Wash It Off

     Some branches grow too close to the ground, and get dirty so that they will not produce fruit.  The first thing a caretaker does to a branch that is not producing fruit is to pick up the branch.  The next thing that he does is wash it off.  John 15:3 says, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."  The caretaker picks up that branch that has gotten dirty and carefully washes the dirt off of it so that it can once again get the nutrients that it needs to begin producing fruit.

     At times in our lives we grow to close to this world, and we get ourselves dirty.  James tells us that pure religion is to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.  Rather than trying to see how close we can get to the Son, we try to see how close we can get to the world, and we find ourselves getting dirty.  I have four daughters that I love very much.  My girls give me hugs and love to play and climb on me like I'm their personal jungle gym.  Many times when they do this, they do not always have the cleanest of hands or mouths.  My close are constantly getting hand prints on them with food and dirt.  This happens because I have a close relationship with my girls, so often I find my clothes dirty with whatever they have been doing or eating that day.  And the same is true of us spiritually.  We grow so close to the ground, that they hand prints of this world show up all over us. 

     At one such point in David's life, he wrote one of the most loved Psalms that we have in our Bibles, Psalm 51.  He had grown too close to the world, and had gotten the dirt of adultery, pride, murder, and deceit all over himself.  He began by admitting his guilt.  Over and over again in this psalm, he mentions his sin, his transgressions, and his iniquities.  We too need to acknowledge the mistakes that we have made.  We need to be honest with God and with ourselves about the dirt that we have in our lives.  He cried out to God in verse number two, "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."  He continues that thought in verse seven, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."  David said, "Lord, I have gotten dirty with the things of this world, and I need you to wash me."  Just like the caretaker lovingly washes off the dirty branch, God will wash off His dirty child.  Is there an area of your life that has grown too close to the world?  If there is, ask God to wash it off today.

Pick Up That Branch

     In John 15, Jesus uses an illustration of a vine to teach us about our relationship with Him.  He tells us that He is the vine, and that we are the branches.  He also gives us the progression that He would like to see in our lives.  He tells us that He wants us to go from producing no fruit, to producing much fruit.  He begins with what would be most important to the person who owns the vine, and that is the branches that are not bearing any fruit.  If a branch is not bearing fruit, then it is not profitable.
     Verse 2 begins,  "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:"  Now the first thing that we need to pay attention to is those two words, "in me", because this branch is in contrast to those that are not in Him found in verse 5.  If you are in Him, but are not bearing fruit, He is not just going to throw you away, but instead He will pick you up.  There are branches on the vine that grow too close to the ground.  They get mud, dirt and filth all over their leaves and so they are unable to produce the fruit that they should.  When this happens, the caretaker of the vine comes along and picks this branch up off of the ground.  That is the meaning behind "taketh away" in verse number 2.  It means "to raise up, elevate, or lift up".
     When we aren't producing the fruit that God wants us to, He comes along and picks us up.  Many times in our lives we grow too close to the world, and we get the mud, dirt and filth of this world all over us, so that we no longer produce the fruit that we are supposed to produce.  The Bible is filled with people who at one time or another grew too close to the world.  David is a good example.  He grew close to the world and got the filth of adultery and murder all over him.  David needed God to pick him up.  What about you?  Are you growing too close to the world?  Have you gotten the filth of the world all over you?  Ask God to pick you up today.  In our next article, we will look at the second thing a caretaker does to a branch that is not producing fruit, and that is he cleans it off.

Starving

     Some very tragic news has come out of Philadelphia this week as a 3 year old girl has died.  What makes the news so sad is the way that she died, which was by starvation.  At the time of her death, she weighed in at only 11lbs, approximately one third of a normal three year old.  There have been a few cases just like this one that have come out recently, and it blows my mind to think that someone can do this to a child that is under their care.
     But it also reminds me of many homes and churches where people are starving spiritually.  We provide people with entertainment instead of the nutrition that they need from God's Word.  Jesus, Himself, said,  "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."  It is important as leaders in our homes and churches that we give the Word of God out to those who are under our authority.  All over this nation there are people who are starving spiritually.  And just as this little girl's parents had a responsibility to provide for her needs, we too have a responsibility to provide for the spiritual needs of those around us.  Just as this girl's parents will be held accountable for how they took care of her, or in this case failed to take care of her, we will be held accountable by God for how we have fed His people that He placed within our care.  We have been commanded to "feed the flock", are we being obedient to this command?
     We need to feed our families by having family devotions, and prayer time together.  We feed our families by teaching them songs that have a Biblical emphasis.  We need to feed the people in our church by preaching the Word of God instead of our own opinions.  By proclaiming the truth of Scripture instead of merely telling stories.  By having Bible classes that dig down deep into the text, instead of dishing out a shallow faith.  Don't let those who are under your care starve to death spiritually.  Let's do what Jesus commands us to do, and that is feed His people.

Getting Past Your Past

     We have all made mistakes in our lives.  Getting over those mistakes can be difficult, but it is possible.  We should learn the lesson from those mistakes, but not let the mistake itself dominate our lives.  The Bible is full of accounts of men and women who failed and got up again to serve the Lord.  One such person was Peter.  On the night that Jesus was betrayed, He let Peter know that he would deny Him.  Peter quickly blurted out, "Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee."  A little while later Jesus is taken captive and Peter runs away and out of fear he watches the events unfold from a distance.

