Bearing Fruit…'Tis the Season

I love the spring season as the earth begins to re-bud and refurbish itself. The trees are once again full of leaves and blossoms… and that means delicious fruit can’t be far behind.

In Dr. Wilkerson’s book, he teaches that for us to abide in Christ and to know that we are doing so; all one must do is look at the fruit we are producing. John 15: 5, 8 say the following; “I am the Vine and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.”

In these simple, yet profound words that came out of the mouth of our Lord, just hours before He died, we learn our true reason for being…the only reason that we still call this planet home as a follower of Jesus Christ …we have been left behind to BEAR MUCH FRUIT.

So the question becomes….What is fruit and how do I know if I am bearing much, little or none at all?

For many, the biblical understanding of fruit is the winning of souls to Jesus Christ …and that would be whole heartily correct; but, if we examine other scriptures throughout God’s word, we would find this definition of “being fruitful” too limiting. Take for instance Titus 3:14 that reads, “Let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.”

So in practical terms, fruit represents good works…a work of thought, attitude or action of ours that God values and that in our doing glorifies Him…the fruit from our lives is how God receives the honor and glory due Him here on earth.

Now, we produce inner fruit when we allow God to make us more like Jesus…to make us more Christ-like in the “fruits of the Spirit” which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22…and we bear outward fruit when our labor for the Lord brings Him glory, which would certainly include winning others to the life-saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

So, whether you are raking leaves and doing yard work for the widow down the street or planting a church as a missionary in the deepest jungles of Africa, outward fruit is a result of your inward motive to bring God glory. No matter how small your task for the Lord nor how great its intended outcome, your dreams of serving God will always be too small…so remember this…

WE ARE STILL HERE TO FULFILL GOD’S DREAMS….AND TO BRING HIM GLORY THROUGH A REMARKABLELY LIVED ABUNDANT LIFE.

Just look in your fruit basket and check out how you are doing…..until next time,

Living for the Savior ….Bearing Much Fruit,

WPQ

Poem for the Day:

If you want to live for Jesus,

Have others see Jesus in you;

Then you should seek to abide in Him

In everything you do.

Your life should be an open book…

Each page tells His great story;

And all the things you say and do

Will bring the Father glory.

Abiding in The Savior…Sailing Life's Stormy Seas.

After yesterday’s thought, I hope you were left with the unequivocal assurance that you belong to Jesus and you have committed yourself to complete surrender. So, now your are ready to take the first step along the road to a fulfilling life in Christ ….ABIDING IN THE SAVIOR!

Before Christ left the Upper Room, he drew that small band of men known as his disciples into a tightly formed circle (my conjecture) and began to share with them his dying words. He spoke gently, but firmly to them, as he continued to teach them and to prepare them for what the next hours and days would bring. He told them in John 15. “ I am the true Vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Abide in me as I abide in you. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15: 1-2, 4a, 5

Did you catch all that? Do you hear the words of your Savior just hours before he began his journey to the cross of Calvary? Do you fully understand all that he is trying to tell each of us as He prepares us for what lies ahead?

I believe I can best illustrate what Jesus was saying by sharing a little of my history regarding my service in the US Navy…and some interesting parallels that will help us understand this concept of abiding.

Now, I was stationed aboard an old tin can destroyer, USS Strong DD-758, a World War II relic, if ever there was one. Our ship was tethered to the pier in our home port of Charleston, SC when it wasn’t in route overseas for a Mediterranean cruise or sailing about the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. I learned early as a seaman in the deck force that the ship needed to be in the water to do the most good…to perform its duties and function as a member of the Sixth Fleet. I also learned that though it was good for the ship to be in the water, it was extremely BAD for the water to get into the ship.

The ship had to abide in the water or it was just a large chunk of metal that had little value…it could not fulfill its true mission as a naval vessel unless it was in the water; however, it made for a very bad situation if the water got into the ship.

Now in this example, the water is two very distinct things….it is Jesus and it is the World. For each of us to reach our highest and greatest potential, we need to be like the ship and abide in the water…Jesus. If we are taken out of the water, we will be of little value; not much more than a big pile of flesh and bones, waiting for the undertaker. In the water of Jesus, we are free to sail far and wide as we accomplish the things that we were created to do; but, in the water as the World, we face serious problems if we let the world inside of us.

Trust me, you do not want to be in the middle of the ocean and hear the command to “abandon ship”….the only place you have to go is into the water…and many a sailor has drowned at sea when they left the comforts of their vessel for the dark waters of a raging storm.

So how do we keep the water out of us, yet sail unfettered in this world in which we live…we abide in Jesus and we do as he taught his disciples….GUARD YOUR HEART!

