Bananas, Oranges, Grapes, Apples…

Insert big *sigh*.  It’s been a rough few months…wondering what God is doing (what are You doing by the way??).  We still don’t know, but there has been one thing that has given us hope and joy and that is fruit. 

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

(Notice the word ‘remain’, that sounds long term to me)  So we’ve seen some fruit which gives us confidence that we are where we are supposed to be.  We are in him and he is in us.  In saying that, do not misunderstand; there was a time when we couldn’t see an apple within a million miles, which doesn’t mean we were apart from God.  If you go back a little ways in the book of John to verse 2 you read “…while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”  So there are always going to be those pruning times…insert another big *sigh*.  But oh the joy when you are doing the work of the father.  It’s a bit like getting a big breath of fresh air after being under water, or a drink when you are soo thirsty.  I can’t believe I wrote that, I hate similes.  Anyways…there is oh so much more I could say on the subject but I will finish with Colossians 1:9-11

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.

The bible is so good…

Knowing God

Woke up this morning at 4am to Matt’s work alarm going off (oops—Matt is not at work).  When I jumped up to get it I jinked my neck and ended up back on the bed in pain…it was an early start.  After a massage from my amazing husband and a hot shower it was coffee time, and luckily the kids had a sleep in (6:30am) so I could sit and rest my neck.  That was the start to my Sunday morning.  All of that doesn’t really have anything to do with the title of this post, I just thought I’d share about my poor neck before getting on with it, cause I was on to do communion this morning and thought I’d share it here as well, it’s about knowing God which won’t be a big surprise if you’ve read the previous post…

John 14:6-9.  I’ll let you read it yourself but it’s basically Jesus saying he is in the father and the father is in him…whoever knows him knows the father.

Then the shocking fact that Christianity isn’t a religion…some of you already know this, but for those who don’t – religion is man-made, Christianity is God made.  Christianity is a relationship with God and with that comes eternal life.

I was listening to a message the other day by a Pastor named Bayless Conley (he has a TV ministry as well that is seen around the world).  He shared a story about his daughter travelling around Europe with a friend.  In Switzerland they found an out of the way Inn and were talking to the old lady that owned the place trying to decide whether or not to stay there.  As they were talking, the topic of God came up and the lady said she didn’t know much about God, but she did watch a show with a guy named Bayless Conley, to which his daughter replied ‘I know him, he’s my dad!’.  Bayless made the point that that should be our reaction when we hear the name of God ‘I know Him, He’s my dad!’.

Often though we get side tracked with our own stuff.  When we pray we are asking for our own needs, when we read the bible we are looking for answers to what we are dealing with in life and when we sing praise and worship we are hoping for those warm fuzzies.  There is nothing wrong with any of this.  In fact The bible tells us to bring our worries to God.  But we need to make sure that that is not all we do.

Jesus did not die so that we could have warm fuzzies, he did not die so that we could have a nice car or a big house or lots of money.  He didn’t even die so that we would never know suffering or pain or tears.  Jesus died so that we could have a relationship with God.

I finished by saying that we should take the opportunity of sharing in communion to make a new effort to get to know God better, so that when someone say’s the name of God we can say ‘I know Him, He’s my dad!’

Seed

I’m currently on the topic of ‘Knowing God’.  What I mean is, it has been impressed upon my heart to get to know God better.  I ask God for plenty, but I don’t often take the time just to spend it with God…When I read my bible I am often looking for inspiration in regards to my life, not usually just to get to know God better.  When someone mentions the name of God I want my response to be ‘I know him!!’  So that is the seed that is currently growing inside of me.  I mention this so that you can ask yourself what seed the Holy Spirit has put into your heart.  Is there something that is getting your attention?  Make sure you seek it out, get it into you.  There is no better time than when the Holy Spirit is trying to show you something, because then you’ve got supernatural powers to have it revealed to you.

Missions vs. Evangelism

The title of this post isn’t actually accurate, but it seemed the closest I could come to my point.  Seeing as I am the Missions Coordinator for our church I tend to spend a little bit of time thinking on the subject.  I consider all Christians to be missionaries, but it seems that our ‘named’ missionaries seem to be doing ‘missions’ better than those who do not own the title.

Trying to understand it in my own head, I have long thought that missions on the home front looks a lot like evangelism.  In third world countries, missionaries can feed the poor, give medicine to the sick, build houses for the homeless, but in first world countries we just don’t have the same sort of needs (after all, our neighbours live in houses and buy their own food), so we do evangelism (tell people about Jesus and invite them to church)…then it suddenly dawned on me.  The difference between what ‘they’ (the missionaries) are doing and what ‘we’ (at home) are doing, is that they are showing the love of Jesus and we are just telling people about it.  The truth is, there is a lot of need everywhere around us.  It may not be as obvious, but it is most certainly EVERYWHERE and goes beyond food and shelter. 

Now, I’m not saying stop doing evangelism, but we really need to mix the two together.  Everyone knows there is a big difference between telling someone you love them and showing them.  I just want to put it out there that if we are going to make the name of Jesus famous (some of us will know the song), then lets get out there and show people why He’s a God worth knowing.