April 2012 – Pam Thorson

Then He showed a river of the water of life, clear as crystal,
coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street.
On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kind of fruit, yielding its fruit every month;
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:1-2

Winter has never won the battle of the seasons, but this year it seemed to have its cold, gnarly fingers firmly clamped around the ground and my heart. The garden lay in dead disarray. My life followed a similar trend. Heartrending situations with my family and friends gripped us in an icy chill of relentless drama and tragedy.

Faith ran daily to the window to look for signs of life on my horizon. It was usually met with gray skies and new storms. It seriously looked like spring itself had given up and taken off for a long southern vacation.

Then I began to notice that although the storms still buffeted us, spring seemed to have a change of heart and decided to show up, after all. It was still cold, and uninviting outside my window. I was delighted to discover that the daffodils had gotten the memo, though, along with the hyacinths.

Once it decided to commit to a change of seasons, spring braved the weather and cued the greenery. The cold raised a challenge with a blast of hail. Tender life, having gained new courage, marched forward to undaunted.

Every year, the battle for renewal rages in the earth. Each year, death appears to triumph over the promise of resurrection along with our dreams. We know, however, that life always wins.

Today it is gray and cold again here. But I can look out my window and see that spring is going to conquer. In fact, it already has. My garden is blooming.

There are still parts of my life which haven’t felt the sun’s warm rays. I tell my impatient heart that renewal is on its way. God encourages us to look not to the daily storms, but the inevitable thaw what will arrive.

Winter will end. Spring will come.

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Devotionals

April 20, 2012

Rooted in Reality, Part 3: We are De Branch, Not De Vine

Remember He is de vine, and you are de branch.
-Keith Green

I am the vine, you are the branches;
he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit,
for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 15:5

My husband loves trees. During the thirty-plus years we have lived on our country lane, we have planted well over a hundred shade and fruit trees. Some of the fruit trees in his modest orchard were called “no name” trees, meaning the actual variety of tree was unknown before selling. If a person didn’t mind a surprise or two, the trees didn’t cost as much as labeled trees. We could tell the general type of tree each was, like “apple,” but we didn’t know what variety of apples we had until the trees bore fruit for the first time.

Some plants are hard to tell apart just from the leaves. But the fruit and flower of a plant always give it away. Jesus told us, as recorded in Matthew 7:16-20, that we can recognize people in the same way – by what shows up at harvest time. In fact, He tells us in this passage that it is impossible for a bad tree to produce good fruit or for a good tree to produce bad fruit.

Fruit is what we are. We can’t fabricate fruit. Fruit is the natural result at the end of a season of growth. No matter how well a thistle grows or how much it is fertilized, it’s going to produce thistles. This is why we can never reform ourselves. We have to become grafted into the Root of Jesse. We are grafted in when we accept the sacrifice of Jesus for the mess we have made of our own gardens. We are literally cut away from a life of sin and grafted into the life of God.

And then we “abide.” The Greek word used for “abide” simply means to remain, stay, move in with, or live with. It’s a relational word. Don’t try to change yourself. Move in with Jesus. If I want to exhibit godly character, I have to be planted in God. He doesn’t want a new, improved version of Pam. He wants Pam out of the way completely. He wants me to die to who I am and become a conduit for the life of God, so that in my actions and words others may catch a glimpse of the Divine.

I wanna die, and let You give Your life to me,
so I might live.
-Keith Green

…I die daily.
-the apostle Paul

How do we abide?

1. By thinking and acting relationally, not religiously. We focus on association with Christ, not mere imitation.

2. By diving into His Word. It’s the living letter from the Father to His children. His Word cleanses, teaches, inspires, and restores. It’s the food for our souls.

3. By listening to the uncomfortable nudging of the Holy Spirit to keep us pruned back. That way we won’t stray into unhealthy ground. Our conscience really is our best friend.

4. By cultivating healthy relationships and habits. Abiding doesn’t mean just lying around. There is work involved, too.

God gave His very best in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to give us all we need to flourish. May we plant ourselves in Him and grow up to be everything He has planned for us.

O taste and see that the LORD is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
Psalm 34:8

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Devotionals

April 6, 2012

Rooted in Reality, Part 2: What Lies Are Sinking You?

What really matters is what happens in us, not to us.

-James W. Kennedy

Scientists now say that a series of slits, not a giant gash, sank the Titanic. The opulent, 900-foot cruise ship sank in 1912 on its first voyage from England to New York. Fifteen hundred people died in the worst maritime disaster of the time.

The theory most people hold is that the ship hit an iceberg, opening up a huge gash in the side of the ship. But an international team of divers and scientists recently probed through the wreckage, buried in mud two-and-a-half miles deep, with sound waves. They found that the damage was surprisingly small. Instead of one big gash, they found six narrow slits across the six watertight holds.

Like the tragedy that happened to the behemoth liner, it’s those small compromises to our protective armor that threaten to sink us on our journey to find and live in integrity. In fact, it’s their insidious nature that makes them so dangerous. If we had one huge assault on our faith with which to contend, we would be alarmed and rise to the challenge. But the small blows go largely unnoticed, barely blips on our spiritual radar, until they have weakened us and breached our defenses.

This is why it’s so important to be accountable to God and trusted people around us to help us see the danger signs that we’re going down. The still, small voice of the Holy Spirit will be our guide if we’ll just listen to Him. To ignore His voice is like turning off the radio broadcast of icebergs ahead because we don’t want to change course. We can ignore the warnings, but we’ll hit the ice just the same.

A simple acronym can help us stay tuned into the leading of God:

L Listen for the excuses you tell yourself.

What reasons do you make up to give yourself permission to do something you know is wrong?

I Identify the weak spots in your faith, the ones that make you vulnerable to temptation.

What do you fear? What makes you angry? What causes you to feel out of control?

E Examine your temptations.

Discover why you give in over and over to a particular temptation. Identify ways that have been successful in the past to help you successfully navigate around that danger zone.

S Seek the truth.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 139:23 NASB

It’s no good to attempt to navigate in the dark. Light reveals our path. It also reveals the obstacles in our way. But that’s good, because it’s better to deal with changing course than to live in ignorance. Ignorance leads to destruction; truth brings us to safety. God wants us to take an honest look at our lives under the light of His purity. God’s Word is the source of the light for our journey and the best way to open our hearts to the work of the Spirit.

Never underestimate the power of the Scriptures to cleanse, guide, and strengthen. God is the best Captain ever. He’s been this way before, and we can trust Him with our lives.

Your word is lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105

Next week: Rooted in Reality: Building Character – Part 3

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Month: April 2012

The Battle for Renewal

Rooted in Reality, Part 3: We are De Branch, Not De Vine

Rooted in Reality, Part 2: What Lies Are Sinking You?