Yielding part 2

  As it is,  people talk alot about the Fruits of the Spirit. Many wonder why they aren't automatically endowed with them from the beginning. I know I often do! Think of the Spirit like a tree. And the Fruit..well like fruit!  Like a tree, you cannot force it to bear fruit. It must grow, Which we all know takes a lot of work. The Gardener must break the soil* up, fertilize, and keep other **plants that would choke the tree out in infancy. 

Only someone who knows the soil can truly cause Life to spring up from it. Christ is the Gardener.
The Fruits are what show up after the Spirit has established roots. It may take years to be fruitful. The **hands are those people  who the Gardener placed in our lives to help nurture the plant till maturity.


I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.


-1 Corinthians 3: 6-9






So take heart my friends! 




And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.


 -Philippians 11:6 NLT










 ^{** Parents, brothers and sisters in Christ, and sometimes those who inspire us}
** Remnants of the "old man"
*your heart

Cheese and Crackers

 This story is a repeat from my Teen challenge group by the lead Facilitator:

 Once there was an old man, who wanted to go on a cruise before he died. So, he spent 4 years saving up and afterward bought his ticket. Since this man had very little money  he could not afford to buy the fancy dinners on the cruise, so he packed his suitcase full of cheese and crackers. During the cruise, while everyone else sat inside eating luxurious dinners of steak, seafood,and many other delicacies..the old man ate his cheese and crackers. 


On the last night of the cruise, as the old man sat eating his crackers..a man walked out to see him from the dining room. 


The man asked the old man why he would not come eat with the everyone else. He exclaimed "I haven't enough money"


The man then said "The meal was a part of the ticket price..you were supposed to eat with everyone"












How often do we just sit outside being settled with eating our "cheese and crackers" instead of entering into the fullness of Christ? He paid our ransom from sin and we are okay with just floating along. 


Instead let us seek his fullness no matter what it may cost.

Our lives? 


HE IS NO FOOL THAT GIVES WHAT HE CANNOT KEEP TO GAIN WHAT HE CANNOT LOSE
-Jim Elliot 




Our reputation?




He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.


ISAIAH 53:3 








Family?


If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.


Luke 14:26






When we follow Him and enter into His fullness, he adds to us: His Life, His reputation, and His family which are all eternal. 


Lets not be satified with even the place we are now with God, but go FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN!

A great poem from Union And Communion or Thoughts on the Song of Solomon by Hudson Taylor

The living Vine, Christ chose it for Himself
— God gave to man for use and sustenance
Corn, wine, and oil, and each of these is good:
And Christ is Bread of life and Light of life.
But yet, He did not choose the summer corn,
 That shoots up straight and free in one quick growth.
 And has its day, is done, and springs no more;
 Nor yet the olive, all whose boughs are spread In the soft air,
and never lose a leaf,
 Flowering and fruitful in perpetual peace;

But only this, for Him and His is one,—
 That everlasting, ever-quickening Vine,
 That gives the heat and passion of the world,
 Through its own life-blood, still renewed and shed.
 * * * * * *
 The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine;
Is it the poorer for that spirit shed?
The drunkard and the wanton drink thereof;
 Are they the richer for that gift's excess?
Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;
 Not by the wine drunk,
 but the wine poured forth;
 For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice
; And whoso suffers most, hath most to give.

Taylor, James Hudson (2006). Union And Communion or Thoughts on the Song of Solomon (p. 65). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Finding God: Part 1

  "All things in His hands"

This past week I took a trip down with my family to Destin, Florida to spend some time on the beach. But got more than I bargained for...well sorta.

I learned this week that God really is everywhere. Not only is he in the faces of fellow brothers and sisters (and all created things) but he is in all that goes on.

 "Good" and "bad."

I don't mean that he is evil, but only that we could possibly be mistaken on what is "bad."

God promised in scriptures that he would care for us.


Almost every Christian can quote  (or at least knows) the following:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11


Have you ever meditated on this verse?  Many know this verse is true. Others just quote it. 

How about this one?

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Luke 11:11


This past week..or more likely this past month. I've been thinking about this thought. 


We ask God to make us like his son, to cleanse us from sin, and  to enter our lives. Do we really know the cost though?  


To me it has meant leaving the things I see as "right" or "wrong" behind. I don't mean those things I know God called me  out of..like sins.  Only that  I start realizing that he placed me in the place He saw as the best to change who I am. 


Many non-believers ask when things like 9-11, Katrina, and Columbine happen: If God is so loving, why does he allow these things to happen? 


God knows what to do. He does not have to explain himself to anyone.


It is for HIS glory that the whole earth shakes. I believe the verse that He does have plans for us. 


I believe maybe one day we may get to see it. When we do we can marvel at the glory of the Creator who holds the whole world in His Mighty hands.

His alone

"Whom I have in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My heart and flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
-Psalm 73: 25-26




Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name.   
-Revelation 3:12


These are two incredible verses. 


