With everything happening today, I had to refuse a meeting. Was supposed to be joining my aunt and her counsel in a mediation session, but I already had a prior engagement at around the same time so I told her I’d see her after lunch, after said session to just catch up.
Long story short, the session was good. We made some progress and we are, as always, praying that both parties involved would come to a settlement as soon as possible. If you must insist on more details, let’s just say it’s concerning land.
And to my surprise, that’s also what I was hearing during my weekly session with a brother from church – He was also sharing concerns regarding a younger stepbrother who suddenly reached out to him questioning legitimacy and ownership. Again, if you must insist on more details, let’s also just say it’s concerning land.
Okay before anything else, I’m just writing based on prompts that I wrote down on a parking slip, while I was engaged in conversation with said brother. Now with that out of the way, I’m not quite sure why I wrote down ‘(Brother’s land issues)’ and ‘(Auntie)’ as the first two items on the small piece of paper.
It must be a reminder for me to pray specifically for these two issues. It’s also a reminder of how we give glory to our God for working in ways we cannot see, on things only He can see. Now that right there sounded like a part 2 of one of Don Moen’s songs back in the day.
Anyway. I also want to share that my Mom suffered from a really sore thumb. She started complaining about it last Thursday night. We thought it was gout at first, but whatever she ate at that restaurant wasn’t any different from what she’s been eating for the longest time.
A little later she shared that in said restaurant, she was hanging out with her friends back in high school, and one of them appeared to be the proverbial party pooper who said stuff like he felt like he could die at any time. The story goes that as he was blurting out all this, Mom and classmates were quick to console and encourage him, but they felt that his center mass was warm, but his hands (and most likely his feet) were cold. Mom, being the compassionate woman she is, started massaging this guy’s hands…
…and when I shared this with other trusted fellows (making you, yes you dear reader, a trusted fellow at the very least), they said one or both: (1) She may have pressed on her thumb too hard to cause a torn muscle somewhere, and/or (2) she absorbed that guy’s negativity.
Not really sure what to believe there but what’s important is that we pray. We pray, again, knowing that our trust is in our Father who works in ways we cannot see, on things only He can see.
Well, there we go – there’s a point to emphasize. But besides that, this is what really came to mind. See, while my Mom was recovering, we did all sorts of things – I bought her Ibuprofen. Then I bought her Celecoxib. We tried putting ice to relieve the throbbing pain. Then we also tried a warm compress, or dipping her thumb in hot water with apple cider vinegar (per her insistence).
After Googling natural remedies for gout, we also tried ginger – I stopped myself from using tissue as a way to keep the ginger on the thumb, and thought to put the crushed poultice on a strip of plastic before wrapping it around. I was laughing as I was doing this, my Mom’s thumb was being turned into sushi.
It got even funnier when someone at church recommended that we also try a poultice made out of crushed tomatoes… and when I did, we laughed as I asked if we were going to try using bagoong (fermented fish paste) next.
I was quite concerned, especially during the first days of the affliction. Mom acknowledged that it only takes affliction on such a small part of the body to put the rest of the body down. Sort of like how the bit on the tongue of a horse is all it takes to direct the rest of the beast.
Days turned into an entire week, and I’m glad to report that Mom was able to go out today – she had gauze wrapped around her thumb but this wasn’t so much for the pain, more for cosmetic purposes.
Mom was out for a week. I’d insist she rides with me as I go out to do errands – she would be so excited to drive out with me just so she could get her organic vegetables and lemons, but when I was willingly offering to drive her she would refuse, citing the pain and her need to recover.
All of this made me think – Here’s another perspective to our God being the Vinedresser. Not only does He lift us up if we’re not bearing any fruit… I suppose He also brings us back to the shade if we’re a little to exposed to the sun?
One thing’s for sure – we aren’t the ones doing the lifting up, or the cooling down – we count on the Vinedresser to do this for us. It’s always going to be according to the Vinedresser’s timing, and not our observations… as I think is going on with our one business which just can’t seem to take off.
