A Fruitful Life   

We ought to be living as if Jesus died yesterday, rose this morning, and is coming back this afternoon. Adrian Rogers

I love watching the show “How Things are Made.”  I watched one this weekend about almonds.  I had never really thought about the process of making almonds.  Maybe because they grow on trees it never occurred to me that there might be a complicated process to it. The almond is really a drupe not a nut, similar to a plum or peach.  The almond seed is what we eat.

The largest almond producing state is California.  I don’t remember the exact statistics but there are over a million acres of almonds in California and this is a billion dollar industry.    

God never ceases to amaze me.  For instance, I didn’t know that it takes two different types of almond trees to produce almonds.  They plant one type on one row and the other type directly across from it in another row.  The problem is there are not enough bees in California to pollinate all the trees.  So they ship 60,000 bees in from as far away as 6000 miles in order to pollinate the trees.  As a side note, bees don’t like their hive to be moved and if they become agitated they will kill the one and only queen and then the hive will die. 

Once the blooms are pollinated they will produce an almond or in this case up to 7000 almonds per tree.  Your next question is, “How do they pick 7000 almonds from one tree, much less a million acres of trees?”  I am glad you asked.  They have a tree shaker.  This thing looks like a big bull dozer but it has a clamp on the front that wraps around the trunk and literally shakes the tree.  Then along comes a sweeper that sweeps the almonds into a pile in the center of each row, and then a vacuum cleaner picks them up.

This started me thinking.  God wants us to produce fruit and the problem with us is that we need His Word to produce fruit.  So, if we don’t read his word and meditate on it and discuss it with others we will never produce one piece of fruit. If we thirst for Him we will produce living water.  Then there are times when we need someone to come shake our tree.  These are the Christians around us who, when we stray away from God, they shake sense into us and help bring us back to Him. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of not producing fruit in my life.  I ask you for wisdom to interpret your Word and help me take the time to meditate on it with a godly heart. I praise you for providing us with the resources we need to produce an abundant life. 

Scripture:  On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.  John 7:37-39

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5

Trust

A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults. Charles Kingsley

The things I have struggled with the most in my life are sharing my weaknesses and failings with others.  I have shared more of me with each of you than I have with anyone in the first 45 years of my life. How can I build a relationship of faith with others if I am not willing to share my inadequacies?  What happens when we do this is we become more humble.   I have to work at this every day.  There was a song years ago that said, “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble, when I am perfect in so many ways.”

We often see ourselves unrealistically.  In our world we have taken the “Fifth amendment, right to privacy” to a whole new level.  We get together in groups as Christians and we keep a protective shell around us that will show others that we are godly when in reality we are anything but. In order to become a Christian with servanthood as our basis, we have to share our struggles and feelings and become vulnerable. 

The premise that the body of Christ is built on is that we are each a part of the whole.  If we lose a limb we are not able to function as a complete whole without that limb.  Paul spoke of this in 1 Corinthians 12:7 when he declares that the gifts of the Spirit are given to each one, for edification or “building up,” for the common good.  In other words, we are to lift each other up and support each other when one of us falls.  

I want to share with you a fairy tale and an excerpt that best describes how we are to treat each other as the body of Christ.  This comes from a book I am reading called Jesus Style by Gayle D. Irwin. 

The Sun and the North Wind observed a man walking along wearing a heavy overcoat.  They decided to see who could get the coat off of him.  The North Wind elected to try first.  He blew a howling gale around him, but the stronger the wind the more tightly the man drew his coat around himself.  Then the Sun said, “Now it’s my turn.”  So, he beamed warming rays down upon the man, and soon, of his own choice, the man removed the coat and walked happily in the sunshine. 

When we surround people with warmth, they will, by their own choice and energy, reveal and remove necessary heavy weights they have used as protection.

