The Small Branch

This morning I was awakened early but the Spirit.  Abiding.  John 15 talks about abiding and the importance of abiding.  We cannot function if we are not abiding with Jesus.  But what does that really mean?  The picture God gave me this morning helps me to see abiding more clearly.  In medieval times, villagers lived around a castle.  For protection, they had to come inside the castle walls to be shielded and under the protection of the king.  The choice was theirs, they could stay in their thatch huts or they could come into the castle and be with the king, protected.  We have that choice, too.  We can come into the castle of the King, or we can stay in our thatch huts, built by our own hands.  Once we are inside the castle walls, it is our choice how much relationship we have with the King.  Those who are closest to the King are the ones who make the most difference for others.  The ones who are closest to the King are t...

Jesus tells us in John 8:12 "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."       Like the sun (in a small way), Jesus lights our world.  Like the moon (in a small way), we should reflect that Light into the dark world.  When a full moon rises over a dark night, we can see very well.  Not as well as in the daytime, mind you, but still pretty well.  Is that the light we shine?  A clear bright reflection of the perfect Light of the world cast throughout the darkness helping others see?  This is a dark world.  Most of the time it feels like we are walking around in the shadows of night.  But if we are willing to be close to Jesus constantly, we can reflect such a pure Light that, not only can we see better, others can see better, too.

"When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path." Psalm 142:3a      I'm not gonna lie, I am totally overwhelmed right now.  I am teaching a class I have never taught and it isn't working to line up with the textbook I have (not to mention the five other classes, which are three more preps, that I am teaching).  I am taking one very reading assignment/write papers heavy graduate class and another one that requires time in my classroom as well as analysis afterward.  We are getting ready to move and trying to sell our house.  I still have three kids at home (and one getting ready to deploy) who play sports, have music lessons and activities, and have schoolwork of their own.  BSF starts next week, which I love, but it does add to my schedule.  My husband travels.  I'm overwhelmed.  But, ya know what?  God knows my path.  He knows where I am, where I have been, and where I am headed.  He's already been th...

     Sometimes, letting go is so hard.  As my children get older, they have to choose their own paths.  I don't always agree with their choices.  Some of their choices actually scare me.  But I can't make those choices for them and, as much as I hate it, they are just as human as I am.  I think of all the mistakes, some of them life altering, I made in my teens and twenties.  Yet, I am still here, loving Jesus with everything in me.  Even when I have slipped over and over, I don't fall.  "Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate." (Psalm 116:5)  So I pray for my children and love them no matter what.  I pray that they will love Jesus more than anything and they will be able to get back on the right path when they stray.  I have to release them to the One who loves them even more than I do, and, as they get older, I have to release them more and more often.      Something to ad...

"Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us to be torn by their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper; The snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth." Psalm 124: 6-8      I love this passage.  It goes through my mind over and over daily.  "The snare is broken."  We don't have to be caught up in our sin, because Jesus broke the snare holding us captive.  He smashed it.  And "we have escaped."  "We have escaped," beloved.  Escaped.  Does it make sense for an escaped prisoner to voluntarily go back into captivity, not just once, but over and over?  But we do.  We go back over and over.  I do, at least.  But now, God brings this passage to mind and I ask myself, "why?"  Why do I go back?  It is illogical.  It is self-destructive.  "The snare is broken and we have escaped."  Let's stay out of that...

"Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker." Psalm 95:6      This summer, on a recommendation from my BSF substitute teaching leader, I have been studying Psalms.  God led me to a group working through Beth Moore's Stepping Up , which is a study of the Psalms of Ascent, so I folded that in to my summer study.  In the beginning of that study, Beth challenged us to actually take the posture of bowing down on our faces before the Lord to begin each day - giving it to Him and recognizing Him as the King He is.  I had also read recently a book called Follow Me  by David Platt, which said something like this about salvation:  we are not asking Jesus to be Lord of our lives, we are acknowledging that He IS  Lord.  All that to say, what a difference physical posture can make in our spirits.      It amazes me the difference in my day when I actually take the posture of being on my face, in physi...

     I am doing a great study on the Psalms of Ascent this summer.  Today, we started looking at Psalm 131:        "O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;       Nor do I involve myself in great matters,       Or in things too difficult for me.       Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;       Like a weaned child rests against his mother,       My soul is like a weaned child within me.       O Israel, hope in the LORD       From this time forth and forever." David gives us a great picture of how our souls need to rest in the Lord.  It makes me think about a toddler going to sleep on his daddy's shoulder.  I am told that, as a toddler, I fought sleep like crazy.  Sometimes, I think I still do in this picture of David's.  I should be just resting against my Father's strong shoulder, but instead, I ...