament.  My husband and I have begun this year by reading the New Testament following a 90 day reading plan I picked up somewhere – it has been so good pouring His truths into our lives in a fresh new way.  If you want to dive into Jesus, read the book of John and then go from there.

The bottom line: be in His word.  As Christians we shouldn’t just claim it as our faith – we are to LIVE it.  How are we to do that when we aren’t IN Him?  We are in Him when we are hearing from Him – from His Word.  We are in Him when we commune with Jesus in prayer.  Talk to Him, He wants to hear from you.  Listen to Him, He has something to say to you…. specifically to you – He loves you.  Won’t you fall in love with Him again this year?  He is waiting.  What will you do? 

The Gardener's Tomatoes

Observations from our tomatoes:

The Gardener handpicked each one.

They are all different sizes.  Some are bigger, some are smaller – but no need to compare, they are all tomatoes all picked for a purpose – for the pleasure of the Gardener.  They were picked to be enjoyed by the Gardener. 

Some may not like tomatoes, but the Gardener does.

They are all different colors.  They are all different sizes.  They are all at different stages of ripening.

Some have been in the Son longer and have become sweeter with time.

Some have just been picked and are still green, but the point is that they were picked and   if they remain in the Son they too in time will become red and sweet.

Some are not in the Light as much as the others – it will take longer for them to change.  The Gardener might move them and position them so they may better receive the Light.

The Gardener desires for each one to become perfectly red and sweet so they may fulfill His purpose for them. 

The Gardener LOVES His tomatoes… each and every one of them.