When we make the choice to share our histories and truth with each other we reveal ourselves and show each other that we all fall short of the Glory of God.  When we in turn accept one another’s weaknesses we begin to understand that our deposit of our revealed self is safe and we are then able to risk more with each other.  When trust is built we are able to confess.  In James 5:16 it says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” 

Without trust, I will confess what I call superficial or surface sins.  These are the sins that are things like not enough faith or lack of prayer.  With trust I am able to truly share the things that hinder me and open myself up to prayer and healing from others.  With confession we are able to walk in peace and not be hindered by the covering up of our true selves. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am so guilty of covering up my own sin.  I often feel resentment, guilt and bitterness towards others, yet I cover it up with faux or fake happiness.  The problem with this is that as I bury my true feelings it is often manifested in other ways that are not healthy for the body of Christ.  I pray that you will open my eyes to these things that hinder my Christian walk.        

Scripture:    “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8

 

The Big Cover-up

We must learn to live on the heavenly side and look at things from above. To contemplate all things as God sees them, as Christ beholds them, overcomes sin, defies Satan, dissolves perplexities, lifts us above trials, separates us from the world and conquers fear of death.  A.B. Simpson

When I was young there were times when I reflected two very different personalities.  There was my Christian personality and then here was my Worldly personality.

In school there was this enormous peer pressure that required that you conform to the world.  So my two personalities co-existed together.  I tried to fit in perfectly in each world. 

The sad part about this is that I can't become a threat to Satan if I am living out two very different lives.  We see this happen every day in our lives.  We will go to church and reflect what we think a Christian should be and then we go to work and the other personality comes out. 

We often wonder why non-Christians ridicule us or tell us that there is no difference in being a Christian.  The reason is because we are not really living a Christian life as Jesus did.  It is necessary for us to become transparent in our life and we have to merge the two. 

I am ashamed to say I am often guilty of this very thing.  I am hanging out with friends or acquaintances and someone in the group takes the Lord's name in vain and in order to fit in and not be labeled a Jesus fanatic, I let it slide.  I had this exact instance occur several weeks ago and I didn’t handle it well. 

Please understand me when I say I am a struggling Christian.  I fail over and over again and just because I write a devotional doesn't mean I don't sin.  I do.  It just means I am a follower of Christ who lives in a fallen world and is trying to do the best I can to be what God calls me to be.  I don't write my devotionals to be judge and jury over your life.  I write them because it helps me grow and if my being transparent in my life helps you grow closer to God then God gets the glory. 

When I was deciding to write my own devotionals, it was a struggle for me with God.  I kept questioning Him and fighting Him.  Why would You want someone like me (a sinner) to write about You (the Most High) when I don't always portray Your likeness on this earth?  Then I would think about David.  He failed over and over again, yet he always came back to God with a contrite heart.  The answer was he loved God and he wasn’t perfect.  

The bottom line is that I love God.  I keep failing and God keeps coming back.  When everything has fallen apart around me, God has always been there for me.  He may seem to be silent but in my heart I know He is there and for me that is enough. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, Your love amazes me.  I am a sinner and I fail again and again, yet You still love me.  Thank You for loving me even when I don’t portray the Christian You have called me to be.  I praise You for Your great love for me. Help me to keep seeking You. 
        
Scripture:   “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!  Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.  Matthew 7:7-12

The Least of These

Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When I was twelve years old I was baptized.  That was a huge step for me.  The problem was I had been raised in a Christian home but at the time I didn't really understand what that meant.  I had no real deep understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. 

The sad part about this is that it took me 31 years to begin to understand what a Christian really is.  It took a major trial in my life that could have meant life or death on this earth for my eyes to be opened to the first glimmer of what being a Christian is all about. 

One of the things that I see in the world today is that to many times we approach other non-Christians with the right purpose in mind but the wrong motive.  We want the person to be saved and to know Christ as their Savior but we don't run the race with them.  By that I mean we assist the person in saying the right words to become a Christian but we aren't in it for the long haul.  We don't build a relationship with the person and run the race with them. 

