Are You A Bradford Pear Tree?

Sheila and I went for a pretty nice little motorcycle ride around town today, minus the very strong wind! Seen many trees and plants beginning to blossom. Even our neighbor had her yard mowed today. It is spring!

As we were riding today, I noticed how many Bradford Pear trees were pretty much in full bloom. They are everywhere! It reminded me of something the Lord stirred in my heart a few years ago. Are you, or is your life, like a Bradford Pear tree? Please hang with me for a bit on this!

They seem to be one of the very first trees to blossom. First, the blossoms are white, then, eventually, turns to the green leaves. Big, full shaped trees. They are beautiful to look at.

Here is what the Lord spoke to me. Fruit trees have fruit on them! Cherry trees, apple trees, orange trees, pineapple trees, on and on. But a tree that bears the name of a fruit and does not have any fruit on it! What is up with that? I realize that it partly gets its name from its shape. But still, no fruit?! A fruit tree with no fruit!

How many of us professing Christians are just like that? A tree that is supposed to bear fruit but has no fruit on it? The scriptures make it pretty plain that the world would know us Christians by our love, or our fruit. Not our doctrine, not by how we look, not our ability to quote Scripture to them, not our ability to tell them how wrong they are in the things they do! By our fruit! Which, according to Galatians 5:22, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. Remember, fruit grows from a seed to full size. You and I may be a little sprout in one of these listed, but more mature in another. The point is that fruit is there and growing!

Remember when Jesus came up to the fig tree to pick some fruit to eat, only to find no fruit on it? HE rebuked and cursed the tree, and that doesn't mean HE cussed it out, for those of us from Oklahoma :). Next day it was dead. Our lives need to have fruit in it or we are not presenting properly the life that is in us to present. If we are by name, a fruit tree, but have no fruit, what good are we? See, fruit trees don't bear fruit for their own consumption! They bear fruit for someone else to feed on!

Another thing about the Bradford Pear, their branches are very brittle. They break fairly easy in strong winds and storms. Remember the ice storms in Oklahoma the last few years? There were hundreds of these trees that were lost as a result of the extra weight placed on them. They don't do well in storms! A friend once told me of an old man that worked in a tree nursery. The story was the old man would go out and shake a small tree he had planted in his front yard. My friend asked him why he was doing that? Would he not kill the tree? The old man told him that when he shakes the little tree, it, by nature, thinks it is in a storm and its roots begin to go deeper to hang on for dear life. The ultimate results is a much stronger tree as it grows and matures.

How about you? Do you do well in storms? Do you stand strong in the face of the storms of life? We all face things, even on a daily basis. It is not that we don't make mistakes, or stumble. It is that we have a Greater One that lives in us, and HE is ready to help us in a moment's notice. HE is our strength! We can stand strong if we rely on the work of Christ HE has accomplished for us. Our problem, we want to try to accomplish it much of the time ourselves!

Finally, to bring all this to a close, how is the fruit section in your life? Are you bearing fruit that others can see, partake of, be fed, sustained, and encouraged? How about the strength in your life? Are you strong enough to weather the storms of life that come? Or do you break and fall apart with every storm?

We have all the fruit and strength we need to accomplish the task HE has for us. 2 Peter 1:3 says God's divine power has given us everything we need for life and for godliness. We need to trust that! HE has given us everything we need through Jesus Christ!

Or, are you a Bradford Pear tree?

Just Answer The Question!

In John 5, we have the story of the sick people all laying around the pool at Bethesda. Those who were blind, crippled, paralyzed, were waiting on the water to be stirred by an angel of the Lord. The first one in, was then healed.

A certain man had been there for 38 years, waiting. Can you imagine? Waiting 38 years for something? It is amazing to me that he never lost hope and gave up! In this day and time, we can barely wait 38 days, 38 minutes, maybe 38 seconds! We have no real ability to wait on things these days.