Much as we want to lift ourselves up so we could go ahead and bear some fruit already, it’s the Lord and His timetable that ought to be followed so we’re bearing the most fruit, at the right time. And it’s my pleasure to announce that, man, we’ve been trying to lift our business ‘branch’ up for it to get some sunlight and exposure for around 3 years now… but the Lord has been moving, and it’s up there. Fruit coming very soon.
Throughout today I’ve also been thinking, realizing the factual accuracy of something I saw in Threads – that we as a country shouldn’t be so fixated on personalities (politicians, celebrities, etc) as we should be looking at our systems.
A corrupt system corrupts even the purest of people, while the best of systems keep even the most corrupt of people in line.
But here’s the thing. It’s not as easy as just sitting down and deliberating on the update of a system. I mean, sure, that’s already extremely difficult (especially if we’re starting from scratch, which we technically are), but I have reason to believe that implementation is one of the most critical parts of legislation, and it takes at least thrice the time that it takes to deliberate, three times the focus and attention to get done right.
But here’s the thing – as in other ventures that are so ambitious to the point that we find ourselves intimidated, we would do well for us to remember that they’re only ambitious in so far as we fail to realize that we aren’t doing what we do for ourselves… but for everyone else in mind.
Service to the community ought to be a critical source of energy for our passions.
Two verses come to mind: That one verse where Paul is saying that he’d rather already be ‘home’ with the Lord Jesus Christ, and away from all the corruption of this fallen world… but the only reason he’s still around – rather, he realized that the only reason why he thinks he’s still around is not for his sake, but for the sake of those who were reading his epistle. I was reminded that all of us in the body of Christ are still in this world – not for our sake more than for everyone else. For that one last soul for us to share the Gospel to… well, among other functions the Lord has prepared for us.
The other verse (and I’m going to Google for this one for precision) is Psalm 115:1 – ‘Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake‘
All from/for others, all from/for the glory of His name.
At this point I’d like to apologize because I’m just writing off of the prompts that I wrote down on that slip of paper, while I was engaged in conversation with said brother from last Friday. As you can see we’ve been writing about our purpose of bearing fruit before shifting to fixing systems rather than people, and then considering Christ as the Source and Destination of our passion, with others in mind more than ourselves.
Now, we’re apparently going back to our being made branches. And, side note, as I’m writing all this, I’m also led to recall how we were navigating through our conversation.
Anyway. I suppose it was the responses of this fellow I was engaged in which prompted me to remind him that the Psalmist indicated how we are trees, and not hoses. That latter part was from Andrew Farley, who reminds us that we don’t just lay flat on the ground and wait for the water to course in and out, through us.
No, we’re trees that bear the sap and draw our strength from the root. If we are branches, Christ is the Vine. Here, if we are seen as trees, Christ is the Root. Christ doesn’t just occasionally open the valve and lets Life flow in and out of us. I’m thinking about the sap on trees, like the blood on humans, that keeps us upright and alive, and much more – we bear fruit in its season. Christ doesn’t use us, He sustains us.
And, mind you, He does not just keep us upright, but remember that we are constantly healed and renewed. Even our minds are renewed, and we continue to learn, relearn and unlearn.
I share this only because at one point this fellow I was speaking with was expressing much regret over the past, and what was lost after remembering what should have been done. To my surprise, before I could interject, this same fellow was the one who said that this gives us more reason to pray, and to have better hope for tomorrow, or next time around.
To this I responded to him that I had the same mentality, especially apparent when I took time to take my body seriously last 2018. In the networking program I jumped into, they left us with a really nice way of seeing things: If you make a mistake, like if you weren’t able to work out today, or if you ate something you shouldn’t have, do better tomorrow.
Here’s proof that our minds are being renewed, and it’s not just about keeping it in the ‘spiritual’ – we’re constantly learning, and we see things differently. We shift from regret to encouragement.
And, sure, you can credit positive thinking for all of this, but it just feels right and good to know that we’re seeing this positive thinking happening under God’s watch. It’s not just theoretical, it’s real.
