Let's Bear Fruit!

Terry and I started gardening a couple of months ago and we are loving it.  Of course, being so new to the gardening world, we have worried over every plant about one thing or another.  In particular, we have 5 tomato plants and although they were blooming quite a bit, we weren't having any luck getting the flowers set fruit.  We were discussing it one afternoon while sitting on the patio and Terry walked over to one of our cherry tomatoes and said, "I wonder how many times God looks at us and says...  He/She has so many blooms (so much potential to bear fruit) and they just don't do anything with it.  The blooms just never set fruit".  We kind of laughed it off, but it has really stuck with me.  Our church was just going through a message series at the time about that very subject and we realized just how much we were not doing for His glory.  We think about the following scripture and what it means pretty often, as well as what Terry had said about our cherry tomatoes, and it really gives us a different outlook on life.  I think most Christians that believe they are being fruitful, really aren't quite as fruitful as we should be.  I believe that most, if not all, of us are guilty of passing up opportunities to be fruitful because there is something we would rather do.  Check out this scripture:

John 15:4-7 (New King James Version)

⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
⁵ “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. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

I'll try to break it down the best I can and in the way I believe it to mean.  Abide means to be vitally attached to something.  Not just cling to it, but be vitally attached.  We must truly believe that we can do nothing without Jesus and we must go to Him for everything.  We have to NEED Him for everything.  So, we need to be vitally attached to Jesus and in turn He will live in us and be attached to us.  We will then be able to bear fruit for the glory of God because it will be Him helping us to bear the fruit.  He will be supplying us with His word (nourishment), which we will use to bear fruit.  Without His word (nourishment), the branches (us) will die.  Think of a vine like the scriptures says.  God is not being cryptic here, He is giving us a picture since most humans are very visual people. If the branch cracks from the vine just a little bit, that branch will wither and die.  A dying branch will not bear any fruit.  It may try to, but the fruit will be puny, diseased, or just very weak.  It will not be for the Glory of God.  Eventually, it will die.  After it dies, it will be torn from the vine and cast into the fire to burn.  That doesn't sound fun at all.  I want to abide in Jesus and have Him abide in me so I can be fruitful for His glory.  Jesus then goes on to say that if we are vitally attached to Him, His words will permanently live in us and we will be given what we desire.  Hmmm...  Sounds pretty good!  Now we get to the tricky part.  I don't think it means that we will be given a mansion or a million dollars,.  That first part of the sentence clarifies that His Words will abide in us.  That means, we will only ask for things that are within the will of God which is awesome!  That will then allow us to be even more fruitful for Him!  Check out this scripture:

John 15:1-3 (New King James Version)

¹ “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;^[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 

Ok, so God is the vinedresser, Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.  This means that God (acting as the gardener) will cut off the branches from the vine that are not bearing fruit.  Does this mean that we can lose our salvation?  I don't think it means that.  I think it means that although some of us profess Jesus as our King with our mouths, we don't fully believe it in our hearts.  Therefore, we have not been truly saved in the first place.  I think this is where we get cut off of the vine and eventually will be cast into the fire.  We need to take the leap of faith with our hearts and fully abide in Jesus to be saved before it's too late.  If we are a true Christian and abide in Jesus, God will prune us so we become more fruitful.  Picture this: we are a branch and each branch has stems.  Some stems are fruitful and some are not.  A gardener would cut off the unfruitful stems so that the branch may bear more fruitful stems in it's place.  The pruning process for a plant is painful and can stress a plant, the same as with humans.  When God prunes us, it may be painful at first, but it will allow us to bear more fruit for Him.  God will prune away parts of us that prove to be unproductive for His kingdom.  That could be a job that is taking over too much of you and not leaving time for Him, or it could be something smaller like a video game.  It could also be your health because you are not allowing time for God.  At first, the loss will hurt and we will want to question, but God knows all.  He sees the whole picture.  We only see what's right in front of us.  We should trust God's judgement and have faith that He knows best.  We will be better in the end for it.  I do want to clarify also that I don't think God actually does bad things to us to prune us, but I do think He allows bad things to happen to us sometimes so He can  turn it around for His good and our good. 

Terry and I have a teenage daughter and we were talking to her the other night about bearing good fruit for God's glory.  We told her that any time she has the opportunity to smile, be nice, or help someone out; she is being fruitful, however we may never see that fruit grow.  We never know how far that smile or kind words will go.  What if someone was having a terrible day and that smile came at just the right time.  Instead of going home that night, they decided to attend a function of some sort that they were going to skip because they were having such a bad day.  At that function, maybe they meet another Christian that gives them another smile, holds a door for them, or even says the right thing at the right time.  The person having the bad day and the Christian could possibly strike up a conversation which leads to an invite to the Christian's church or to a church function later that week.  When they attend the service or the function, they accept Christ as their savior or even if they were saved a year later.  Through the simple action of giving someone a smile or a kind word, maybe a soul can be saved.  All it takes is a quality seed to be planted.  That seed could turn to a seedling, a plant, then produce flowers and then set fruit.  We can only plant those quality seeds that will bear fruit with Jesus though.  Only Jesus can save, but we sure can plant some good seeds with His help.  While Satan is busy planting seeds of deceit, we could combat him by planting seeds of love. 

