God Has United You to Himself

Greetings All!

     Today's "thought"  comes to you from one of the first authors I ever read after being converted - Andrew Murray.   In 1980 I was in Marion, Indiana, training to go to the Dominican Republic to work with teens through 'New Horizons Youth Ministries.'  I had just come to Christ months earlier and had no books to help me grow in the faith once I arrived there.  And since my "salary" was a dollar a day (and that's not an  exaggeration!), I had very little cash.  Therefore, I did the only thing I could - I prayed for $50.00 that I might be able to purchase some books to take with me to help me grow.  Three days later a check came in the mail for $55.00(!), which I then took and spent on books -- and all but one was by Andrew Murray.  ("Absolute Surrender," "Like Christ," "Abide in Christ," "With Andrew Murray in the School of Prayer," "Waiting on God," and "Humility."  I still have each one!  The other was, "Love Life of the Lord" by A. B. Simpson.)

     










     Today's excerpt comes from an updated version of "Abide in Christ" published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and entitled, "Abiding in Christ."  This selection is the entry for Day 6: "God Has United You to Himself." I trust it will instruct and enrich your soul. Enjoy!

     "'You are in Christ Jesus.' The believers at Corinth were still weak and carnal, only babes in Christ. And yet Paul wanted them, at the outset of his teaching, to know distinctly that they were in Christ Jesus. The whole Christian life depends on the clear consciousness of our position in Christ.  Most essential to abiding in Christ is the daily renewal of our faith's assurance, "I am in Christ Jesus." All fruitful preaching to believers must begin with: "You are in Christ Jesus." 

     But the apostle has an additional thought of almost greater importance: It is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus" (I Cor. 1:30).  Paul would have us not only remember our union with Christ, but also - and more particularly - that it is not of our own doing, but the work of God Himself.  As the Holy Spirit teaches us to realize this we will see what a source of assurance and strength this is to us. If it is of God alone that I am in Christ, then God Himself, the infinite One, becomes my security for all I need or desire in seeking to abide in Christ. 

     Let me try to explain what this means...  So often, when the believer tries to say, "I am in Christ Jesus," he looks more to the work he has done than to that wondrous secret work of God which united him to Christ. This is to be expected at the beginning of the Christian course.  "I know that I have believed," is a valid testimony.  But it is important that the mind be led to see that at the back of our turning, believing, and receiving Christ, God's almighty power was doing its work of inspiring our will, taking possession of us [raising us from our death in trespasses and sins -- Ephesians 2:1, 2:5, and Colossians 2:13] and carrying out its own purpose of love in planting us into Christ Jesus.

     As the believer understands the the divine side of the work of salvation, he will learn to praise and worship with new enthusiasm and to rejoice more than ever in his salvation. At each step he reviews, the song will come: "This is the Lord's doing."  It is Divine Omnipotence working out what Eternal Love devised. "It is because of God that I am in Christ Jesus." The words will lead him even further and higher, and to the very depths of eternity: "And those he predestined he also called" (Romans 8:30).  One's calling in time is the manifestation of God's purpose in eternity.  For before the world came into existence, God had his sovereign love fixed on you in the election of grace and had chosen you in Christ.

     That you know you are in Christ is the key to understanding the full meaning of this word: "Because of God I am in Christ Jesus."  With the prophet your language will be, "The Lord has appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn you with loving-kindness'" (Jeremiah 31:3). You will see your own salvation as a part of that "mystery of His will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ (Ephesians 1:9), and you will join with the whole church as they say, "In him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" (Ephesians 1:11).  Nothing will exalt free grace more, and make man bow very low before it, than this knowledge of the mystery of God's will: "It is because of God that we are in Christ Jesus."

     Given the fickle nature of humanity, plagued as it is by sin, it is so comforting and soul-strengthening to know, "It is because of God that I am in Christ Jesus."   It humbles, melts the heart, and brings joy unspeakable to the believer's soul to think that his or her salvation is the outworking in time of God's good pleasure and purpose for them from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-5).

     One of my favorite hymns - “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” - expresses so well our indebtedness to God for this grace. An indebtedness that isn't simply for his grace in joining us to Christ initially, as Murray speaks of above, but for holding us in it's grip when our hearts have wanted to wander, stray, and go their own way -- even after receiving such free and unmerited grace.

     "Oh, to grace how great a debtor, Daily I'm constrained to be

      Let that goodness like a fetter (like a shackle around my ankle), Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

      Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;

      Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above."

     If it were up to me, and me alone, I know all too well where I would be.  Right where I was when in time He called me - dead in my trespasses and sins.  Murray is right: "As the Holy Spirit teaches us to realize this we will see what a source of assurance and strength this is to us. If it is of God alone that I am in Christ, then God Himself, the infinite One, becomes my security for all I need or desire in seeking to abide in Christ...  As the believer understands the the divine side of the work of salvation, he will learn to praise and worship with new enthusiasm and to rejoice more than ever in his salvation. At each step he reviews, the song will come: "This is the Lord's doing." It is Divine Omnipotence working out what Eternal Love devised."