Jesus shows up, and HE knows how long the man has been waiting! Aren't you glad when Jesus shows up in your situation? Jesus asks the man if he wished to get well? The man takes a breath and says that he has no one to help him get in the pool after it has been stirred by the angel. When he gets there, someone has beaten him in, so he is left with nothing.

Why is it that when things are difficult in our lives, we always lay blame to our circumstances as to what is preventing us from attaining what we need and/or desire? The man said, "I have no one to help me..." First of all, let me tell you that I believe we need one another in our lives. No man, or woman, can be productive in their life if they are an island to themselves. We need each other! We are all a part of the Body of Christ!

Old #38, he just began to explain his situation and circumstances to Jesus as to why he couldn't get well. Sounds like you and I today, doesn't it? We are full of explanations as to why we can't have what we want. I know that there are somethings that can't be changed. I think some of our explanations may be real, others may be imagined. Or could some of those explanations be excuses? A friend of mine once said, "Behind every excuse is a lack of desire." I'm not saying #38 didn't want to be healed! I am saying he did not answer Jesus' question! Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed, his response was to detail his circumstances why he couldn't! Jesus had not asked him why he hadn't been healed. Jesus listens, then just tells him to get up and walk!

In our lives of prayer and commitment to Christ, HE may ask you many things. Be careful how you answer! Don't just toss out there why you can't, or haven't been able to. If HE asks you straight up, "Do you want...", don't tell HIM why you haven't or can't, just say yes!!!

See, #38 was waiting on something, then giving explanation, or excuse, why he couldn't or didn't. Are you waiting on something that is beyond your control? Well, when Jesus shows up and asks, "Do you want..."? Just answer the question!

What Do Your Words Say About You?

This lesson will most likely challenge you and I, but that is ok! The Word of God does and should challenge us, daily, to live in the fullness of Christ and the things HE has made available to us!

In Matthew 26, we find the story where Jesus has been taken into custody and is standing before the high priest, Caiaphas. Verse 58 says that Peter was following at a distance to see how things would turn out. The story begins to tell how Peter denies knowing Jesus.

In verse 73, we reach the place in the story that I want to talk about in this writing. "After a little while the men standing there came to Peter. "Of course you are one of them," they said. "After all, the way you speak gives you away!"

"The way you speak gives you away!"

Here is my question, does the way you talk give you away? Can people tell the difference from you, as a believer, and others, who may not be believers? Is your speech, or the way you talk, describe, by itself, that you have a different pattern for your life to live by?

Years ago, a dear friend of mine made a statement. "We cannot face the world with the same countenance that it faces us with". I will add to that, we cannot speak to the world with the same speech that it speaks to us with! No hope, no joy, no peace, no rest, no victory. We have all that, and more, in and through Christ Jesus!!

Most of the world is in such confusion and chaos right now. They are looking for answers, and here we are with the answer to life right here in our heart. Jesus! Not religion!! Most of the world looks at religion and laughs, and I am not so sure it doesn't deserve to be laughed at! We talk about how people need to change their life and ask Jesus into their hearts, then we turn around and rant and rave, with our speech, about how bad we have it, or running down another believer, or another church, passing judgment on others, gossiping, all those things. Then we wonder why the world isn't knocking down our door to try to find their way. Their way to what? The same kind of mess they are already in? No!! The world wants peace, joy, hope, victory! Do they hear that in yours and my speech?

Peter's speech, or the way he talked, gave him away. It exposed who he was. Does your speech do that? Does it tell others that you are a disciple of Christ? Does it tells others that you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? Does it tell others that you understand the things they are going through and have a sympathetic heart, or does it present you as being better than others with no compassion for them and the things that they are facing. Many years ago a preacher friend said this, "People don't care what you know. till they know that you care!" We, the church, the Body of Christ, those born again, have the answer to the world's cries. The answer is in a person, the man, Christ Jesus. He is our hope, joy, peace, victory!

Our words, or speech, gives us away! My question is, what do your words say about you?