Pruning the Branches

As I was doing my daily reading I happened across these verses in John 15. It was verses 1-2.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

The more I thought about that verse the more it hit me. Pruning is not a pleasant experience. It involves removing the parts of the plant that are dead or dying. Just the other day at work I looked at the plant on top of my desk and I realized that there were quite a few dead leaves and stems on it. I gently went through and plucked off the bad leaves and cut of the dying stems in order to make my plant look better. Sucks to be the plant though. Think about it. Like when Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz picks the apple off the tree and the tree gets mad at her. I'm sure that if a plant could talk it would probably not like the fact that I was pruning off some of its parts. But then I looked at my plant later and after some water and pruning it sprung back to life and began to really blossom.

I mentioned all that to ask this question...What are some areas of your life that need pruning? When I look at my life I notice that I have a serious issue with food. That is a branch that I am going to need to prune and remove. There are other things in my life as well that prevent me from truly blossoming. The problem is (and I'm guessing that most of us have this issue from time to time) that pruning involves pain. It involves removing something from your life, and usually there is some pain involved. But the good news is when I look at my plant now, I can tell that the plant is far better off than it was before. Which means the same for me. If I allow God to walk through my life, my garden if you will, and remove the parts of my life that are preventing me to grow, there might be some pain, but in the long run it's better than the whole garden dying. I have to be willing to allow God in and allow him to prune the dying and diseased branches. If I don't then I will continue to struggle with my weight as well as spiritually in my walk with God. God is the Gardener, and he does not want me to have bad branches, especially when I am attaching myself to Christ, the Vine.

Lord, I ask you to walk through my garden. Prune away the parts of my life that are unhealthy. Help me to deal with whatever pain I might feel in the process, and help me to remember that in the long run the pruning process is necessary for me to grow closer to you.

In Christ name,

Amen

Down but not out

I've really been struggling the past few weeks. I haven't been working out and I have not been eating properly. I seem to be in a rut. But today I found out what a rut is...It is a coffin with both sides kicked out. I don't want to be in a rut anymore. But my biggest problem right now is the fact that I haven't done anything to fix the situation. I just ask myself why. Why did I eat that? Why didn't I go work out today? Why haven't I posted a video? My new question is when am I going to stop asking why and just change something? It does no good for me to sit and dwell in the past. It does no good to wonder why and sit and do nothing.
I realized today that one thing I do is when I get in a situation like this is that I don't tell anyone. I don't open up and talk about it. I pretend like everything is fine when it really is not. I ignore the problem and hope it will go away by itself...but you know what? It never does. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger until I can't control it anymore. I thought this video blog would help, but I found out that I can just "forget" to put a video up.
I am going to begin to get more personable about what is going on. I'm not going to hide from my problems anymore. I am not going to pretend they don't exist. I need to just face them head on and deal with them.
Therefore, tomorrow I will step on the scale for the first time in 2 weeks. I will look at that number and face the facts. I will take responsibility for it and then ask myself the question...Now what? What am I going to do now? I might be down, but I am not out. The measure of a man is not how he acts when everything is going great, but when adversity comes. I want to be the man that God calls me to be.

David and Goliath

The story of David and Goliath is known as one of the most popular stories in The Bible. It has even penetrated into society. When one person takes on a large company in a lawsuit it's called a David vs. Goliath case. Even some sporting events will play on the David vs. Goliath role. But there is so much more to this story than just a young man taking on a 9 foot freak of nature. We see something interesting in how David takes on Goliath. You see, David does not say "I'm going to take care of this." He says "The Lord...will deliver deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." While every one else is focusing on the size of Goliath, his armor, and his spear, David focuses on God.
What is your Goliath? What are you battling? And are you focusing on the problem rather than God? David reminds us that when we focus on our giants, we fall, but when we focus on God, our giants fall.

Do you want to get well?

Today, Tim gave a great sermon from John 5 where Jesus heals the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. The story is interesting because of the way Jesus engages the man. He seems to be lacking that pity and compassion that he normally has, and he simply asks the man, “Do you want to get well?” The man’s response is not “yes,” or “no,” but he blames others:
“Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
His response is to blame others…to make excuses. No one will help him…He’s not fast enough…It’s hopeless. Jesus responds with “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Jesus engages the man in a unique and incredible way that only Jesus could have done.

The question for some of us can truly be do we want to get well? Some of us can become too comfortable being the victim. We can become comfortable with the pain and sorrow that we are dealing with and we can make it to where we would rather just stay in that situation, rather than get better. And Tim’s not talking about someone with a real need who just lost a loved one or someone who is truly grieving, but what he was talking about are those people who never seem to deal with that they are going through. They seem to relish in the sadness and when given the opportunity to heal they never take it. They make excuses for why they shouldn’t.

I began to think about my own life. How many times do I delay the healing process? How many times do I blame others for my current situation? How many times have I allowed myself to stay in a bad situation because it was comfortable?

The answer is too many times. I kept the weight on for a number of reasons but I’m pretty sure that one of them is because I wanted to feel like I was cared for. See, my dad has always cared about my weight, and I think that at some personal level I felt like I needed to keep the weight on too keep him caring about me. I’m beginning to realize that he cares for me no matter what I weigh, and no matter what I do with my life. Well, I am tired of making excuses and I’m tired of waiting by the pool of Bethesda to just wine and complain. I want to do something about my problems, and I want to get well. I am going to allow Christ to heal me and release my from my past that haunts me, and then I am going to pick up my mat and walk

Pain is sometimes necessary and there are people who are in real pain. My job in life is not to diagnose who is sick and who is “sick.” That’s God’s job, and those people will be held accountable for that. But I am supposed to be there to mourn with the mourners, and to help them in the healing process. But I pray that we will begin to understand when we are truly hurting, and when we are just making excuses so that we don’t have to deal with our problems. Let us allow Jesus Christ to heal our hearts and give us the ability to pick ourselves up and walk.