“I am the Vine... Peace!” John 15:1-2; Eph 5:22

One wonders how the pruning hook will be used by God to give us more and better peace, than we already experience.  Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my Peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."  Did you see it?  Jesus said don’t LET your hearts be troubled and don’t LET you hearts be afraid.

It seems to me that God wants us to be in control of the direction of our hearts!  We have the ability to LET our hearts do things that are contrary to the will of God as well as doing the will of God.  I don’t think that He was kidding when He gave this command.  And He also adds: (Phil 4:7) “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”^NIV

So, He guards, that is to say that, He is the sentry that stands to alert us of upcoming danger to our heart.  He sounds a warning of things that will disturb the peace He gives, things that will trouble our hearts.  To me the question is “Which ears are we listening with to hear His voice of alert?”  Is it our physical ears or our spiritual ears that we use the most and are the most sensitive?

We tend to listening with our physical ears more than our spiritual ears. We tend to “go with the flow” of bad news that is happening around us.  When Jesus told us of his coming, did He not say, (Luke 21:28) “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near?"^NIV

The pruning takes place when we do not listen to the Master’s warning of upcoming danger.  Instead we take it upon ourselves to be independent and make the choices on our own.  It is then that we lose our peace and our hearts become troubled and afraid.  When we don’t ask for wisdom in buying a new car, for example we go ahead and make the deal because it sounds like such a good deal and anyway we really like the looks of the car.  After a while we learn that it needs daily repair and nickel and dimes us to death.  Some of you know what I am talking about.

The only way to have real peace and keep our hearts from trouble and fear is to be totally committed to, and obedient to God’s leadership asking for His wisdom in everything.  In everything! 

I really know what I’m talking about because I have had the pruning hook used on me.  I now listen hard with my spiritual ears for the voice that knows and has my best interest at heart.  Your fearful and troubled heart just told on you were you listening?

Just a Thought.

“I am the Vine... JOY!” John 15:1-2; Eph 5:22

Many Comedians are funny because they were brought up in a rather difficult way.  Many had alcoholic parents along with physical and emotional abuse.  They tell of having to be funny in at an early age in order to compensate for the sadness in their childhood.  Just about any Comedian’s life story is sadder than the average person. 

As we look at JOY, we know that happiness is the outward demonstration of JOY. Men have pursued JOY in every avenue imaginable. Some have successfully found it while others have not. Perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found:

Not in Unbelief -- Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: "I wish I had never been born."
Not in Pleasure -- Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: "The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone."
Not in Money -- Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: "I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth."
Not in Position and Fame -- Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: "Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret."
Not in Military Glory -- Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, "There are no more worlds to conquer."
Peter Sellers – Said, “I don’t know how it is that I am so talented and rich and yet I am incredibly unhappy.” (The Bible Friend, Turning Point, May, 1993).

Where then is real joy found? -- The answer is simple, in Christ alone.                                                                                 

It is my thought that JOY only comes from complete obedience to the will of God.  When we know that we are in the exact center of God’s will for our lives.  Joy is an inward feeling of the Spirit of man that knows that he is in a right relationship with his God.

I must admit that I don’t see much JOY in our churches today.  We see a lot of entertaining things that wow our parishioners for a while then they seem to want more “frillies” in the service.  Still there is no JOY shown.  C. S. Lewis said, “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite JOY is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”  Do you suppose he is right?

I have two grand-daughters, Jessica and Jennifer, which give me great JOY!  I feel the same JOY in Jesus when I take time to stop and contemplate who He is and how He relates to me day after day.

Just a Thought

John 15:1-2 What kind of fruit do you produce?

Jesus said He is the “TRUE” vine. And He is!  He said the Father will prune the branches, that are us, we who follow Christ.  He will prune unproductive branches that bear poor fruit and will cut off branches that bear no fruit at all.  We as Christians have a dilemma.  We must produce fruit and if we do not we will be pruned.  There are no exceptions.  I know that some feel that they have arrived in the center of God’s will and need no more attention to their fruit bearing, but Jesus says that it is an ongoing process.  If we bear fruit He will prune us so we can bear much richer fruit.

Let me ask:  Have you felt God’s pruning hook lately?  Have you prayed for the pruning hook to be used so you can bear better fruit?  If not, why not? 

Let’s look at “LOVE.” We start out with the kind of love that is self-centered.  Everything for me and I am the center of all attention.  As we grow older we find out that the world is made up, chiefly, of other people, some worthy of our love and others not so worthy.  When grafted into the “TRUE VINE” we experience the kind of love that is expected of us in Christ.  Now we are traveling to the other end of the spectrum, where we love all humanity and want to share with anyone the love God has shown us.