When a person decides to become a Christian they are like a newborn baby.  I have often heard it described as being reborn.  The thing is when we are born we have absolutely no defenses against anything.  It would be like giving birth to a baby and sitting them out on the street and saying you are on your own.

Many times we do that with brand new Christians.  That is the problem.  The new Christian may not understand how to be a Christian, they just know there is something missing in their life and they want that missing piece.  So this new baby Christian is thrown into a world where Satan is roaming to and fro looking for someone to devour and the baby Christian is easy pickins. 

So we take the credit for bringing the person to Christ but we don't run the race with them.  We don't build a relationship and teach and guide them.  Jesus didn't choose his disciples and baptize them and then say “now you are a Christian, go out and shepherd my sheep”.  Jesus spent time in relationship with the disciples and led by example.  He prepared them for the most important job in the world.   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, it takes relationship to build trust.  To build trust requires time.  Relationships aren’t built in a day.  Please help me to work at building relationships so that others may come to know You. I praise you for bringing me to the trial that ultimately got my attention.     

Scripture:    “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;  I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?  When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?  Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’  And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. Matthew 25:31-40

The Lie   

A lie is like a snowball: the further you roll it the bigger it becomes.  Martin Luther

Have you ever told a lie?  It gets easier the more you practice it.  Lying often starts with the simplest of motives but gains momentum the further it goes.  The crazy part about lying is that it if you go back to its source there is often something minor that starts the ball rolling. 

I was watching the news where Lance Armstrong confessed to using performance enhancing drugs.  Many people are angry over this issue.  It just made me sad.  The excuse he gave was that he did it to level the playing field.  Leveling the playing field was the motivation but at what cost. 

If you really think about what this one lie cost him here on earth it is astronomical by earthly standards.  I am sure when he told the first one he probably didn’t realize how far he would go in the cycling world.  He probably didn’t think he would get the sponsors he did, or make the money he would through the very lie that started it all. 

If you take it one step further, what is the legacy he will leave his children?  Their lives will be forever changed by the lie. 

It is easy for us to sit on the sidelines and judge his behavior, but we often don’t see that we are lying in our own personal world just as he lied in his.  We decide that we will not be transparent in our personal lives to save face or to cover up our sin.  So we lie to our spouse, our parents and our children.  We may not have as much at stake in monetary value as Lance Armstrong, but what about heavenly value.

The question I ask myself is this.  What is my lying to others costing them?  Then I take it one step further and what happens if the lies I tell cause another person to stumble.  The thing that we often don’t understand is that the way we live can be a lie.  That lie can lead others to stumble and how will God view that when we stand before Him? 

I think of the story of Cain and Abel.  Each brother brought an offering to the Lord.  The Bible doesn’t say why God didn’t accept Cain’s offering but he did accept Abel’s.  My best guess is that Cain most likely didn’t offer the best of his crops and God knew it.  Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and the fat.  Then there was Cain’s jealousy of Abel after that offering.  So then Cain tells the ultimate lie.  When God asks Cain “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain responds by saying to the Lord, “I do not know.  Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Now there is a lie to end all lies.  My theory is that Cain was motivated by greed and jealousy.  His offering didn’t give God the best and he became jealous when God accepted Abel’s offering. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, there are lies I have told in my lifetime that make me ashamed.  I have lied when the truth would have sounded better.  The sad part is You know when I choose a lie over telling the truth.  In my human nature I often think that no one will know.  The thing is You know and that grieves my heart.  I want to live in truth even when it may cost me.  Thank you for providing a way for me to repent and return to You.      

Scripture:    Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.  And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.  Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.  So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”  Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.  Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”  And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” Genesis 4:2-12

Vending Machine   

You will have no test of faith that will not fit you to be a blessing if you are obedient to the Lord. I never had a trial but when I got out of the deep river I found some poor pilgrim on the bank that I was able to help by that very experience. A.B. Simpson

I was listening to the radio this morning and the song that was playing was talking about how sometimes the trials in this life are blessings in disguise.  Often that is hard for us to understand or at least it is for me.  When I am in the midst of the trial I am continually praying for God to get me out of it. 