Dr. Bruce Wilkinson’s book, SECRETS OF THE VINE, offers some helpful insights to help us understand how we can guard our hearts from the drowning effects of the water of the world…so, come back tomorrow and we will uncover these wonderful principles together.

Sailing in the loving waters of my Savior,

WPQ

Poem for the Day:

If upon life's seas your tossed

And water gets in the boat…

Abide in Jesus, just trust in Him

And you will stay afloat.

Don't put your faith in things you see

Or trust in your own power.

Life goes best when we abide in Him

Each day and every hour.

WPQ©March 2018

Surrender to the Savior

On my last writing, I posed the question, “ How does one go about abiding in the Lord” and how do we accomplish staying connected to “The Vine” in the tumultuous days in which we live? However, the better question to begin with is how do we know that we are indeed a “part of the Vine”

In scripture, we find my favorite story of the little man known as Zacchaeus in Luke 19, verses 1-11. Here, we see the total transformation of this tax collector as Jesus calls him down from his lofty perch and makes him his host for the evening meal. The Pharisees and others grumble that Jesus would have anything to do with such a sinner…. and Christ’s simple response, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost!”

But notice in the verses just before Christ’s declaration of his life’s mission, Zacchaeus says, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will repay it fourfold.” It is in this declaration of this little man that we see a new heart born, filled with the love of God. It is that transformation that seals the deal and ushers Zacchaeus into a new relationship with the Lord of heaven and earth.

And the same must be true for you and me; before we can seek …before we can be offered  salvation…we must SURRENDER TO THE SAVIOR!!!!!

If we want to truly abide in the Son, we must first surrender our will to him…life can no longer revolve around what you or I want …it must revolve, evolve and involve the statement that Christ made on the doorstep of the home of this horrid little man that everyone despised…. we must surrender to Him so that we can seek and save those that are lost!

 Zacchaeus provides the perfect role model as he demonstrated submission to Jesus; he gave half of his wealth to the poor and sought to right the wrongs of his past. In other words, he repented and sought to live a new and better life. The same holds true for you and me. If we confess to belong to Jesus and truly seek to abide in Him, we cannot cling to our “old” ways, habits, shortcomings and idiosyncrasies…we must repent and refurbish the old life with the new indwelling of the Holy Spirit that is vital to anyone that wants to abide in Jesus.

So, today cast aside all the things that would keep you from complete surrender to Christ and begin ANEW in the freshness of the Savior…. listen for His voice, sing a new song, read His word and know that wherever you go, HE GOES…. so choose wisely!

Jesus came to seek and to save and if you will surrender your will to Him in a new and resolute way, you will be taking the first step to a new realm of personal intimacy with Jesus…. the life lived in abiding joy, peace and eternal fulfillment.

Come back again as we continue to learn how to draw close to Him…

Living in surrender…seeking the lost for the Savior,

WPQ

Poem for the Day:

You may attempt to persuade another

To change their point of view;

But nothing speaks more plainly than

What Christ has done in you.

So if another’s lifestyle

You are hoping to rearrange....

Testify how the Father’s love

Can make an everlasting change.

Seek to live a godly life;

Be a Beacon in the darkest night.

For those who call Jesus, LORD...

Will be His Salt & Light!

WPQ©March 2018

When the World Puts the SQUEEZE On....

We have all heard the old adage, “When the world hands you lemons, make lemonade!” This seems to be a strong statement of how we are to react when things don’t seem to go our way; however, I have a question that comes from a different vantage point that I would like for us to consider.

“What comes out of you when the world puts the squeeze on?” is a question that begs for an answer with a biblical bent. Now, we all know that if you squeeze fresh oranges, you get orange juice….with those little bits of pulp. If you squeeze lemons, you do indeed get the first ingredient of lemonade….LEMON JUICE. Grapes…grape juice! Apples….apple juice! Pomegranates….well, you get my drift!

But, what about when the world squeezes you and me….what kind of “juice” comes out? As Christians, we are to bear the “Fruits” of the Spirit and according to the passage in Galatians 5:22-23 that reads, “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

So when the pressures of life seem to be bearing down on you and the squeeze is on…. what “juice” comes out of you? Do you rejoice with a fellow employee that gets the promotion you wanted or do you belittle their worth with unkind words that reflect your attitude of “sour grapes”? Do you show kindness and patience when a rude driver cuts you off in traffic or do you fill the air with words that aren’t fit for use at church?

Whatever we do …wherever we go…. whatever we say…we should reflect the love and compassion of our Savior so that when the world applies pressure to our often tenuous situation …what is squeezed out of our mouth is characterized by His love, His grace and His mercy.

