Abundant Fruit Is Our Goal

"...the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing:" (Isaiah 35: 1b-2a)

Just a couple of weeks ago I posted pictures of my rose bush in full bloom. It was beautiful and the fragrance was so thick that when I walked by I automatically stopped and took a big whiff before moving on! But, sadly to say, this beauty and fragrance is not to be had when I walk outside today!

Here's the reason. After having such heavy blooms during it's peak, the hot temperatures took a toll on the bush and all the flowers started fading and dropping their petals. And bad gardener that I am, I never took the time to go and cut off the "dead-heads" from the bush although I knew that was the proper thing to do!

Yesterday afternoon I could stand it no more. I knew I would not see nor smell many more red roses this summer if I didn't do something! So I put on my gloves, picked up some old scissors and went out to see what I could do to remedy the problem! I pruned every old dead flower I could find, put them in a five-gallon bucket and dumped them into a ditch.

I was surprised and happy to notice while doing the pruning that one branch of the rose bush has put on new buds in spite of all the deadness around it! There will be beautiful red roses again before long! And I'm sure that the whole bush will begin budding again soon also.

All this reminded me of our lives as Christians. When the conditions are all good, we bloom and grow and give off a delightful "fragrance" of the Lord to others around us. That is where we all long to be. But then along comes the hot temperatures, the sweltering sun, the lack of rain, and we begin to dry up. Here's where we should have the insight to start snipping off those "dead branches" in our lives before they start sucking the life out of us. But, as I already said, I'm not a good gardener, so I usually put it off spiritually as well. Then things get so bad that we are not producing any flowers or any fragrance and the Master Gardener has to come along and prune off the old deadheads! He does that through His Word....whether He uses a preacher, another teacher, a godly friend, or just time in His Word during my devotions. These words in John give us such a clear picture of this procedure: "I AM the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." John 15: 1-2

As I pruned my rosebush the old song "Where the Roses Never Fade" (words & music by Robert & Janie West Metzgar, 1929) kept coming to my mind. Do y'all know that old song? Here are a few of the lyrics:

I am going to a city, Where the streets with gold are laid;

Where the tree of life is blooming, And the roses never fade.

Here they bloom but for a season

Soon their beauty is decayed.

I am going to a city,

Where the roses never fade.

Looking forward to seeing new blooms soon on my red rose bush and also new growth in my spiritual life! And looking forward to eternity in a city where NOTHING ever fades away! And if you're one who will be enjoying heaven with me someday, I'm really looking forward to that!

To God be the glory!

Marilyn

Righteous Friends

(Some of my "righteous friends" who met for the National Day of Prayer)

My husband and I use a daily devotional booklet called "Days of Praise" which is published by the Institute for Creation Research. As I read last Thursday's devotion I thought about all my Christian friends around the world and what all of you mean to me! So, today I wanted to share this devotion from "Days of Praise" with you.

May it bless you as much as it did me!

Righteous Friends
by Henry Morris III, D.Min.

"Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4)

The phrase "a man is known by the company he keeps" has been used in English-speaking countries since the 1500s.
Not only is the saying biblically based, but it is easily observable in everyday life.

Friends Shape Friends: "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend" (Proverbs 27:17). In our text above, James notes that the world's friendship so contrasts with the heart and mind of God that such a friendship turns our relationship with God into enmity. The apostle John gives the clear reason: "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:16).

Friends Love Each Other: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you…. I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you…. These things I command you, that ye love one another" (John 15:14-17). This is pretty simple. If I love the Lord Jesus, and you love the Lord Jesus, then we will love each other—because we have a common friend!

Friends Stick Together: Because of our common love for the Lord Jesus, we do not forsake "the assembling of ourselves together" (Hebrews 10:25). Neither do we follow the "counsel of the ungodly," or hang around "in the way of sinners," or feel at home with "the scornful" (Psalm 1:1), because there is no fellowship in "righteousness with unrighteousness" (2 Corinthians 6:14).

Godly people will have godly friends.

May God bless you my FRIENDS!

Marilyn

When the Power Goes Out

The other night we had a severe thunderstorm watch for our area until 8:00 p.m. but the storms seemed to be staying a little east of our farm in Mississippi. And then it happened! Just before 7:00 the sky got almost black and the clouds rolled in. Raindrops pelted against the windows and the tin roof. Trees were bending in the wind. Before I knew it the power went out and the voice of the weather man on TV and the hum of the air conditioner were gone. Only the sound of the rain and thunder was left. We are so used to having electrical power that when we are without it we feel almost helpless! No fans. No air conditioning. No TV. No radio. Worry about the freezers getting too warm.

It's pretty amazing to realize that the thunder storm that caused our power outage had more than enough electrical energy in it's lightening to run all the appliances in our homes! One form of power taking away another form of power!

I immediately started trying to call our local electrical power company but could only get a busy signal for more than an hour. By then the storm had passed over and things had, thankfully, cooled off. With the windows open I could feel a cool breeze blowing. A little after 8:00 I was finally able to get the after-hours electric company's dispatcher and tell her our power was off. I was hoping that it would be back on in an hour or so but it would eventually take about 13 hours to get power restored. The clean-up crew stayed up all night to get people's power back on.

Have you ever felt like you had the power turned off in your spiritual life? I have! Usually it's like that thunderstorm we had.....one kind of power taking away another kind of power. Never underestimate the power of Satan. He tried to use it to conquer even Jesus when he tempted Him in Luke 4: 6 “And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.” But Satan's power was overcome with the power of Almighty God. (I Chronicles 29: 11) “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thing; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.”

Being without power can be scary sometimes. Especially if it happens during the night. The same is true spiritually. It's scary being without God's power in our life! Job said this...(Job 26: 2 ) “How hast thou helped him that is without power? How savest thou the arm that hath no strength?” Isaiah had a good answer....(Isaiah 40: 29) “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”

Sometimes the reason we have no spiritual power is because we have never been saved. Oh, we may be religious. We may even be a member of a church. We may outwardly look like a Christian but not possess any power because we have never really trusted what Jesus did on the cross to be enough to take us to heaven! (2 Timothy 3: 5) “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” Jesus has the perfect remedy for the powerless life! (John 1: 12 ) “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”

As Christians, we have immediate access to God the Father and to His power in our lives! (2 Samuel 22: 33 ) “God is my strength and power: And he maketh my way perfect.”

I love how the old hymn puts it: "There is power, power, wonder working power.....in the precious blood of the Lamb!"

Marilyn