Fruit Trees

Ever been around someone who left a bad taste in your mouth? Have you ever walked away from a person with a sour mood when before you interacted with them you were happy?


That, my friends, was evidence of some bad trees. The Bible says that a tree is known by its fruit. (Luke 6:44) Good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit.

When we go about life, we put out our fruit as we intermingle with each other. Whether or not that fruit is helpful or harmful is contingent on our relationship to God.

We all can profess Christ, but it’s what comes out of us that really tells if the love of God is our motivator. When we let God’s spirit get down on the inside of us and change our mindsets, we began to exude the fruit of the spirit.

God’s fruit is love, joy, peace, and patience. His bounty consists of meekness, kindness, and gentleness. God’s harvest includes faith and self control. When those characteristics are evidenced in our lifestyle, the people around us can be well nourished and benefit from what we offer.

In the same manner, when we give out negativity, we are causing the people around us to walk away with that negativity in their spirits. As Christians, we are to build up, not tear down. We are supposed to light up the world, not cause it to be downtrodden.

As you go about your day today, remember that you are a fruit bearing tree for the Kingdom. Make sure you cause someone to have a healthy bite today!

Verse of the Day: Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Matthew 7:16-20

Pray for the Jews and for Israel

Hmmm… Normally each morning I pray and ask God what He would want me to share on my blog. This morning when I prayed, I felt God was telling me to remind you to pray for the Jews and the nation of Israel.

Now praying for Israel is not one of my regular practices by any means, so I am paying special attention to the voice of the Lord. I will also be adding them to my regular rotation of prayer subjects. We all have things we have to get right sometimes.

It is important to remember that the Jews are God’s chosen people. They are the ones whose history we read in order to strengthen and fortify our own faith. It is their struggles and victories that we identify with in relation to our everyday walk.

Their Jehovah is our Jehovah. It is sad that a majority of them have not realized that our Messiah is their Messiah too.

We see a lot about Israel in relation to their struggle to maintain the borders and land that they feel is rightfully theirs. We see how they are fighting and dying for what they believe in overseas. God’s chosen people have constantly been in the midst of war.

As believers, we should be interceding for them on a regular basis. We should be covering the country of Israel with prayers of faith and protection. We should be lifting up their leaders to the Lord asking Him to give them wisdom to direct their people.

We should ultimately be praying for the Jews that are around the world to come to the realization that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah. We should be crying out to God for their eyes to be opened to the fact that their Savior has already come.

Please take some time to say a prayer for the Jews and the nation of Israel today. Thanks.

Verse of the Day: Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:1-3

Thanksgiving Friday!

Praise the Lord, Saints! God is so good, and I thank Him for blessing me with another fruitful week. This week I have grown and realized some things about myself. God is consistently working on me, and I will continue to strive to get better.

This week I am thankful for Love. There are always so many ways that people show it, and I have been blessed to both give and receive unexpected love on this week. Can I tell you that I was more excited to give the love than get it? It was like Christmas came early! I was so filled with joy to be able to sow into someone else's life. Thank you, Jesus, for allowing me to be a giver!

I am also appreciative of the gifts of support God has placed in my life. I am thankful for all of you - my supportive readers and followers. Thanks so much for logging on and taking part in the word that God gives to me on a daily basis. I may not see the comments, but the stats don't lie. You guys are tuning in!

There are also so many people who give me encouraging words, and inspire me to keep going with what God has given me. Thank you, Lord, for people who build me up in Christ!

Today, make sure you offer up some thanksgiving and praise to your Heavenly Father as well. I trust that He's been blessing you just as much, if not more than myself.

I pray all of you have a blessed day and weekend.

Tick Tock!

Whether we’d like to admit it or not, we all have fallen culprit to The Clock. You know, that little counter in your head that ticks off the months, weeks days, and hours that it’s taking for God to answer your prayers. Most of us also added the accessory of The Deadline to give ourselves parameters for when God has to come through for us.

We go about our lives continuing to pray, and claim that we are trusting God to come through for us. The reality is we only can trust God for so long. We keep meticulous maintenance of how much time is left on The Clock and how much closer we’re getting to The Deadline.

Tick-tock…We’ve been praying for that mate for so many years… If they don't show up by our deadline, we’re going to go ahead and take matters into our own hands. Tick-tock… We’ve been believing God for a financial breakthrough… If we don’t get that increase, next month we are just going to have to cut back on our tithes and offerings. Tick-tock… Feel free to insert your own Deadline here. Tick-Tock!

We all need to take out our mental mallets and Kill The Clock! Pull out your mental erasers and eradicate The Deadline! We claim to trust in Almighty God. How can He be mighty when we’ve installed a backup agenda?

Imagine what might have happened if the Hebrew boys had kept up with The Clock. 'Oh, we’ll trust God as far as the doors of the furnace, but if He doesn’t come through, we’ll just have to bow down.' If the boys had tried to save their three lives, the Lord would not have been able to show out and save a nation!

