Tag: Holy Spirit

Let’s Make Like a Tree…

Posted on by Dorci

I love trees, and today in the U.S. it’s Arbor Day, a day marked for celebration of trees (traditionally by planting a tree) and all the good they do for the environment around them. 

God uses trees throughout His Word, beginning and ending with the Tree of Life, and many other references throughout.

Today, though, I thought about how God tells us, in the Psalms and in Jeremiah, how we can be like a tree, sustained and fruitful even in hard times. 

Jeremiah records God’s word to His people:

“This is what the Lord says:

‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in Him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.’”
Jeremiah 17:5-8

At one point in history, God’s people demanded Samuel appoint them a king instead of looking to God as their King. The first king they put their trust in was Saul, and we know how that ended.  And for hundreds of years God’s people put their trust in, and were ruled by kings.

Even today, a lot of people (sometimes even God’s people) are trusting in men and women in office to fix things, to make bad situations good, to make wrong situations right.  And there seems to be no shortage of people willing to promise to do those things. 

But that never ends as well as we’d like because people are just people, and the world’s system is not God’s. Let the world have the world.

We have God, a Savior, a Lord, who can do much more – He can make our hearts right.

Jesus tells us “’Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.” John 7:37-39

So, we might not be able to plant a tree today, but let’s be a tree and leave the world’s ways (sorry, I couldn’t help it!).

Let’s plant ourselves by the living water by putting our faith in Christ and Him alone and receive from Him rivers of living water, the Holy Spirit, continually moving through us, nourishing us, sustaining us, and producing in us fruit and all kinds of good things to benefit us and those around us, no matter the circumstances, with no end to its abundance.

Thankful Thursday – Pie

Posted on by Dorci

Isolation can give us a lot of time to think, and sometimes there’s nothing more dangerous than being inside our own heads.

We can start looking around, comparing our situation, our lives, to others and feel like we’re coming up short. Our piece of the pie seems like a sliver, and other’s a whopping piece with ice cream, or whipped cream, or both, slathered all over it.

And the truth is, we all have things in our lives we wish were different.  

There is much that others enjoy as a given part of life that I will never know.

At the beginning of Psalm 73, Asaph ponders the prosperity of those who are wicked. Though they live foolishly, they enjoy good health, they have no troubles, they aren’t plagued by common human burdens (he thinks).

And here he was, he thought, keeping his heart pure and his hands innocent, and yet every day brings a fresh round of pain and affliction.

Until, he says, he entered the sanctuary of God.

We he got his focus off himself and onto God, then he understood the final destiny of the wicked. Ultimately, all they had gained will come to absolutely nothing when they face God at the final judgment.

And finally Asaph writes, “My flesh and my heart may fail…”

There is much discussion about what Asaph meant by this. Did he mean his flesh and heart failed him when he fell into bitterness and envy of others? Or did he mean that eventually his flesh and heart will fail when he dies and moves on from this life? Maybe both.

“… but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26

Asaph is finally able to take a wide and godly perspective and realize that because he has God in his life, he doesn’t have just a sliver of pie, or even a big piece. He actually has the whole pie. 

Yes, his own heart may fail, but God is His strength, and His portion, his inheritance, in this life and in the next.

Forever.

Yes, I may have missed out on a lot in this life, and maybe that’s a good thing because it showed me how much I needed God.

But God (Elohiym – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is my portion. And when everything in this life is gone, I will still have my Portion. I will have my relationship with God through Christ, and the faith and character and everything else He’s built on that Foundation through the many years I’ve walked with Him.

And it will last forever.

So the reality is, I haven’t missed out on one bit. I have God and all He is! And if you know Jesus, so do you. We have the Creator of the universe, our heavenly Father, the keeper of our souls and the One is able to make all grace abound toward us and bless us abundantly, our Lord and Savior and Friend and Brother and Co-Heir in the faith, Jesus, and our Comforter and Peace Giver, the One who seals us for eternal life, the Holy Spirit.

We can never come to the end of the list of His blessings. And anything we missed in this life that He deems important He will more than make up for in the next. 