First of all. The first verse shows absolute love for God. It represents absolute dependency on Him alone. He is our daily bread, our life-blood, and our only desire. It doesn't matter that we may be a mess, our lives are going the way we think they should go, or even that we look non-spiritual. Because our lives cease to be about us. We, like a bride, become his. 


Which leads me on to the next excellent verse. 


"Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out."


Isn't that an incredible thought? 


Never to leave the presence of the Most High? 


To be a part of His work?  


A pillar upholds a building...fairly simple. It does not move, do it's own thing but stays forever in place until the end. 


Can you imagine that? 


Not to live "Your own" life


but to be FOREVER in His presence?


"And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name."


Normally, when a bride gets married, she takes on her husband's name. She is no longer who she was. She has no rights apart from her husband...she is his.


On the other side... She gains him. Everything that he  is hers. 
They belong to each other.   




It is fairly similar to what Christ calls his bride to be. 




We cease to look like ourselves, lose who we were, and are joined to Him. We are then changed by him until we are a reflection of him. We no longer move on our own, go anywhere he doesn't, and He is our delight. 






These are my thoughts on two verses. 
I hope these thoughts have encouraged you, that you realize how much it costs to be with Him, and that you are ready to be His alone.

Francis Chan's thoughts/ New Book!

This is worth a look at. I watched it yesterday via a friend and thought it was VERY relevant to what is going on in discussions these days.

The Awesomeness of our Creator.

Psalms 19:1-4: For the choir director: A psalm of David. The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.( NLT)

These verses are so incredible. How true they speak of our Father's work. To the conscious mind, we may sometimes think,  "Oh thats a neat sun-set" or "Wow that storm sure made things green,"  but when do we really stop to awe at God's creation?

Here's two awesome videos from Francis Chan  to better explain my point.

http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_awe.html

http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_stop.html

Recently I've been really struggling to grasp a relationship with God. 

   What should I expect? How does it happen? Why did He choose me?

 I don't have answers for these questions yet, because I'm new, but I thought they would help inspire a radical change in mindset. The one thing I can say about becoming intimate with Christ is: It is not easy.  The closer you get, the more you are exposed. Like Adam and Eve in the garden, you become naked in front of  the throne of God. It is an embarrassing time. All your faults, even the ones you believed had disappeared, come  to the light. Most of the time, the light that reveals you is the actions of a friend. Someone can be short with you, treat you unfairly, or defile your justice. Then it is all over. What you didn't realize is that the closer the m Father drew to you the more obliterated the very shadows that your faults hide in disappear. Like I said, embarrassing. No matter what you have done or how sincere you were at the time you realize the truth: 

I AM EVIL.

For some people (LOL...like me), we have hidden for so long, that when we are revealed, we shun from the light. We think we are too far gone for God to want to deal with us, so we feel we were better not  knowing how we are. Our only remedy is to look at his face and cling to him. Instead of pushing away in the  pain of the moment, draw closer to Him. But don't worry if you haven't experienced the brightness yet, God  reveals more the closer we get to becoming his Beloved. He allows certain intensities of light in our life at a time, sometimes just more than what seems bearable.

Missing Him

"I slept, but my heart was awake,

when I heard my lover knocking and calling:

“Open to me, my treasure, my darling,

my dove, my perfect one.

My head is drenched with dew,

my hair with the dampness of the night.”

But I responded,

“I have taken off my robe.

Should I get dressed again?

I have washed my feet.

Should I get them soiled?”

My lover tried to unlatch the door,

and my heart thrilled within me.

I jumped up to open the door for my love,

and my hands dripped with perfume.

My fingers dripped with lovely myrrh

as I pulled back the bolt.

I opened to my lover,

but he was gone!

My heart sank.

I searched for him

but could not find him anywhere.

I called to him,

but there was no reply."     - Song of Solomon 5:2-6

For each disciple, the journey often takes different routes, but for anyone who seeks to fall in love with Christ, in the intimate way, we find that often, when he calls,we have something we want to do and we reply "I have taken off my robe.Should I get dressed again? I have washed my feet. Should I get them soiled?” Just like the woman in the story, we give excuses why we cannot answer the call. When we hear him trying to enter our heart, as we try to let him in, he seems to disappear. We are left with the feeling that we were abandoned. Like Christ on the cross, we ask "My God why have you forsaken me?" This experience draws us closer to the  lover of our soul. It also teaches us to answer him quicker. Christ is multi-dimensional. When we think we know why he allows something to happen to us, and even if we see a small benefit a little later down the road, he uses the experience for many other reasons. The thought that comes to mind, is that the will of God is like a diamond, when you look at one side,you don't see the entire gem; you must turn it around in your hand and look at each facet. That is the way God shows us the effects of how our obedience, suffering, and self-denying actions effect others and even our own life.  He wants to be near us, and longs to make us just like him. Such love he has for us!