LD

The Road Less Traveled

My job requires me to spend a  lot of time building strategy around how my company interacts with our customers. I think it's a really cool job and I love being able to connect the strengths and weaknesses of our customers to the solutions that my company can provide.  I can spend hours studying a customers profile to get a good sense of who they are and how we can help them.  This blog is not about my job, but as I carry out my day planning strategy around my interaction with customers I start to think how strategical Satan is to pull us away from God and, for believers, get us stuck in the wilderness.

One thing Satan has on his side is time.  He spends his days studying our weaknesses and planting seeds in our lives that will cause destruction.  Satan's goal is not that we worship him, but that we disregard and/or even despise God.  For non-believers he wants to keep you from seeing the light and for believers he wants us to keep our light hidden.  Again, it is all around strategy and I believe there are three ways that he tries to accomplish this plan.

• Distractions - The very first commandment that God gave us was that we should have no other God's before him (Ex 20:3).  Jesus goes on to say "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt 7:24).  What this comes down to is God comes first!  We live in a world today that is full of distractions.  Be it T.V., video games, sports, finances, entertainment, school, work, etc...there are plenty of things that can occupy our day and turn our focus from God.  We need to be careful that we are not putting something in front of God in our lives!  Satan uses distractions for this purpose!  He wants for us to get so caught up in the world that we ignore God.  In the parable about the soils, Jesus talks about the seed that fell amongst the thorns and the thorns sprang up and choked them out (Matt 13:7).  Jesus goes on to say that those "who receive amongst the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful" (Matt 13:22).  Satan uses distractions to try and choke God out of our lives, we need to make sure he is not successful!

• Discouragement -Another strategy that Satan uses to pull us away is that of discouragement.  He leverages any shortcoming or weakness to try and convince us that we are not good enough.  Whether that be a sin that we have committed and him trying to convince us that God will not forgive, or it may be God has a calling in your life and Satan is telling you that you don't have the skills to do what God is telling you to do.  Either situation is destructive.  Our God is merciful and is willing to forgive, all we need to do is ask and change our ways.  Satan also uses the strategy of discouragement to give us low self-esteem.  By having low self-esteem it really hinders fully living the life and the calling that God has for us.  Satan uses this to convince us that we don't have what it takes to be special.  Don't let Satan convince you of this!  God made you the way you are and it is an insult to his creation to say you are not good enough!  You do want to be careful that a high self-esteem does not turn into pride, but God wants us to believe in him, not in ourselves, and do so with humility.  It is through God that we can do the impossible, not through our own doing.  Don't let Satan convince you otherwise!

• Deception - That leads me to the third strategy that Satan uses to pull us from God and that is through deception.  Satan is the father of lies and will fill our heads full of them to pull us away from the light.  He knows our weaknesses and will test them continuously by building strongholds in our thought processes.  I am sure we have all had thoughts going through our mind that "if so and so loved me then..." and fill in the blank.  Satan wants to make us think there is a different reality than what we are living in and he does this through temptation.  The very first example was with Adam and Eve where Satan deceived Eve to eat the apple and then Adam followed quickly after.  Every time we sin it is because we have allowed Satan to deceive us.  He knows our weaknesses because he studies our every move.  If you have an issue with pride, he will find a way to rub your ego. If you have an issue with lust, he will find a way to put you in sinful situations. If you have an issue with money, he will feed off of that.  The list goes on and on.  What is important for us is to know what our weaknesses are and to be on-guard for when Satan tries to attack.  A lot of this comes down to controlling our thought process or as Joyce Meyer's would say "thinking about what we are thinking about".  By leaning on God,  understanding our weaknesses, and controlling our thoughts we can fend off Satan!

As I sit back and plan my strategy for my upcoming appointment, I know I will have a backup plan if things do not go as planned and I also know that I will need to be patient to make sure we strike at the appropriate time that will give us the best opportunity to close the deal.  Satan will do the same with us!  He will have a backup plan and he will be patient, waiting for the right opportunity to send us down one of the many trails that leads into the wilderness.  We need to be on guard, focus on God, and stay on the straight and narrow road that leads us to salvation!

TD

Sunday Christians...

I think every Christian battles with the problem of living the life of Sunday Christians.  Monday through Saturday, we act as the rest of the world does; but when Sunday rolls around, we act as we should (or at least while we are in church).  God says we should never live as the rest of the world does.  You can check out the scripture here: 

Romans 12:2 ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  

Living as the rest of the world does is literally killing us.  It is causing us to not be able to grow in our faith and we end up spending a life time walking in circles in the wilderness.  Satan LOVES this and I don't know about you, but I want to keep Satan under my foot and not let him own my soul.

