Fruit

I love fruit; the sweet, the sour, the bitter. I love it all. There are so many different kinds, different tastes, different textures. I love walking through a garden or and orchard and seeing the fruit on the plants and trees. Picking it and eating it all at once is amazing. It tastes so good. But i can't tell you how disappointed and how saddened i would be if I was able to walk through an orchard but found no fruit. Nothing to eat. The trees not producing what they are supposed to produce. I would want nothing to do with that orchard.

Are we producing the fruit that we as Christians are supposed to be producing? There are so many different people in the church. Different races, backgrounds, different family traditions, different ways of worshiping God. But we are all supposed to produce the same fruit. Every Christian should be showing the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of new believers through evangelism. When God walks through the garden of His church does he see trees bursting with luscious fruit or does he shake his head in disappointment? Are we, as the church, bearing fruit?

Glory In the Highest

God's glory is all around us. It is in the trees, rocks, grass, sun, flowers, rivers, rain, clouds, the faces of the people around us, and the wind that blows through our hair. He is incredible to encounter, but impossible to see unless you look for him. His beauty and power is awe-inspiring. Every time I look around me i can not stop thinking about how beautiful this world is, how glorious and powerful God must be, and how beautiful the world to come will be. Can you imagine? the glory that we see here, on this earth, will be nothing compared to that which we will see when we see God face to face. Then we will sing to our Lord, "Glory in the highest!"

Isn't God Great

As we drove into the Transylvania Mountains, in central Romania, today, I could not help noticing how beautiful God's creation is. The majesty of the mountains. The clear blue color of the sky. The vibrant colors represented in the numerous flowers. The strength of the old trees. The joy in the faces of the people around me. And the feeling of awe that I can experience just looking at the world in which God has placed me. Wow. God is so good, so creative, so powerful, so awe-inspiring. What a beautiful savior? What an imaginative creator? What an awesome God? How can people look at the world and say that it was a mistake. There is too much obvious planning, order, and love that went into this earth. Way too much. God is awesome. And that awesome, powerful, imaginative God made us, loved us, and wants us to love him. Isn't God great?

Sing O My Soul

So much can be expressed through music. What a wonderful gift? We can convey joy, thankfulness, sadness, patience, and love through the lyrics of a song, or simply by the music that we make. Though God has blessed some of us with better voices than others, God still encourages us to make a joyful noise unto Him. A noise is not always pretty or "Grammy" material. But a joyful noise made to give God glory always brings Him joy. So, "Sing o my soul!"

Peace Like A River

Peace: freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility; mental calm or serenity

The Bible says, "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts in Christ Jesus."

So why are so many of us frightened, nervous, anxious, upset, unsure, overly cautious, angry, sad, and bitter. Is it because we don't let Christ Jesus guard our hearts as we try and do it ourselves? How is that working for you?

"When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul."

Only Time Will Tell

There is something beautiful to me about old buildings that are falling apart. Maybe it's that I look at them and see that they have served their purpose well. Or maybe that they are reminders of times past. I always find myself imagining what went on in the rooms of the houses. I envision the people that passed through the doors. I reflect on what that structure or silent monument has witnessed over the years. The people it has seen, the events that have taken place, the impact it had in the lives or memories of those that visited it. I look at the beauty in the ashes, the glory in the aging. I notice the signs of the wear-n-tear from being well used and heavily "loved" over the years.

I see all of this in these inanimate structures and I think about myself and my life. When I am old, will my life and body be a testament like those old monuments. Will people wonder how I influenced people? Or who I knew, or loved, or helped, or sheltered? Will my body show the wear-n-tear from hard use and "heavy loving" from the years passed? Will people have fond memories of their time spent with me? Will people want to know what I have seen, done, heard, or known? Will I have anything worthwhile to tell them? Only time will tell...

Wake Up Call

In my few years of life and my little experience in the real world I have noticed something that has just been nagging at the back of mind for some time. So here it is... What is the deal with relationships?

What I mean by this is, what are we doing? We destroy the relationships that are important and healthy to chase relationships that promise something that will not happen. I'm not talking about husband-wife, boss-employee, grandmother-grandchild, owner-pet, etc. relationships. I am talking about two sets of relationship (although this often applies to some of the above mentioned). I am talking about boyfriend-girlfriend relationships & human-God relationships.