In the Service of His Grace, Pastor Jeff

10 Authors from "101 Quotable Christians"

Greetings All,

     Unlike the more lengthy "thoughts" of the last two weeks, I chose to offer you a few smaller thoughts that I came across while reading a book entitled, "101 Quotable Christians," published by Barbour Publishing and listing no author.  I trust you might find some of them to be insightful and encouraging as I myself did when I first read them. They cover a variety of topics, and come to you from ten of the 101 different authors. Enjoy!

"The goodness of God breaking forth into a desire to communicate good, was the cause and beginning of the creation."  William Law (1686 - 1761)

"Catch a man at the moment when he is really poor in spirit, and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, "By love! I'm being humble," and almost immediately pride -- pride at his own humility -- will appear."   C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)

"I need Christ, not something that resembles Him."   C. S. Lewis

"If our lives are easy, and if all we ever attempt for God is what we know we can handle, how will we ever experience His omnipotence in our lives?" Anne Graham Lotz (1948 -     )

"Satan cannot create anything new, cannot create anything at all. He must steal what God has created. Thus he twists love and God's wonderful gift of sex into lust and sadism and myriad perversions.  He disfigures the heart's deep desire to worship God and persuades us to bow before lesser gods of lust, power or money."     Catherine Marshall  (1914 - 1983)

"Truth is objective because God exists outside ourselves; it is universal because God is above all; it is constant because God is eternal.  Absolute truth is absolute because it originates from the Original."   Josh McDowell  (1939 -      )

"Because God is holy, He cannot look on sin with indifference."   Josh McDowell

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D. L. Moody (1837 - 1899)

"The moral man is as guilty as the rest. His morality cannot save him... It is a favorite thing with infidels to set their own (moral) standard and to measure themselves by other people. But that will not do in the Day of Judgment. That aside, now let us use God's law as a balance weight..." 

"Satan is willing to have us worship anything, however sacred -- the Bible, a crucifix, the church -- if only we do not worship God Himself." 

"I believe the memory is "the worm that never dies"... the memory is never cleansed (entirely) of obscene stories and unclean acts.  Even if a man repents and reforms, he often has to fight the past."

"Just like the moon's light, our light is borrowed light."

"The world can get on very well without you and me, but the world cannot get on without Christ, and therefore we must testify of Him... It seems to me that if we get one look at Christ in His love and beauty, then the world and its pleasures will look very small to us."

"Some people tell us that it does not make any difference what a man believes if he is only sincere.  One church is just as good as another if you are only sincere.  I do not believe that any greater delusion ever came out of the pit of hell than that."

"Pentecost isn't over yet."

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"Christ counted it no humiliation to be able to do nothing of Himself, but to be always and absolutely dependent on the Father."   Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917)

"You are in danger of substituting prayer and Bible study for living fellowship with God, the living interchange of giving Him your love, your heart, your life, and receiving from Him His love, His life, His Spirit.  Your needs and their expression, your desire to pray humbly and earnestly and believingly may so occupy you, that the light of His countenance and the joy of His love cannot enter you."  Andrew Murray

"If our hearts are full of our own wretched, "I am________...," we will have no ears to hear His glorious, soul-satisfying, "I AM."   Hannah Whitall Smith (1832 -1911)

"Put together all the tenderest love you know of, multiply it by infinity, and you will begin to see glimpses of the love and grace of God."  Hannah Whitall Smith

"The only thing of my very own that I contribute to my redemption, is the sin from which I need to be redeemed."   William Temple (1881 - 1944)

"Before the first star was kindled, before the first living creature began to sing the praise of its Creator, he loved His Church with an everlasting love."  Charles Spurgeon (1834 - 1892)

I trust that that a few were helpful or encouraging!     In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Church Revival

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thoughts' are about revival. It is what the church needs, what we as individuals need, and what we all need to be in earnest prayer for, not allowing our busyness, as R. A. Torrey points out in the first 'thought,' to keep us from investing the time in prayer needed to call down such power.

     I send these collected thoughts to spur you to set aside such time, for the one thing the church needs more than anything else is not new programs, more ministries, or a revised vision statement. What she needs (what we all need) is the power and presence of the Spirit in renewing or reviving us as His people. May these thoughts spur you to pray in that way.