But how can we be sure that what comes out of us in times of intense pressure will be the fruit of the Spirit…. the simple answer is this…. we must abide in Him! Jesus told his disciples and us, on the night before his crucifixion, that we could do NOTHING without Him…that all of our hopes to accomplish anything for Him would meet failure …unless WE ABIDE IN HIM.

So no matter how we try to survive the real and on-going pressures of this world, we will fail… and what comes out of us WILL NOT be pleasing to our Heavenly Father, unless we learn to abide in the person of Jesus Christ.

If you’re not sure how to pull this off, yet you desperately want to have the fruits of the Spirit flowing from you when the world applies its devastating pressure; follow along over the next few days as we examine (from the Scriptures) how to abide in Jesus.

Abiding in Him…Enjoying the pressure,

WPQ

Poem for the Day:

Father, it is through your Spirit

We are filled with your love and power.

Please make us more like Jesus

Each day and every hour.

Teach us how to walk in faith

So that when the world presses in;

We will faithfully follow you

And stay far away from sin.

Keep us safe in your loving hands

Let no harm come our way!

But if it does, may this we know....

Your love is sufficient for us today.

WPQ© March 2018

The 3 C's of Godly Conviction....

There's a old saying that goes, "If you are not sure what you STAND FOR, then there's a good chance you will FALL FOR ANYTHING!" That is a statement that would have definitely been true for one of the great characters in the Bible...the prophet Daniel, if he had not been in possession of the three "C's" of Godly conviction.

Daniel 1:8 reads, "Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief official not to defile himself."

You see, Daniel was a young man in possession of the 3 "C's" ...Courage, Character and Commitment. He stood his ground before the King of Babylon because he stood firm in the Word of God that had been taught to him all his life. He had been instructed on what he could and could not eat as a Jewish man and his conviction was solid...and so was his character.

He could have beat his chest and told his captors that he would not be defiled and that there was not anything they could do to him to make him change his mind; rather he asked permission of the chief official and gave him an alternative plan that allowed him to stand on his conviction to honor his God and at the same time, give God a chance to show His great power.

His courage could have been further tested, but God honored this young captive and set in motion the plan to have Daniel find favor with the officials and allow him to rise to great prominence at a later time in the Babylonian kingdom that he now called home.

Time and time again, when one looks at the life of Daniel, we see him display his courage through his character...He was ALWAYS seeking to do God's will and to obey God's laws, even though the expedient measure would have been to do what he was ordered to do and stay on the good side of his captors...but that was not the man we know as Daniel. Daniel was a man of great commitment as he spend the majority of his life as a captive in a far-away land; always seeking to know what God's will was for him and then having the courage of his convictions to stand for Jehovah God...and in that stand, GOD NEVER LET HIM DOWN!!!!

Which brings me to the question for you and me...do we possess the three 'C's" when it comes to taking a stand for our God in today's sinful and perverse society or are we willing to compromise our values and beliefs for the expediency of tolerance or "political correctness"?

Heaven forbid this to be true!!!! May we as believers in the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth stand firm in our faith, courageous in our willingness to call out evil for what it is and back those that are committed to 4stand up for truth and justice before our God and before the eyes of a judging world.

It takes Courage....Character...and Commitment to be one of God's elect...what do you stand for today?

Standing firm in the Faith...Committed to His Will,

WPQ

Poem for the Day:

We are called to take a stand

And shine God's brilliant light;

By casting aside the darkness and

The evil of the night.

We are called to live God's truth,

Not to wallow in worldly lies.

To live a pure and committed life

Rather than seek to please man's eyes.

We are called to stand our ground

When all others turn and run...

For we our soldiers committed to

Jesus Christ, God' Son.

So take your stand my Christian friends

With no fear of what may come!

For one day when the battles oe'r

We all are going HOME!

WPQ © March 2018

R U LIVING IN THE SECOND MILE?

In our fast-paced lifestyle of go-go-go so we can get-get-get, we often let the opportunities to do good deeds slip by us as we race from one place to another. We reason that what we have to do is of such  utmost importance that anything that would slow us down or distract us from our appointed meetings, functions and other time-consuming activities is really not our concern.

But what is concern for our fellow human brothers and sisters who walk beside us on this orb we call Earth?  It is our ability to show love and compassion coupled with our desire to meet the needs of others because that is what our God has called us to do....and that is truly what sets apart so often from the "wannabes" and the "woulda, shoulda, couldas" that do good works for others because of the reward or recognition that they might receive.