I have a few different things I have been doing lately that have helped me become more fruitful for His glory.  Maybe it can help you as well: 

• When I wake up in the morning, I have been praying immediately.  Before my feet even hit the floor, my eyes are on God.  I thank Him for everything and then ask that He help me be fruitful that day.   
• I make it my daily purpose to find at least one thing I can do to help someone.  Even if it is something small like holding a door or picking up something someone dropped.  If I have more opportunities than one, I keep helping any chance I can get.
• When I get frustrated or agitated about something, I immediately tell myself (out loud sometimes) that God loves me and that's all that matters.  I watch a lot of Joyce Meyer and that is one of her tips that I have really found useful.  It calms my nerves almost immediately.  The next step is to look at the other person and know that God loves them too and I wouldn't want to be obnoxious to someone that God loves (which, consequently is everyone). 
• Last, but certainly not least...  I read His word.  I don't read as much as I should, however I do pull out the Bible several times a week and read.  If my Bible is not handy, I use Biblegateway.com.  They have so many different versions of the Bible so you can check out the different texts of certain scriptures which is really helpful.  This scripture describes God's word better than I would be able to in my own words. 

Hebrews 4:12 ¹² For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

 

I think most, if not all of us get into ruts and start living the life of a wordly person at one time or another, but the worse thing we can do for ourselves and everyone else is to ignore the Holy Spirit and continue walking in circles.  God is always there for us.  He never leaves us or forsakes us.  If we get off the path God has for us, we need to make sure we repent and get back on His path quickly.  He will renew our souls and guide us.  He is amazing!  Check out this scripture:

Psalm 23:3 ³ he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.

I am a music buff and Casting Crowns has a couple of songs that I listen to when I feel like I am getting into a rut.  I will add them to the music player so you can check them out if you would like to.  The Altar and the Door is one of them.  This song is about Sunday Christians and is a motivator for me.  The other song is Somewhere in the Middle.  It talks about how we are stuck in the middle of good and bad, light and dark, etc.  I don't want to be in the middle.  I want to be fruitful for the Lord. 

Thank you Lord for being so amazing and forgiving us for our sins!  We praise you for being such a loving God! 

LD

Finding Our Way

I have spent a great portion of my adult life wandering in the wilderness of my spiritual journey with God.  Unfortunately on this road, there can be a lot of heartache and pain associated with being off-course from God's will.  While the intent is to never get into the wilderness to begin with, once you're there it can be difficult to find your way out.  Before I go any further, let me explain what I mean by being lost in the wilderness.

I believe there are many correlations between our spiritual journey and the Jewish Exodus out of Egypt.  From the Jews being slaves to the Egyptians as we were slaves to sin, to their deliverance and the long journey to the Holy Land representing our deliverance and walk with Christ, there are many similarities that we can draw from to help us through our own journey.  I will save the details of these similarities for a later blog, however one area that I believe is important to touch on is the time the Jews spent in the wilderness.  As God was leading the Jews to the Holy Land, the children of Israel spent a significant amount of time in the wilderness between Egypt and the Holy Land.  Forty years to be exact, when the journey only should have taken 11 days!  There are many reasons for this and I encourage you to read Exodus and Numbers for the full story, but at the end of the day the children of Israel were not spiritually prepared to take the next step in their journey.  Israel had a lot of growing up to do before God would take them into the promised land.  This is very similar to our walk with Christ.  God has a very distinct plan for each of us, however we can't take the next step in our journey until we are spiritually ready.

The question is how do we become spiritually ready?  I believe there are several steps we can take to help ensure we are on the right path:

• Studying the Word of God - this is our biggest weapon when facing the evil one.  God's word can penetrate through any trial, tribulation, or temptation that we encounter.  Paul called it the Sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17) for this reason.  We need a daily dose of God's word to fight off Satan and his demons.
• Prayer - Nothing can draw us closer to God than prayer.  Open your heart to God and let him speak to you.  Give God your burden and listen for his guidance.  I think too many times we get into a prayer and we are too busy asking that we don't take the time to listen and truly understand what God is telling us. 
• Praise - Give God the glory for all that he is, all that he's done, and all that he will do.
• Church - I used to believe that church was for people that did not have a good foundation in their faith (more of a support group to keep each other honest).  I have since drastically changed my view and think the church is needed more than ever!  Fellowship is a key component, but being involved in church is crucial.  Don't just show up on Sunday's to feel good about yourself. Get your hands dirty and get involved in a study group, ministry, volunteer work, etc...That's where the power of the church lies is when you get out in the community!   

As for myself, I have spent the last 10 years wandering in the wilderness and don't intend on spending anymore time there.  Hopefully this blog will help someone in their own spiritual journey.

TD