I have been noticing how young so many people are when they enter into their first "relationship" with a girl or boy. I was sitting in the airport on my way to Romania and I was listening to these two kids behind me (ya, I'm an eavesdropper). They couldn't have been much older than 14 and one of them was going on and on about his "girlfriend" and how great she was, but how he was starting to "like" this other girl...blah, blah, blah. Seriously, 14?! I mean, what are the dates like? "Mom, can we please pick up my girlfriend for this week and go somewhere nice like Chuck-E-Cheese?" Why has our culture encouraged this and made it seem like kids and teenagers need a girlfriend or boyfriend to be cool or meaningful. Now, some relationships that start out in middle-school or high-school do work out and that is AWESOME! I am so happy for those people. However, this is not the norm. Most people destroy so many good relationships or possibly good relationships that they have chasing something that is extremely pointless at that point in their life. Middle-school and High-school are the years where you should find yourself and your calling in life. You should concern yourself with finding YOU nor him/her. They will always be there. There is no shortage of amazing single guys and girls out there in the world. Don't worry. The best thing you can do is find God's calling for you and then follow it, not worrying about trying to hunt down that girl or guy. God will bring them along in due time... and nothing is better when they fit perfectly with you and your plan in life rather than you trying to force and reshape yourself to fit something that isn't supposed to go there in the first place.

We do the same thing with God. We have this relationship available to us. It's an amazing relationship of love, forgiveness, judgement, and grace. It is the relationship of a just father and his prodigal child. Now, we can choose this relationship or we can run like so many and chase other relationships and things that promise things that they can't offer. We turn from God and chase boyfriends/girlfriends, worldly pleasures, fame, fortune, prestige, peace, happiness. But none of these things can fit in that place in our hearts. That spot is reserved and it is one of the largest and most unique puzzle pieces of your heart that there is. NOTHING fits there except for one piece. Why do we run so far and so earnestly from the one thing that can fix us? What are we doing? We need to rethink our relationships and what we are chasing after...

What Is Love?

Greater LOVE has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

LOVE's greatest gift is it's ability to make everything it touches sacred. - Barbara De Angelis

Eventually you will come to understand that LOVE heals everything, and LOVE is all there is. - Gary Zukav

LOVE involves a peculiar, unfathomable, combination of understanding and misunderstanding. - Diane Arbus

LOVE is friendship set on fire. - unknown

LOVE is the master key that opens the gates of happiness. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

LOVE has no awareness of merit or demerit; it has no scale... LOVE loves; this is it's nature. - Howard Thurman

To LOVE is to catch a glimpse of Heaven. - Karen Sunde

LOVE is more than three words mumbled before bedtime. LOVE is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day. - Nicholas Sparks

LOVE is like war: easy to begin, but hard to end. - Anonymous

LOVE is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. - Mark Twain

For God so LOVEed the World that he gave his one and only son that whoever should believe in Him would not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the World to condemn the World, but to save the World through Him. - John 3:16-17

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not LOVE, I gain nothing.LOVE is patient, LOVE is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. LOVE does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. LOVE never fails. And now these three remain: Faith, Hope, and LOVE, but the greatest of these is LOVE. - 1 Corinthians 13:3-8a &13

Not Where We Are Now

There is a place where there are no fears.

We will not die,

There are no tears.

There is a place where there are no fears,

But it's not where we are now.

There is a place where there is no war.

We will live in peace,

In pain no more.

There is a place where there is no war,

But it's not where we are now.

There is a place where we won't get ill.

There will be nothing bad,

No evil will.

There is a place where we won't get ill,

But it's not where we are now.

There is a place where we we won't be hurt.

Our hearts will be whole,

And our minds alert.

There is a place where we won't be hurt,

But it's not where we are now.

Now when we reach that paradise

When the brilliance of God

Daily fills our eyes

When all our troubles

Are but a glimpse

This is what we'll say:

"There was a place where life was hard.

Where things were bad.

Where we were scarred.

There was a place where life was hard,

But it's not where we are now."

The Outsider

Going against the flow. It's not usually something that we try to do. Well, not most of us. Most of us want to belong. We want to fit in, to have a purpose, to make sense of it all. But many of us find that difficult. Especially those of us that are trying to live the life that Christ has asked us to live. Have you ever felt like you just don't belong? Felt like you are doing everything "wrong" or just swimming up stream against the flow of culture, the pressure of friends, the "popular" thing or way of life? That you are one against the world, the only one standing out? If you are a Christian, this is good! You should feel this way. The world is against everything that we are for. We should be the bright lights in the seas of darkness. However, we should not feel alone. We should stand together. We should shine together. We should "swim" against the stream of culture together. It may be difficult, and the world will push against us all as hard as it can. But it doesn't realize that we have the creator of the universe helping propel us on. And that, my friends, is something that makes us a force to be reckoned with.