So no matter what you are facing or how long you’ve been facing it, continue to stand firm in the power and wisdom of God. Trust Him to lead and guide you according to His will and with His timing.

If you can’t really bring yourself to let go of your own agenda, you need to reevaluate why you’re a Christian at all.

Verse of the Day: Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him… Job 13:15

The Peace of God

This morning in my meditation time I reflected on the greatness of God’s peace. I remembered the story of Jesus when He calmed the sea during a storm. (Luke 8:22-25)

Jesus was sleeping soundly as the disciples ran about the boat certain that they were about to die. When they woke Jesus up, He didn’t rush into a panic with them. He didn’t even pay attention to the water that had built up in the boat, or the waves that were crashing all around. He simply spoke to the winds and the waves, and everything calmed down.

Often when storms arise in our lives, we tend to react like the disciples. We look at the storms and the winds that are blowing around us, and we allow the chaos to cause us to grow panicked and distressed.

Yet we have the authority to influence the storm. We have the power to speak peace to the disturbances that try to arise in our lives. It’s up to us to utilize our authority.

Allowing God’s peace to reign in our lives will give us the clarity and the wisdom to remain calm in a crisis. It’s hard to fly off the handle when God’s peace rules your countenance.

We can obtain this peace through a lifestyle of prayer. Constant communication with our Heavenly Father will keep our mind constantly focused on the goodness and greatness of Him. Hearing His will and purpose for our lives on a daily basis will allow us to be assured that He has our back and is walking with us in everything.

It’s hard to get flustered when you know that the King of the Universe has a personal vested interest in your well being.

So today, take some time to fellowship with the Father. Allow His spirit to minister to your heart and reveal His plans for you. Take comfort and know that nothing will be able to stop you from fulfilling God’s purpose for your life. No matter what obstacle arises, grab hold of God’s peace knowing that you will make it through to the other side.

Verse of the Day: Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6, 7

The Right Way

You all already know that I’m a political junkie. I love to keep track of what’s going on in our American government. Lately, I have been so disgusted, disappointed, and frustrated with our elected officials.

Right now America is suffering through one of the worst recessions in our history. Our greedy behavior got us into a huge mess, and we are all hurting from the results. Now our elected officials have the task of navigating our country out of this debacle.

They know the solutions needed to help us right ourselves, but our leaders cannot seem to make the hard decisions. They are so afraid of the possibility of hurting their chances of staying in office that they are refusing to implement correct change.

Although we all can point fingers and analyze their behavior, some of us Christians act the same way. We know that some of our own behavior has gotten us into some messes. We see that our lives are not lining up with the plan that God has ordained for us. Yet we continue on in our ways because we see God’s way as too hard or asking too much from us.

So many lives are mired in mediocrity because people don’t want to choose to embark on the difficult journey…even though they know the difficult way is the right way!

Remember the phrase: No pain, no gain? A lot of us have not gained anything in life because we refuse to go through the temporary pain of leaving our comfort zones to enter into unfamiliar territory.

God has so many great things that He wants to impart to us! He’s just waiting on us to take the step in His direction.

Abraham had to leave his family. Moses had to face Pharaoh. David stared down a giant. Esther risked her life to see the king. Peter stepped out of the boat.

All of these people chose to do the hard thing and were blessed because of it. What blessing is waiting on you? Come on, take that step. Make the choice to do the hard thing and watch what God does for you.

Verse of the Day: Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men. Proverbs 22:29

Everyone Loves Gifts!

Hey, Guys! I’m so glad to be back. I feel refreshed and rejuvenated from my vacation. I praise God that I was able to sit back for a second and take a breath. Now, it’s back to the grindstone.

As the holidays spring upon us, a lot of us will be taking trips to the mall and scouring the internet in order to purchase gifts for our family and friends. We will endure packed stores and long lines just for the joy of showing someone love.

Our Heavenly Father also has given us gifts. We like to talk about the Best Gift He offered in His Son, but God has also blessed everyone with individual gifts as well. We all have talents that are unique to ourselves. Each one of us has something to offer the world that only we can do. It’s so amazing to me that as we continue to grow and mature, we still discover hidden gifts and talents that we didn’t even know we had!

If you’re someone who thinks they have no special gifts – you’re wrong! Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what gifts you got. You weren’t left out.

Take a moment to think about those special gifts and talents that God has given you. Give Him praise for making you unique! I would encourage you to figure out a way to offer those gifts back to God.

If you can sing, sing a song of praise and worship to Him. If you write, write a poem or story highlighting His goodness. If you are a giver, find a way to give to His Kingdom. If you are an encourager, find someone to encourage in the Lord. The best way to thank God for His gifts is to use them for His glory.

Verse of the Day: I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14