You and I were made to bear fruit. For the Christian, our "fruit" is changed lives…our own, and others. Yet some believers'' lives are "barren" for long stretches of time, bearing no fruit at all.
Author James Michener was raised on a farm. He recalls from his childhood that a neighboring farmer raised apples. One day, young Michener was passing by his orchards and witnessed a strange thing: the neighbor was driving nails in some of the trees that were not bearing fruit. He watched in curiosity as this farmer approached a barren tree and drove four large, rusty nails into the base of the tree, north, south, east and west. Then he moved higher on the trunk of the same tree and repeated the process. When Michener questioned the neighbor, he told the boy, "Just wait until next spring. You''ll understand it then." When spring rolled around, Michener said that apple tree produced the biggest, reddest apples he had ever seen.
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise.
Duct Tape or a Nail? A man dies and goes to heaven. St. Peter meets him at the Pearly Gates and says, ''Here''s how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you''ve done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was.
1 Cor 3:6-7: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth" (NASU).
We can put a lot of pressure on ourselves to produce "successful" kids, and there is no question parenting requires a lot of hard work. But, what exactly is our role in the process? In this passage, Paul explains the role of a teacher. We believe it applies just as well in the family.
Parents are God''s representatives in the family, and that role is crucially important. In the end, however, we have to surrender the results to God because He is the One "who causes the growth". He will grow our children into His design. While it is difficult to let go of our "design" and surrender our kids to God, it is God''s will that they grow less dependent on us and more dependent on Him.
When We Are Hiding.......Why does God seem distant to us ? Why we pray and feel nothing? Read the Bible and heard nothing? The fact is we can engage in spiritual disciplines, yet God seems removed from our problems, unaware of desires, and deaf to our pleas. Is something wrong with God? The prophet Isaiah asserted that the problem is not with God but with us. "But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen"(Isaiah 59:2). God is not hiding from us; we are hiding from Him. God is not far from us; we are far from Him.
In the movie Apollo 13, Tom Hanks uttered the words, "Houston, we have a problem." We, too, have a problem. We harbor sin--habits,words,actions and attitudes--that we try to conceal.
Financial Wisdom: How to Spend
Philippians 4:11-19
God entrusts each believer with a share of His resources. And like any wise overseer, He gives His stewards guidelines for making the best use of His wealth:
• The Essential Expense—A believer’s wisest money management decision is to regularly set aside the first portion of income for the church. As we promote and provide for God’s work in this way, He protects what is left (Deut. 26:2; Mal. 3:10-11).
• The Next Priority—God promised to supply for our needs (Phil.
The recent tornados in Alabama left me thinking about a story I read once.
A beautiful clear day in Dodger Stadium on the mound outpitching Fernando Valenzuela. Twenty-six years old, beautiful wife, young son, baby on the way, cars, condos, lots of cash and a decent fastball. Life was perfect. I threw a 2-1 fastball on the outside of the plate like I had done a thousand times before. Steve Sax bat exerted roughly 8000 pounds of force on the ball in 1/100th of a second. The violent collision compressed the ball, changed its direction, and packed it with kinetic energy. Rocketing thru the air at about 132 mph it traveled 60ft 6" back to the mound in less than 1/8th of a second. I instinctively threw up my right arm to protect my face and the ball exploded against my elbow like a hammer hitting a glass bottle. Shock, silence, gasp from the crowd with replays on the Jumbo Tron.
Rom 5:3-5: "but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (NASU).
When our children suffer, whether from their own bad choices or those of someone else, we want so badly to rescue them from the pain or to tell them how to avoid finding themselves in that predicament again. But, God has another plan - to perfect them through their trials. Character building lessons are rarely learned from the triumphs of life. Rather, it is the trials in our lives that teach us how to persevere despite the pain. Taking trials away from our kids deprives them of the chance to grow, build character and learn to hope in God.
The best character-building lessons are learned from trials.