The thing is, I have survived many trials in this life and once I have reached the other side of the trial I can clearly see that I am a better person for it.  There are still those times when we often treat God like a big vending machine in the sky.  We think that if we put in the exact change (in other words, pray exactly the right way), press the right button, (in other words, do enough works), we will get the prayer answered and get what we want. 

The problem with this kind of thinking is that we are going to often accidentally hit the wrong button and get something we really didn’t want (a difficult trial), we are also going to put our money in and hit the right button and we get nothing.  No change, no Ding Dong, notta. 

God isn’t a vending machine where we can input just the right amount of prayer or do exactly the right amount of works and we get what we ask for.  We have to always remember that God knows what is best for us better than we do.  There will be times when we don’t get what we ask for and other times where we will get nothing.  That doesn’t mean that God isn’t there or that he isn’t listening to our cries. He just knows us better than we know ourselves and he knows what is best for us.

I recently went to the vending machine in our building to get something to drink.  I put in the right amount of change and pressed the right button.  What fell out kind of surprised me.  I got a peach ice tea but I think it had been in that machine since it was installed.  The label peeled off in my hand when I picked the bottle up and the tea wasn’t clear, it was kind of murky.  The date on the bottle was the kicker.  It expired 2 years ago.  There are times when we need to be careful what we ask God for because we may just get it.   

“We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home
It's not our home

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise”
Lyrics and song by Laura Story

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I trust You to know what is best for me.  You know me better than I know myself and I want to learn to trust you with the trials in my life.  You have proven over and over again in my life that the trials bring me to a better place and make me a better person.  Help me to appreciate the trials in life and understand that they are the refining that needs to be done to make me more like Jesus.    

Scripture:    My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:2-5

 

What Would You Ask For?   

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.  Charles Spurgeon

Today I decided to meditate on Solomon.  I decided to put myself in his place and think about what I would have done with all that wisdom.  Solomon was really smart in the beginning.  When Solomon became king he understood that he was young and had great responsibility.  The one thing he didn’t have was wisdom to rule.  So when God came to him in a dream and asked him “what shall I give you,” Solomon’s response was unusual.

He asked God for an understanding heart to judge God’s people so that he would be able to discern between good and evil.  God was pleased that Solomon didn’t ask for what most people would have.  Riches, long life and the life of his enemies, so God granted him wisdom but he also granted him the things he didn’t ask for.  But, there was something God asked for in return for these blessings.  He asked that Solomon do several things.  Walk in God’s ways and keep his statutes and commandments.

Can you imagine God making you the wisest person on earth and because you didn’t ask for riches and long life he gives them to you anyway.   

This is where I think I wouldn’t have handled this very well either.  When I think of the riches Solomon had, I think I would have failed in this area.  It is hard enough for me to handle what little I have now much less being the richest person on earth.  Solomon was the equivalent of a billionaire in his day.  Have you ever asked yourself if you had that much wealth what you would do with it?  Would you help others or spend it on yourself?  Would you pursue what God would have you do or would you pursue worldly things?  .

I would hope that I would handle things differently but I don’t know.  It is easy to judge someone else until you really step into their shoes.  I think maybe I would ask for a sin free life.  Because having all the smarts in the world doesn’t mean we will do what is right in God’s eyes.    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I know that I can learn wisdom through meditation and the study of Your Word.  I also know that all the wisdom in the world will not stop me from sinning and failing to follow your commandments.  I praise you for showing me mercy and for caring enough to keep waiting for me to come back.  I thank you for Your Son who died on the cross so that I can make my way back to You. 

Scripture:    Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?” And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.  And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted.  Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” 1 Kings 3:4-9