He's Got It

How fitting that we start this New Year in the same way we started last year, In the Beginning.

Vernon shared with us what God has been teaching him through Luke 6, as well as how that ties so beautifully to everything else in the Bible. We were talking about fruit and seeds and asking ultimately what kinda of plant are we and what is our heart growing.

It was great to see how God is seeking to teach us about who He is in everything, even in a simple little plant. That In the Beginning he was teaching us not only about how he made plants, but teaching us about the human condition. How he has made us to bear fruit, to tend the gardens, and to be apart of his harvest. In the Beginning He shows us that he has already put the seeds in the ground and in our hearts, not just any seeds, but good seeds to multiply beauty and truth.

It is challenging to examine our own lives and see how God is looking to grow the seeds in us. Some times its hard to actually believe that God has already put good seed in us, let people who we don't even like. Sometimes when we are getting ready to ask God to grow us more into His image we become afraid of the branches he might cut off, the dead branches, the branches we think are who we are and supporting us. We are afraid of giving up control of our own lives and the control we wish we had on those around us. But the truth that we need to grasp, is that when we loose control we are truly free.

No more dead branches getting in the way of the fresh, renewed, and restored branches. We don't have to worry about being wrong or right because its not ours to be right or wrong about.

No more clinging to things that fade and die like our material things, our jobs, our money, and our false sense of security, but being secure in the one thing that has already conquered death and decay, Christ.

But it can truly be quite terrifying to believe that God is in control and not us because we have known the other for so long. If we are to be honest with ourselves, and look at the way we live, we almost trust the dieing and the decay in our lives more then we trust God at work in us. Trusting God and stepping into the unknown is a scary thing, but a freeing thing. If we have nothing to loose then what can we be afraid of because we have already lost it? If we have everything to gain what are we worried about, we will only gain? If we have already put all of our desires and wants to death what are we afraid of we have already died can won't be disappointed when we don't get what we want, or think we deserve? If we know God then it is not an unknown because we are stepping into him, and the fruit will just happen, it will over flow out of our love and knowledge of God. Because love and knowledge for God is Love and Grace for those around us.

And Knowing God is Knowing our neighbor.

This year let's as a community as well as individuals seek to abide in God continually

in the mornings and in the evenings,

with friends and family and while alone,

in joy and in sorrow,

at the barbary and at our places of work,

while teaching and while being taught,

at our schools and on septa.

Let's encourage one another and Seek to renew our hearts and our minds so that we with out even thinking about it bear lasting fruit. Lets live life seeking to have Gods eyes for other people so that we can see what seeds God has placed in them, and seek to partner with the Holy Spirit and grow those seeds in others.

Let's Seek first the Kingdom of Christ, which is Justice, mercy, love and grace for everyone, and everything else will just flow with us, in us, and through us.

Let's throw off everything that so easily wraps us up, entangles us, and trips us and live this life that God has prepared for us.

I'm Excited to hear how God moves this week in our lives, and excited to see how God grows all of us more and more into a representation of Him.

As usual Grace and peace!

Chris

If you ever want to blog anything God has put on your heart Go for it. Just let me know and you can.