Grow or die

4:08 p.m. Today's project was to drop Steve off at our friends' home so that he could help Howard with trimming the trees in their orchard. Their beautiful 2 acre property is located in Woodcrest, an unincorporated area on the outskirts of Riverside. However, that much property calls for a lot of upkeep! It's a perfect match: while Steve never tires of landscaping around our house, and enjoys helping others, Howard, now in his 70's, needs the help. "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor," Ecclesiastes 4:9 says.

As the four of us stood around in their kitchen when I came to pick Steve up, Howard said, "About one more time I'll need Steve, for the last group of trees." I asked, "It's been about three weeks now that Steve's been helping--you'll be done then?" Charlotte burst out laughing and said, "Are you kidding? You're actually never done!" "I get it," was my comment, "because once you work down to the last trees, the first ones need trimming again, right?"

Kind of like my hairdresser pointed out this morning about my roots needing attention. ..living things are always growing. It's "grow or die" for life on this planet! Maintenance is helpful, but feeding the body and fertilizing the roots of plants really cause healthy production to occur.

Our Christian lives are the same. We become born again by choosing to ask Christ to forgive our sins and reside in our hearts. We grow by choosing to attend church services and Bible studies, and in a very important choice, spend time with other believers whenever we can. For many of us who lived a very worldly life, that was a very big change! Interactions are free of innuendo or pressure, a fact I very much appreciated as a divorced single gal of 27! At the harvest home Bible study where Steve and I met, we all put our focus on Jesus and His Word, and allowed Him to eventually bring the right person into each of our lives for the authentic, eternal commitment of marriage. Meanwhile, we feasted on God's Word, listened for the Holy Spirit's call to ministry, witnessed to the unsaved, experienced miracles, and matured in our faith! Like the early believers of Acts 2:42, we "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers." And like the early church was pleasing to God, so is the exuberant devotion of new believers today. Result? "The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." (v.47)

But the Christian life is not all outward excitement and obvious forward progress. Like a fruit tree, if it's never pruned and just grows wild, each year's fruit will get smaller. Our wise, caring Father then allows (or even sends) trials and difficulties into our lives. Difficult people, financial or health struggles--Christians are not immune to those. "Whom the Lord loves He chastens," Hebrews 12: 6 says. God corrects us just as a good father does not allow his children to run wild or get off- track from a good direction, a solid, profitable path in life. Trials of any kind are not enjoyable, as any of us who have walked with the Lord for years can tell you. We implore the Lord to deliver us, because we don't like the feel of the pruning shears! "Ouch!Why me?" we plead. Hebrews has the answer further down in verse 11:

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Training--fruit-bearing--righteousness! Aren't those the very things we long for in our lives?

Jesus explained it all in John 15:1-5,8:

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that He may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing...By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

Prune away, Lord--I want to be Your disciple!