So instead of focusing inward or outward, let’s look up.  We have more pie than we could ever eat.

Sunday Praise and a Prayer for Salvation

Posted on by Dorci

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you.  We praise you for your sovereignty and your holiness.  We praise you for your gift of salvation, for your forgiveness, your grace, and your mercy through your Son, in whom you have made all things possible.  

Lord Jesus on this day we remember your triumphal entry into Jerusalem, that you fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy, and we praise you and thank you that you revealed to us who you are, in those moments and in our hearts, and for your eternal salvation.

We remember, too, that there were shouts of “Hosanna!”- “Oh save!”, and that many people looked to You to save them from the suffering in this life, but didn’t see that Your kingdom was so much more that that. They didn’t see that Your kingdom was an everlasting kingdom, that You were, and are, and always will be the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and that You’d come to die in their place to save them from the penalty of their own sins, to give them an eternal victory, a life after this life.

Lord, we pray for salvation. Many will be listening to pastors all over the world today and in the days to come, looking for a savior in the midst of the suffering we’re facing. Many will be looking for someone to fix the world. Oh Lord, help them to not settle for redemption in this world only and miss the eternal redemptive work you desire to do in each of their hearts.

We pray you would pour out your Spirit, that you would soften hearts and open spiritual eyes to see their need for an eternal Savior. We pray, in your grace and mercy, you would grant repentance, that people will turn to you and pray for forgiveness for their sins, and receive You, Lord Jesus, as their own Lord and Savior.  

We praise you for the great work you are doing and will do. Help us continue to be a light, revealing your love, grace, and mercy. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.  

Keep Growing and Growing and Growing…

Posted on by Dorci

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially to them who are of the household of faith.”
Galatians 6:7-10  AKJV


It is a long and tedious process to produce the perfect grape. It is three years from seed to harvest and involves soil cultivating – different soils for different grapes, perfect planting, temperature and wind control, proper sunlight, protection from pests and disease, watering, and pruning.  Oh, the pruning.  Pruning is so important that pruning contests are held to reward the best pruners. It takes a lot work to produce a fully mature, sweet crop of grapes.

Jesus said “I am the vine; you are the branches.” John 15:5a

The branches on grapevines can’t get tired, but we can. And as we endure years of tending and watering and pruning and waiting and not yet seeing the fully mature faith we desire, we might be tempted to give up. And right about the time when it looks like nothing is happening, it’s time to prune. Pruning is painful and sometimes all we see is that something is gone.

What we don’t see is what’s happening underground. Beneath the surface the roots are growing deep and strong, feeding on the nutrients in that perfectly fertilized and watered soil. And the stronger the roots, the stronger the grapevine will be.

So, let us not be weary in well doing…”

That word “doing” is a prolonged form of the word to do. To keep doing for an extended period of time.  It also means to abide.

Keep going, keep growing, keep doing well, keep holding onto Jesus, the Vine, until harvest time.  Yes, it’s hard, yes, it can be exhausting, yes it might look like nothing is happening except that so much has been taken away, but good things are coming if we don’t give up. We’ll see some fruit in this life, but the full harvest comes in the next. One day we’ll stand before our Heavenly Gardener and reap what we’ve sown.

So whatever season we’re in, let’s keep doing good to others – sowing to the Spirit – as God gives us opportunity, producing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and eventually the harvest of a sweet, fully mature faith.

Spiritual Olympics

Posted on by Dorci

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 

Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

 

Next year will be the Summer Olympics. A time when athletes will put to the test everything they’ve been training night and day for, sacrificing their lives for, restricting their diets for, enduring injuries for as they’ve fallen down and gotten up over and over so they will be perfect. 

In the same way, we who have been following Christ have a proving ground right now to put into practice what we’ve been learning.

The world is stressed out and we’re all going to cross paths with that stress one way or another, whether it’s from within or without.

And there is no better opportunity than right now to put to the test the faith we’ve been learning, the trust in Christ we’ve been practicing, the filling of the Holy Spirit we’ve been training our ears and hearts and minds to hear.  

So let’s run the race with the right garments:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3 12-14