The Small Branch

 Have you ever used whitewash?  I haven't, but a lot of the books I read mention it (remember Tom Sawyer ?).  Basically, it's paint.  Paint makes things look pretty and new.  But have you ever painted over something only to later realize that you shouldn't have?  Take mildew.  If you paint over mildew without first scrubbing it out and killing it all, it will just grow back.  The paint doesn't fix the problem.  Paint is just a temporary cover up.  Our lives are like that.  If we think we will be better by looking better on the outside, we soon find that it is only a temporary cover up for a heart problem that needs to be fixed.   Matthew 23:25-28 says: 25  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.   26  You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! F

 I think I have recommended this before, but I feel the need to recommend it again.  If you don't spend some time in the Psalms often, it is a great place for prayer and worship.  Today, I will just share with you one of my favorites: Psalm 130 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O  Lord .   Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.   If You,  Lord , should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?   But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.   I wait for the  Lord , my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope.   My soul  waits  for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than  the watchmen for the morning.   O Israel, hope in the  Lord ; For with the  Lord  there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption.   And He will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.

 Sometimes, I wish I could just be with Jesus, hanging out at church, doing "Jesus things" with no complications.  But we have a bigger mission than that. In Luke, chapter 8, we are told of a man possessed by a legion of demons.  His life is no life at all.  Jesus crosses the lake to heal him.  He drives the demons from him and makes him well, whole, in his right mind.  The reaction of the crowd is interesting.  In verse 37, we are told, "Then all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to leave them, because they were overwhelmed with fear."  These people had just seen the man formerly acting as a wild animal in his right mind, and all they could do was cower in fear.  They sent the One who casts out fear away.  The man's response is much different.  "But the man from whom the demons had gone out kept begging Him, pleading to go with Him;" verse 38 tells us.  This man desperately wants to stay right with Jesus

 Do you ever have doubts?  About God, I mean.  Do you ever wonder if He is really there or if He really cares?  Do you ever wonder if He really does have your best interests at heart?  I have been looking at two stories of doubt recently.  One ended well.  The other did not.   Let's start with Eve.  In Genesis 3, Satan tempts Eve to dwell on her doubts to start her down a road to destruction.  He begins by asking her "did God really say . . ."  Here, he is opening the door to doubts.  How does Eve handle it?  She first defends God, but then she adds a twist to the command.  God told her not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17), but He didn't say she shouldn't touch it (Genesis 3:3).  Eve makes a classic error in judgement.  When trying to deal with the doubts presented to her, she tries to justify herself and talk herself into believing, all while feeding the doubts with more manmade commands.  We all know how this ends.

 Luke 6:44a says, “For each tree is known by its own fruit.”   Have you ever claimed Jesus just because your family goes to church?  Because your mom loves Jesus?  Because you were born into a “Christian” family?  Because you went to “Christian” school?  Jesus squashes all these claims in Luke 6 when He tells us that we are known by our “own fruit.”  We must know Jesus and be obedient and submissive to Him ourselves.  We can’t rely on the “trees” around us to bear our “fruit.”  Fruit is personal.  Ephesians 2:10 assures us that God has prepared “fruit” for us to bear.  He has a mission just for us and we need to be on our own personal mission, obeying Jesus every step of the way.  To be saved?  No.  Because we love Him and He is truly our Lord.

 I have some people in my life who have met Jesus in very instantaneous and radical ways.  Sometimes it makes me question my own faith.  Paul met Jesus like this on the road to Damascus. But then I read about the disciples.  Peter, James, John, and the others first heard John the Baptist preach (John 1:35-42), then they heard about Jesus, next they heard Jesus teach, and finally they began to follow Him.  It was after they followed Him that they truly began to believe and not until after they had witnessed His death, burial, and resurrection that they were fully surrendered, even though they were as surrendered as they could be from the moment they left everything to follow Him.  Layers.  They came to Jesus by Him pealing off one layer at a time.  Saved by their faith by God’s grace, but changed little by little.  Notice that there is only one Paul, but there are 11 changed by this process.  There may be a moment when we decide to surrender, but don’t think that you have to have a huge

 Did you know that there are several women listed in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew?  The fact that there are women isn’t what struck me as significant, it is who they are.  Tamar, who pretended to be a prostitute because her father-in-law didn’t do right by her.  Rahab, a Gentile prostitute.  Ruth, a Gentile.  Bathsheba, an adulteress.  These women led rough lives in rough times, but they all have one thing in common, God redeemed their lives and used them to bring salvation to the world.  God can redeem anything and anyone.  We just need to repent, trust, and obey, surrender and let Him produce fruit in our lives.  

 Jesus told us "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20) We are to be making disciples.  Teaching others the Truth and all that Jesus taught.  In other words, we are to be guiding others through the Word and showing them how to live It.  At the same time, we should have others that are further along in their walk who are doing the same for us.  Discipleship is a continuous process.   Do we make disciples in our churches in America?  Not hardly.  Many churches are more like country clubs than discipleship schools.  Many churches are more about entertaining the people than about worshipping the One True God.  There are some churches that are really serious about discipleship (I happen to be blessed enough to go to one), but they are rare.   So what happens when we neg