I Hate Vines

Monday

I Hate Vines

 “At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.

Job 14:7

Sounds silly huh?  To hate a vine = crazy.  Let me explain; where we live there are a lot of trees, we have forest all around us.  When we first moved here almost fourteen years ago, I noticed something right away:  The vines were overtaking the trees, killing them slowly, methodically and in some cases thoroughly.   

The process is painfully slow and in the beginning, I’m sure the tree doesn’t even know what is happening.  It all seems so wonderful and the vines seem to actually be supporting the tree, helping it in some way.  But when the tree and vine are completely and totally dependent on each other, then the vine takes over and destroy it, little by little.

By the time the vine is ready to obliterate the once beautiful tree, it is so entwined in the branches, woven around and around and around each sprout, that it seems impossible that the two plants were once separate.  It becomes difficult to tell which is which.  The interdependency is so absolute, it’s impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.

It starts with one small little branch that falls off from the weight of the vine, after that, a much larger supporting branch crashes to the ground in defeat.  Pretty soon, the large stunning tree can’t take the multiple breaks and painful entrapment enforced by the vines.  It falls completely to the ground, dead.

The vines = our sin.  The tree = us.  Where do we get our hope?

Lord, please help me to recognize the sin in my life even when it is disguised as something that will possibly help me.  Please Lord, I don’t want this sin to kill me, I need hope

The Sin that Weighs us Down

Tuesday

The Sin that Weighs us Down

....Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Hebrews 12:1

The first thing we do is identify the tree that is overpowered by the vines.  Sometimes, by the time we see it, the vines are so tangled in the tree, it seems we can’t save it.  When we first started trying to save the trees, we would cut the offending plant, and then strenuously pull the vines down from the tree.  Afterwards there would be a huge pile of vines lying on the ground that we needed to dispose of.

After a few years, we changed our strategy.  Instead of saving one tree an hour, we just went around cutting a chunk out of the vines from the ground up.  Then the vines would die a slow death, but we could save many more trees that way.

When it comes to the sin in our life, either way you choose to cut the sin out of your life is ok.  Completely and all at once, or cut it off at the base to let it die a slow death.  You see, just like the vine uses all of the “life” intended for the tree:  oxygen and water, the sin you have will suck the life right out of you.

Honestly, once you start removing the sin you will immediately feel some of the weight fall off.  Each time you sever the sins’ connection to you,  you allow more comforting life to fill you up, instead of death.  When the sin is allowed to continue to intertwine in your life, it is slowly choking the life out of you.

Free yourself now.  Do what ever it takes and look forward to the hope, rather than backwards at the sin.

Lord, I want to turn away from the sin, I want to remove it from my life, give me the strength to do so.  Give me hope.

Hope

Wednesday

Hope

This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.

1Timothy 4:10

Life is hard and it can be a struggle, we all know that.  Then, if we try to remove the sin from our lives, it can really complicate everything.  You could actually say it’s much easier to just keep doing the same ole’ thing rather than trying to rock the boat and do things differently.

Is it just a cliché to say you can find your hope in Jesus Christ? What can you honestly believe in when it comes to Jesus and His word? 

The fact is we need something to believe in.  What do you believe in?  A porn site?  A bottle of vodka?  An adulterous relationship?  A gambling site or boat?  A place to shop?  Let me ask you something……..are these things where you turn when something bad happens in your life.  After you partake in these things, do you feel better or worse?  Do you have hope or guilt?

When you rock the boat and place your trust in Jesus and His word, you will experience life being pumped right into your soul,  rather than the life being sucked right out of you.

Take the first step my friend.  Choose church over sin, doing the right thing over blatantly sinning.  Choose life.

Lord, please give me the strength to turn away from the sin in my life.  Help me to change things up and choose life over death.

Beauty of the Resurrection

Thursday

Beauty of the Resurrection

 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!    Philippians 3:11

Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it praised God, too.    Luke 18:43

Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God!   Luke 13:13

The beauty of the resurrection is this:  When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he instantly removed the vines of sin from our lives.   Co- dependency (us and our sin) is no more.  The vines just fall off because Jesus died for us.  It’s real.  You can feel the weight lifted. 

The analogy of the vines looks like this with Jesus:  the point is that we, on our own can tirelessly work to remove the vines, taking endless years to cut and pull and dispose of them.  But when Jesus comes into the picture and you say “Yes Lord” and the vines are gone.  That is why Jesus died on the cross, He took the pain, remorse and guilt and punishment for our sin.  He comes into our life and the sin is instantly gone.

It’s a choice on your part, but once you make the decision, Jesus can literally fill you up and ease your pain.  Don’t hear what I’m not saying, I’m not saying that all at once you’ll be rich, healthy and perfectly sin-free.  What I am saying is that the weight of the past life will be gone and you are free to start over.   Additionally, you’ll have the help that you didn’t previously have: the help from the creator of the universe.

 Lord, I want to make the decision to follow You.  I want Your help in life and please, forgive me of my past sin.  Come in to my life and live inside of me. 

New Beginning

Friday

New Beginning

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,  I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Jesus said just look at ME, treat everyone else like ME.

Philippians 3:13-14

Once you decide to let Jesus live in your heart, you literally have a new life.  You have the right to leave the past behind and start over.  But really, what does that look like?

For one it means to look toward Him daily.  This simply means start your day with a reminder to yourself to follow Him.  This is a prayer in the morning, simply talking to God and reminding Him that you love Him, talk to Him about your day and ask for His help.

Secondly, it means to only work on yourself and quit trying to fix everyone else around us.  This means treating everyone in our lives with respect and love, even if they don’t deserve it.   In the passage above He says to treat everyone as if they were Him!  This seems impossible as times, but really it’s a small adjustment of attitude and direction.

Just like the trees that we saved from the vines, your life can grow upward and outward faster than ever before.  Without the sin tricking you in to believing it’s good for you….without the sin literally stealing all of your life….without the sin weighing you down, you WILL start to blossom and realize your true potential.   

The second picture labeled “Hope” is of a tree we saved from the vines about ten years ago.  It’s grown and flourished and become a beautiful part of our lives.  You can be that in your own world, a beautiful part of everyone else’s life.

Lord, I love You and thank You so much for loving me back.  Help me to live my life to the fullest, in Your name Lord, Amen.