The Small Branch

 Have you noticed how anything of worth takes time and effort?  I read an article this morning interviewing a weight lifter.  He was talking about how weightlifting had taught him some disciplines that have really helped with his spiritual growth, too.  When one wants to lift weights, bulk up, etc., one must work hard, day after day.  There are small gains and sometimes set backs.  One must start small and build up to the heavier weights.  All of these have parallels to our spiritual lives.  As I was pondering this, I was working in my yard.  When we bought our house a year and a half ago, the previous owners had been struggling with health issues for a few years and the yard had been neglected.  I want a nice looking yard, but I despise yard work.  But I realized today that there was a lesson to be learned here, as well.  My yard will probably take a few years to get back into shape.  It will take time and effort.  I...

 Have you ever heard the expression "use it or lose it?"  As I get older, I often hear that said in regards to physical fitness and even mental fitness.  While the expression fits with both of these, this morning I was thinking about it another way.  Have you read the parable of the talents?  In the book of Luke, it is "minas" rather than talents, but the idea is the same.  In all the Sunday school lessons I have heard, we focus on the parable as one showing us we need to cultivate and use our talents for the kingdom.  I want to look at that with a little bit of a twist. Luke 19:20-26 says, "Another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.' He said to him, 'By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave.  Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay...

 When you think about a holy God, how does that affect how you see yourself?  I have been wrestling with this often lately, as we are reading a book by RC Sproul called The Holiness of God  in our women's group.  God's holiness is often overwhelming.  One reason is because it causes us to see our sin so clearly.  We see our need and our inadequacy.  Our inability to "fix" ourselves.  I have struggled a lot in the last week or so and am so aware of my inability to "fix" myself.  This morning, I was reading in the book of Luke, chapter 18.  Towards the end of the chapter, Jesus encounters a blind man while approaching Jericho.  The blind man is told that Jesus is passing by and has a simple response, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"  Jesus, of course, stops and heals the man, but what struck me was the man's cry.  "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"  Oh, how often I want share the same cry.  God is mer...

 Where I live, we are experiencing a pretty significant drought.  A few years ago, we were experiencing some pretty significant flooding.  It is amazing the difference.  A few years ago, the grass was so green it almost hurt to look at it because of the bright color.  Now, the grass is having a hard time greening up at all.  Most of it is still pretty brown.   Our spiritual lives are like that.  It seems like it is always feast or famine.  Drought or flooding.  Usually, at least in my experience, the drought comes because I take the flood for granted.  I expect it to always be there and don't realize that maybe I need some irrigation ditches or even a dam for a reservoir.  But I do need those things.  Most of all, I need a constant source of Living Water.  When I take the Living Water for granted, I soon find that I am not taking the time to purposely stay in the flood waters.  I wander away.  I put my Bible...

  Luke 13:6-9 says: 6  And He  began  telling this parable:  “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.   7  And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’   8  And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer;   9  and if it bears fruit next year,  fine ; but if not, cut it down.’” In Matthew 3:8, we are told to "bear fruit in keeping with repentance."  In Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a fig tree not bearing fruit.  The tree is to be cut down, as we will be if we are not  "bearing fruit in keeping with repentance."  But notice this as well, the tree is spared for a time while given every opportunity to bear fruit...