It’s also real in the sense that we shift from the love of money that corrupts everything, to counting on our Father as Jehovah Jireh. In place of worshipping provision, we trust in the Provider. In fact, in place of worshipping anything else – not just provision, also concepts, theories, and ideals – we trust in the Provider. Theocracy – Christocracy – over ideology / ideocracy.
There’s another shift in our minds being renewed.
And speaking of renewal, a quick side note – in our assessment of current systems, and in our desiring to update them and correct them, we ought to place our current state on paper first, just so that we have an idea on where to move from there. For instance, before we come up with an updated Statement of Faith, we should have a Statement of Current Faith. What do we believe in, now?
There are a couple more scribbles here.
Our shift in mindset brings us to the freedom of loving others are we are loved… But we also remember how miserable things were before Christ: We hurt others are we are hurt. We bring chaos to situations, as chaos resided in us. Indeed, out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
In our conversation I got a text from another brother, who was going through some relational problems. He said he was supposed to patch things with his partner on Monday, but then shared that he talked to her last Saturday and Sunday – according to him he was surprised that his wife wasn’t as ‘immature’ as he assumed, but they had a good, meaningful, productive conversation or two. Not sure why I wrote this down on the little piece of paper, but I’m assuming it’s because I wanted to remember how God ultimately fixes things according to His timetable.
Finally, we talked about how man-made religion focuses more on domination, subjugation and control. But we know Christ brings freedom – and whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.
I ran this through Grok only to ask what it thought was the main point in all this, and this is what it came up with:
The common uniting thought threading through everything you’ve written is dependence on God (as the true Source, Vinedresser, Provider, and Healer) rather than on our own efforts, timing, or strength, leading to a life oriented toward bearing fruit, serving others, glorifying Him, and trusting His unseen work in every circumstance—whether personal healing, family conflicts, business growth, relational restoration, or even broader societal/systemic change.
Considering something I wrote just recently, I suppose it all ties together. I’m able to forgive as I have been completely forgiven, and I’m able to look beyond the pleasures of this world, because of the promises of God. Indeed, we trust in Him, and we are not put to shame.
In plotting the entire year for message themes, my meditation for today’s message in a few hours from now was supposed to come from what I said last week. I emphasized our being made new creations, and this is what we keep in mind when we think of bearing fruit.
I was supposed to talk about how we have a new heart and a new mind – and now that I think about it, I’m going to consider leading with this set of Scripture:
Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.Ezekiel 11:19-20
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Ezekiel 36:26-27
17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.Romans 6:17 NKJV
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,Romans 6:17 ESV
We have a new heart. The stony heart has not only ‘died’ but better, it was taken out. We have been given a heart of flesh – which meant, to the Israelites in the Old Testament, a heart that causes them to walk in God’s statutes and keep His judgments.
But for us, our new heart means that we became obedient from the heart (ESV), or rather, we ‘obeyed from the heart’ (NKJV), with emphasis that it’s from a heart of obedience that we obey.
The same way we preach that we sin because we’re sinners, now we obey because we’ve been obedient from the heart. We do righteousness because we’ve been made righteous. Our obedience is seen in our hearts, and not proven by our works.
16 For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.John 15:13-15
We used to think within the limits of time and space. Now, we have the mind of Christ, which I believe means that as He thinks, so we think – He thinks with us, and we think with Him.
The old limited mind is gone, but it’s not to say that we have an infinite consciousness – no, much better, we are free to think knowing that the the Infinite and Eternal One is that close to us, to think with us, as we think with Him.
That’s the context of those verses from John 15. I think we ought to know that, sure, we drone on about ‘servant leadership’, but what ought to take priority is how we have the mind of Christ.
Our calculations now are in consideration of our friendship with the Savior, our always being in the Father’s everlasting love that casts out all fear.
Top this all off with what Joseph Prince said – right believing leads to right living.
I’ll say fruitful believing leads to fruitful living.
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