Along the way, we feel we are entitled to a mild relapse, and we begin not to love as we should.  God comes with his pruning hook and prunes us so we get back on the track to “perfect love,” so we can be more like Him.  What does it feel like when God is pruning us?  Believe me it is not easy to have the Father prune us in the Love category.  We are shown how selfish we have been and we need to go to that person or group of persons and ask forgiveness for bearing the wrong fruit toward them.  It could be family members, or relatives, or friends or even strangers.  It is far better to love the unloved, than to go back and ask forgiveness.

I had my car repaired at a dealership.  I was in a hurry!  I needed to get out of there because of some meeting or appointment that I thought, at the time, was very important.  I spoke harshly to the cashier about how slow the repair had been.  God didn’t say anything right then to bring me to my senses.  I left in haste and did whatever it was I was going to do.  I knew that I was justified in what I had said what I did, to the little girl taking the money.

Several days later I was driving by the dealership and was suddenly alarmed with conviction that I had had the wrong attitude and spoken too harshly.  I tried to shrug it off but every time I went by the dealership I felt the same sting in my heart.  One day as I was passing by, about a weeks later, I was tired of the struggle and I pulled in and went to the little girl and asked her forgiveness for being so sharp and acting like I did.  She said, “It doesn’t matter, I get that all the time.”  I replied, “It really matters to me and I want you to know how deeply sorry I am for that incident.  I know better and I shouldn’t have spoken to you in that way!”  I left the dealership, not with joy in my heart, but remorse that I had to be pruned so that I could bear better fruit.  It hurt and it has become a guard to my heart not to speak in that manner to anyone ever again.

How can we be pruned if we don’t feel the pruning hook of God?

Just a thought!
Jerry

John 14:9 "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?” NIV

Philip has a lot of our problems in his discourse with Jesus.  He has known Jesus for a little more than 3 years.  He must have had blinders on for some time because he didn’t recognize Jesus in connection with God the Father. “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.”^NIV

Have you ever told someone something and they had a mental picture that was far from what you really said?  I think the disciples were in the same boat.  They were very horizontal in their thinking.  They thought that Jesus did all those miracles by himself and the teachings of Jesus were great stories and that was all the higher their spiritual sight went.  He had raised the dead, cast out devils, healed the sick, and done those things which no one could have done who had not come from God. But, they still wanted a visible manifestation from God.

May I ask you, how long have you been a Christian?  After that long a time, do you recognize Him for who He is?  Do you know and recognize when he has intervened in your behalf?  Or do you only recognize Him when the chips are down and have to have His help? When you pray, do you know His face? Do you ever have an open ended time where you just talk to Him, as you would a neighbor next door over a cup of coffee?  Are most of our prayers petitions for something we desire?  Yes, He does say to make our petitions known and He will answer.  If that is the major part of our prayer then we have the Santa Clause view of Him,   always wanting something from Him.  If so, we are at the same learning level as the disciples.

There is the deeper life where we don’t ask God to remove the problem but we ask God to remold us in His image for the occasion.  Such as, breaking down our resistance to authority, or changing our attitude toward a person or situation, or humbling us for the Glory of God.

I am saddened when I hear people say, “The man upstairs,” referring to Jesus.  We should be saying, “Jesus is a personal friend of mine and I would appreciate it if you didn’t use His name in that way.” I would defend the honor of any friend of mine and especially the friend that is My Lord!

Do you know how he will probably answer your prayer before you pray?  Do you have, in your spiritual eyes, a glimpse of His face?  He says, “Do you really know me?”  When you pray purpose to look Him straight in the eye!!

Just a Thought

Jerry

“Surprise” is not in God’s vocabulary!

I am amazed that so many Christians believe that all their trials and troubles come as a surprise.  Like, God was asleep when this problem arose. Or, God wasn’t watching when this tragedy came on me. Or, where was God to allow this to happen to me?

Let’s get real here, folks!  God is not the God of surprises!  He just is not!  There are all these evidences that God made preparation for this or that to happen and he made provision before this or that happened.  My Grand-daughter graduated from College and it was no surprise.  She worked for four years very hard to reach the steps that went up to the stage where the certificate was given to her.  That was no surprise because she was preparing and was prepared for it.

You want Biblical evidence God prepares us before hand?  Here it is:  Didn’t God prepare the earth BEFORE He created man?  Did He not prepare Noah’s salvation BEFORE the flood?  Did He not prepare the Israelites BEFORE leaving Egypt? (food, jewelry.etc.)  Did He not prepare David BEFORE he became King? 

