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Lasting Value

1/18/2018

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. (John 15:16)

God has appointed us. He has given us a direction and a purpose. We can choose to go off that course and do things our own way; He has given us the free will to do so. We can try to take control of our lives but doing this has a price. If we take the wheel from God’s hands we risk losing everything that God has planned for us; and not only that, but no matter what we manage to glean on our own it will be of no lasting value. What does a little black book full to bursting; a fat bank account, and/or a position of earthly power bring you in God’s Kingdom? Nothing. A man who lived in God’s will and dies without so much as a dollar to His name will have treasures in heaven waiting for him and a legacy of eternal value behind him.

How does it make you feel to know you have been chosen by God?

Knowing that God chose us for a lasting purpose; why do you believe people choose to walk their own path instead of God’s?

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Crying Out

1/11/2018

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I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted. (Psalms 77:1-2)

Whenever I read these verses I remember some of the hardest points of my life. Times when I was certain I was either going to die, or at the least wish I was dead. I cried out into the darkness not even sure if anyone was there to hear me, but He was. He heard me and wept for me. I look back now and see His presence was the one thing that kept me from falling apart, but because I would not accept Him, I continued to suffer. Even though His child was a sinner and denied Him, He came and loved His child. As we discover that we have no control over our lives, we can rest in knowing He is there and is in control. Now when I feel the weight of the world pressing down upon me I don’t have to bear that weight alone. I can call out to my heavenly Father who will stand with me and my soul knows comfort.

In the above verse, Asaph was in such need that he held out his hand before the Lord throughout the night. When have you felt a need like this?

Why do you think we don’t always see a response when we call out to God?

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Wild Vines

1/4/2018

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“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. (John 15:1-2)

We have a beautiful grape vine along the back of my house. As spring time rolled around we had a family friend come and trim down the vine because if you don’t it will grow wild and produce little fruit. It will choke itself off from being as much as it can be. Much the same when we try to take charge of our lives, we ‘grow wild’. We go off on tangents and do works that bear little if any spiritual fruit because it is not directed by God. God can and will trim our spiritual vines and bring us back into order so that we can begin to bear abundant spiritual fruit as He has always intended. We only have to let Him.

How have your efforts ‘grown wild’ in the past?

Is there any area of your life that you think could benefit from pruning? Why?

Are there times in your life you feel bear no fruit? What do you think you can do to change those times?

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Lasting Value

Crying Out

Wild Vines

Walking With God

Walter Blackwood

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