In the days that Christ spent in His ministry on Earth, the Romans enacted a law that was a real burden to the Jewish nation held in servitude to their oppressors. Simply stated, a Roman soldier could stop a man on the road, make him stop what he was doing or where he was going and compel him to carry his armor and other items for a mile. But Christ, in His Sermon on the Mount, instructed those that would follow Him to do more...TO GO A SECOND MILE WITH THAT SOLDIER AS THEY CONTINUED TO BEAR HIS LOAD FOR THE EXTRA MILE.

WHY...you may ask? Jesus knew that the battle to win back their freedom would not occur on a battlefield, but could be won...one Roman heart at a time! By this simple act of kindness, uncalled for by the soldier and totally given as an act of more than fulfilling the law of the land, Jesus wanted his followers to win the souls of these men by their good deeds, done out of grace and obedience... not obedience to the law...rather obedience to the Lord!

Now for most of us, going the second mile for someone we know, love or trust is probably not a big deal. But what about that person that crosses our path in life who is not part of our "circle of life"...What then?

Well, before we think too much on that... consider this! We first have to be willing to go the first mile before we can ever entertain the possibilities of going the "second mile." So where are you in your journey of reaching out to others that need your help?

 Like the associate at work who just lost her husband; the neighbor down the street who just suffered a devastating fire in their home; an acquaintance at church that everyone is now praying for as they deal with a terminal cancer...the list and the opportunities are endless...and if you are willing to go the first mile, there may be some things on your busy lifestyle list that go unanswered...but taking that first step allows you to consider what Christ has called each of us to do...LIVE IN THE SECOND MILE!!!!

Consider today how you can seek out and find those that may be won to Christ just because you took the time to leave your comfort zone and go that first mile...and then you may decide that one mile just won't get the job done...thus preparing to do as Christ instructed us to do...go the SECOND MILE!

Living for the opportunities to go the second mile,

WPQ

Poem for the day:

Is your life filled to the brim?

Too many things you must get done;

So every day you work endlessly

From sunrise to setting sun.

But what about those lost soul you pass

As you rush from place to place.

Barely having time to speak...

With a scowl upon your face.

For Christ has commissioned each of us

To walk the first... then go the second mile;

And when you give to others unselfishly,

You make your Heavenly Father smile!

WPQ © FEBRUARY 2018

R U LIVING WITH STINKIN' THINKIN' ?

If you are like me, some days you swing your feet out of bed, put them on the floor and as soon as you do, your mind begins to race with all sorts of thoughts about what you have to do today; the battles that you will have to fight; the problems you will have to solve or overcome... I could go on and on.

In fact, it is just that type of thinking that will make you crawl back in bed, pull the covers up over your head and decide that this is the best way to face your life today. Your big problem here....YOU HAVE THE WRONG MINDSET! Yes, it is indeed easy for even the strongest of believers to want to behave in such a manner...it's all because they have allowed themselves to get swallowed up in what I call.... STINKIN' THINKIN'!

It is this kind of thinking that has us focus on ALL the wrong things...the bills that are due; the crabby boss that we have to answer to; the friend that has knifed us in the back...again. I think you catch my drift.

But what if we awoke with more than just a positive mental attitude...what if we stepped out of bed with the mind of Christ as we thought of all the places of service we could be today; the good that we could do at work, on the commuter train, riding in the carpool. What if rather than focusing on the bad things that may lie before us, we concentrate on the good that God has already accomplished in our lives and the promise that there is more to come.

Paul probably shared this best in his writings to the Philippians in Chapter 4: 4-9 which reads,

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

So let's do what Paul suggests and be joyous...since joy does not come from our circumstances  but rather it is born in our minds and hearts because of who we are in Christ Jesus...FOR HE IS THE TRUE SOURCE OF OUR JOY IN THE LORD! And if a problem does pop up, we can continue to follow Paul's teaching and just PRAY and not WORRY ABOUT THE OUTCOME...It's in the hands of the Almighty which should give us the peace that Paul writes about...one that transcends all understanding.

But the real crux of what Paul is saying to us regarding our mindset is explained starting with verse 8 when he gives us a litany of the things that should fill our minds...NOBLE, RIGHTEOUS, PURE, LOVELY AND ADMIRABLE THOUGHTS...if it is worthy of excellence or praise, then we are to fill our minds from the start of each day to the very end with those thoughts. And when we do, there is no room for STINKIN' THINKIN'!

Living with a mindset that lets others know that I belong to Christ....

WPQ

Poem for the day:

If you seek to follow Christ

But questions fill your mind;

Just trust the Father up above

For the answers in due time.

For He has called each of us

To be willing to step out;

To declare our faith and love for Him,

Forever… and without doubt.

To live each day with our thoughts in tow

And show others His great love;

To keep our minds ever focused on

The thoughts of things Above.

WPQ © FEBRUARY 2018