Let’s look at Jesus for a minute.  Where did Joseph get the money to take Jesus out of harm’s way when the King would have killed Him?  The answer is the Wise Men came and provided the money, again a preparation BEFORE the time.  Jesus also prepared His disciples when taking them to Jerusalem for Passover.  He prepared them for what was going to take place.  It should have been no surprise to them. Five chapters in the book of John were at the last supper and they were taught what was going to happen and how they were to respond, BEFORE it happened.

Now, let’s talk about us today.  If you have been paying attention to the preceding small trials, in your life, that took place BEFORE the big trial, you would have known it was coming and been prepared.  Our problem is that we don’t give God the glory for bringing us through the small trials, the small hurts, the small temptations.  Remember when Scripture said that the little Foxes spoil the vine? ^{Song 2:15} “the little foxes that ruin the vineyards…”^NIV

If we are to be successful in our Christian walk we must acknowledge that God is always preparing us for the big tests.  Those times when we are overwhelmed are because we have not acknowledged God’s preparation trials we have come through.  We all want to find a plateau with no problems and no trials.  Where everything is planned and executed by us for easy going.  This will probably surprise you – THERE IS NO SUCH PLACE!!!!

Anyway, the lessons and the tests are to prepare us for our day of Graduation.  I sure want to be prepared, don’t you?

Just a thougth

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Prov 16:24. NIV

During grade school, about the 4^th grade, all we children were out for recess.  We were running and playing and just letting off a lot of steam.  After being cooped up in the class room for a couple of hours we needed to let off some steam.  As children will sometimes be we were as care free as we could possibly be.  We were playing tag, baseball, kickball, swinging on the swing and sliding on the slides and back and forth on the teeter totter. All of a sudden there was tragedy.  One of the boys fell down in the gravel and scuffed his knee and it began to bleed.  The boy was screaming because of the pain and the sight of blood.

The nurse was called and she came with her lunch box first aid kit and knelt down by the boy who was crying very loudly and had both hands covering the wound on his knee.  Blood came through his fingers and it looked like it was pretty bad.  The nurse tried to get the boy to let loose of his knee so she could put some healing ointment disinfectant and a bandage on it.  But, he refused instead he held it as tight as he could screaming that it was too painful for her to touch it. 

Finally, the teacher took hold of the boy and pulled his hands away so first aid could be performed.  What a sight.  I don’t think that I will ever forget how he stopped crying when the nurse put the ointment on the wound and it soothed the hurt and made it feel much better.

I wonder if that is the picture of us.  How many times have we been hurt and we hold on to the hurt instead of letting our Heavenly Father put on the healing ointment that will make it feel better.  Like all hurts, it takes time to heal, but there is one who can make the pain go away if we will just let go!

I’ve known people who held on to their hurts for many years, never giving God the opportunity to heal.  They become “deformed” in their spiritual lives because they refused to let God make them stronger and more mature.

If I were sitting in front of you, looking you squire in the eye, and I asked you what hurt are you holding, what would you reveal to me?  Would it be that someone had hurt you with an untruth?  Would it be that someone hurt your feelings a long time ago?  Would it be trouble between you and a family member?

Jesus hurt more that anyone of us ever will.  He did it just for you and for me.  But on the cross He let it go.  He said, “Father, forgive them they know not what they do!” 

Will you let go today?  God only wants to heal and make you stronger, but, He needs your co-operation!  Just let go.

Just a thought

“I will never …” Hebrews 13:5. Deut 31: 6

How would you like to be the first person in something? Adam was the first man on the face of the earth. He was created, September 21, 4,000 BC. ^{(Traditional)} Ferdinand Magellan and his crew were the first to sail around the world from 1519-1522.  John Hancock was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence.  The first person who set foot on the continent of Antarctica is said to be the American John Davis, a sealer, who landed there on 7 February 1821.  The first man to reach the North Pole was an engineer in the American Navy called Robert Edwin Peary, who reached the pole on April 6, 1909 along with his employee Matthew Henson.  29^th May, 1953 the first
persons to climb Mount Everest to the summit were Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (who reached the top together) is recognized as the first time the peak was conquered. 

Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier on 14 October 1947 in the Bell X-1.  February 20, 1962, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth. Do you remember Neal Armstrong? He exited the space craft, sitting on the moon’s surface and climbed down the ladder, then turned and set his left boot on the surface of the moon at 2:56 UTC July 21, 1969, the first man to set foot on the moon.  What an accomplishment!

Each of these were accomplished and verified by others and cannot change.

The first to love you was God the Father.  “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” ^{John 3:16} 

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ^{Rom 5:8 NIV}  

Whatever crisis you are facing just now or will face shortly, remember that God has never failed ANYONE.  If he failed you, you would be the first!  Strengthen your faith because he “will never leave us nor forsake us!” And besides, He loves you too much to let you be the first!  And that cannot change!!

Just a Thought