     While Peter was watching, a maid came unto him and said, "Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee."  Peter in fear denies Jesus before all of them.  To get away from them, he moves out onto the porch where another maid recognizes him and says, "This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth."  Peter tells them that he doesn't even know who Jesus is.  Some time later others came to Peter and said that you must have been with Jesus because you don't talk like a Galilean fisherman.  Immediately Peter begins to curse and to swear denying that he knew Jesus.  At that point the rooster crowed and he remembered what Jesus had said, and he went out and wept.  Peter was overcome by guilt.

     After Jesus' resurrection, Peter is having a hard time getting over the mistake that he had made in denying Christ and he quits the ministry.  He decides that he is going to go back to his old lifestyle and be a fisherman again.  He allows his past mistakes to keep him down.  Rather than being who God wanted him to be, he allowed his past mistakes to dictate who he was going to be.  He spends some time with Jesus and is confronted on his love for the Savior.  At that point Peter decides to get over his mistakes and moves on to serve Christ.  Just a few months later, Peter stands up and preaches and 3,000 people get saved.  All because he chose to get over his past.  Once Jesus has forgiven us of our mistakes, we need to forgive ourselves and move on.  Learn the lessons from your mistakes, and get past your past.

Are You Playing For The Wrong Team?

     This week, Trey Johnson wrote his name in the high school basketball history books.  For years to come people will remember his name and be telling his story.  But not for the right reason.  Trey Johnson plays for Hugo High in Hugo, Oklahoma.  His team is the underdog against Millwood High in the Oklahoma High School state playoffs.  It was a closely contested game, and with just 3.7 seconds left in the game Hugo High was in-bounding the ball with a 37-36 lead.  All they have to do is get the ball in-bounds and dribble out the clock.  Millwood was guarding well on the in-bounds pass when Trey Johnson broke away from the pack.  His teammate threw him the ball and with time expiring from the clock, he scored a basket in the wrong hoop to give Millwood, the opposing team, the winning basket.
     Romans chapter 13 paints a very similar picture.  Verse 11 begins, "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.  Let us walk honestly, as in the day;  not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."
     If we know Christ as our Savior, we have been put on His "team".  And yet so many of us live as though we haven't been saved.  Like Trey Johnson, we get caught up in the things that are going on around us and aren't paying attention to which direction we are going.  Paul tells the Roman Christians to WAKE UP!!!!  Look around you.  What direction are you heading in?  Are you going the right way, following the Lord's steps and directions?  Or are you going the wrong way?  If only someone could have gotten Trey's attention a blunder could have been avoided.  I can't imagine the difficulties that Trey will go through in his town and high school, because of one mistake that he made.  The mistakes that we make by playing for the wrong team can cost us a lot more.  Are you playing for the wrong team?  Look at what jersey you are wearing.  Does it say, "World", "Flesh", or even "Devil" on it?  Or does it read "Lord Jesus Christ"?  Play like it today!!

Are You Refusing To Save A Life?

     This week I read a news article that absolutely horrified me.  How a person could be so heartless as to stand by and just watch a person die without even trying to help.  Glenwood Gardens in Bakersfield, California is an independent living home.  An 87 year old woman named Lorraine Bayless collapsed in the dining room, and needed assistance.  A woman who identified herself as a nurse, called 911.  During the call she was instructed to perform CPR on Lorraine who lay dying near her to which she refused.  Reading through the phone conversation sends chills up my spine.  To think that someone who is supposed to help could be so cold to a person who needs help.
     Sadly, this nurse reminds me of many Christians.  Just like that nurse, our duty is to give people the help that they need.  People all around us are one breath away from death.  Eternal death.  Let that sink in.  They are just one breath away from eternity in the lake of fire.  They need our help.  Yet many of us are like that nurse that refuses to help.  That nurse knew what Lorraine needed.  She knew what could possibly save her life, and yet she just stood back and watched her die.  Even worse is the Christian who knows what his family needs.  They know what it is that their neighbor needs.  They understand what it is that their coworker needs.  And yet they stand by and do nothing.  They never bother to share eternal life with them.
     Before Jesus went back into heaven, he put His people on duty.  He gave us the responsibility to save lives all around us.  Christian, look around you.  Everyday, everywhere you go people are crying our for help.  They are searching for anyone who can give them what they truly need.  Are you refusing to save a life?  Who is it that Jesus would have you reach today?

Surprise!!!!

     While in Florida this last week I noticed a lizard on the door adjacent to our room.  Thinking my girls would like to see it, I tried to catch it.  When I did, the lizard jumped to the ground and ran underneath my shoe.  I crouched down and got into position to catch the lizard.  When I moved my foot the lizard was gone.  It had disappeared.  I checked the bush near me, and the grass in the area, but the lizard was nowhere to be found.  Two and a half hours later, I was sitting in Pastor Ryan Livingston's living room when I felt  something crawling on my knee, underneath my slacks.  I grabbed whatever it was as fast as I could and stood up.  When I got to my feet, a lizard tail hit the floor and began to wiggle all over.  Mystery solved!  And what a surprise it was!  After a lot of work, I managed to get the lizard off of my leg and outside where it belonged.
     This surprise reminded me of Matthew 24.  Jesus was telling His disciples about the end times.  He did not want them to be surprised at the things that would unfold.  In verse 42 He said, "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come."  Two verses later He said, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."  Jesus wants us to be ready for His coming.  He would challenge His disciples to be busy doing what their Master had told them to do.  Imagine the terrible surprise to have the Lord return and find us doing all sorts of things but the main thing He told us to do.  There on the couch I was surprised by the lizard crawling up my leg.  Not really a surprise I enjoyed.  But an even worse thing, would be for Jesus to surprise me at His return and find me not obeying His command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.  Let's heed his warning to watch and be ready!