     "How little time the average Christian spends in prayer! We are too busy to pray, and so we too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; there are many services, but few conversions. The power of God is lacking in our lives and in our work. We have not because we ask not.   R. A. Torrey

Here are some brief descriptions of revival from various Christian leaders:

“Revival is God breaking in and upon and over His church like ocean waves upon the shoreline rocks.” (Jonathan Edwards)

“Revival is the Church falling in love with Jesus all over again.” (Vance Havner)

“Revival is a community saturated with God.” (Duncan Campbell)

“A revival means days of heaven upon earth.” (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

“Revival is ultimately Christ Himself, seen, felt, heard, living, active, moving in and through His Body on earth.” (Stephen Olford)

“Revival is that strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people, restoring, re-animating, and releasing them into the fullness of His blessings.” (Robert Coleman)

“A true revival means nothing less than a revolution, casting out the spirit of worldliness and selfishness, and making God and His love triumph in the heart and life.” (Andrew Murray)

“Revival is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is God’s method to counteract spiritual decline and to create spiritual momentum in order that His redemptive purposes might be accomplished on earth” (Arthur Wallis)

“Revival comes to the church when we are thoroughly possessed by the hope held out in the gospel—and that hope is Christ Himself.” (David Bryant)

“Revival is an extraordinary work of the Spirit that invades the church to re-energize us with God’s eternal purposes in Christ Jesus.” (David Bryant)

     No matter how one says it, or who says it, we could use prayer for it -- be it praying that the church would fall in love with Jesus all over again, or that we would be saturated with God, or experience days of heaven on earth, or have Christ Himself seen, felt, heard, living, active and moving in His Body on earth to re-energize us with a sense of God's eternal purposes in Jesus. No matter how we say it, may God touch us to spend time praying for it.  In Him, Pastor Jeff

Two of the Grave Dangers in Western Society

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thought' comes to you from missionary and author Sarah Young.  Sarah, who studied under Francis and Edith Schaeffer in the L'Abri community in Switzerland back in the late 1970's, along with her husband Steve (a third generation missionary to Japan), spent 8 years planting churches in Japan, as well as planting the first-ever Japanese church in Melbourne, Australia. They are currently ministering to Japanese people living in Perth, Australia.
     Sarah's devotional book, "Jesus Calling," was birthed as a result of many things -- reading Andrew Murray's book, "The Secret of the Abiding Presence", a desire to experience a greater sense of God's presence, and struggles which included four surgeries for melanoma cancer while ministering in Australia.
     And, yes, as one who preaches I know it is always dangerous (presumptuous?) to try and put words in Jesus' mouth.  But she has done a admirable job. I offer you two of her selections. Enjoy.

     "Be still in My presence, even though countless tasks clamor for your attention. Nothing is as important as spending time with Me. While you wait in My Presence, I do My best work within you: transforming you by the renewing of your mind.

     If you skimp on this time with Me, you may plunge headlong into the wrong activities, missing the richness of what I have planned for you.

     And do not seek me primarily for what I can give you. Remember that I, the Giver, am infinitely greater than any gift I might impart to you. Though I delight in blessing My children, I am deeply grieved when My blessings become idols in their hearts. Anything can be an idol if it distracts you from Me as your First Love.

     When I am the ultimate Desire of your heart, you are safe from the danger of idolatry. As you wait in My Presence, enjoy the greatest gift of all: Christ in you, the hope of glory!"

(Romans 12:2 / Revelation 2:4 / Colossians 1:27)

     "I am calling you to a life of constant communion with Me. Basic training includes learning to live above your circumstances, even while interacting on that cluttered plane of life. You yearn for a simplified lifestyle, so that your communication with Me can be uninterrupted. But I challenge you to relinquish the fantasy of an uncluttered world. Accept each day just as it comes, and find Me in the midst of it all.

     Talk with me about every aspect of your day, including your feelings. Remember that your ultimate goal is not to control or fix everything around you; it is to keep communing with Me.

       A successful day is one in which you have stayed in touch with Me, even if many things remain undone at the end of the day. Do not let you to-do list (written or mental) become an idol directing your life. Instead, ask My Spirit to guide you moment by moment. He will keep you close to Me."

(I Thessalonians 5:17 / Proverbs 3:6)

     I do appreciate how she warns us against two of the grave dangers in western society: The danger of idolizing God's gifts more than God Himself, and the danger of thinking, or being convinced, that God is more pleased with us the more busy we are or the more we achieve (even if the busyness that keeps us in constant motion has nothing to do with anything of eternal significance).

     In a society where people find meaning in life simply by being busy, or gain their sense of worth by how much they produce, it can be easy to fall into the trap (the idolatry) of actually believing that our acceptance with God hinges on what we do rather than what Christ did for us.

     The words of Isaiah 30:15, written to a people who were scurrying around doing everything they could to save themselves, are appropriate here: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength."  And Sarah's favorite verse (Psalm 46:10) also applies: "Be still and know that I am God..."

     So I pray for blessings on your day.  Yet while you go through it, set aside a few moments to obey God: rest, be quiet, still yourself, and spend some time doing "nothing" but communing with Him and getting to know Him better. For Sarah is right,  "A successful day is one in which you have stayed in touch with [Him], even if many things remain undone at the end of the day."  

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

On Prayer

Greetings All, 

 

      Since our church is setting aside this Thursday, December 15, as a day of fasting and prayer, this week's 'thought' has to do with fasting and prayer. I know its the season for celebration, parties and feasting, but as a church we felt led to spend a day fasting and seeking God in prayer.  Any who can, or would like to join us in that endeavor, are more than welcome to do so.

 

      Therefore, since prayer is our church's focus for this week, I wanted to send out some thoughts on prayer and one on fasting by various Christian authors. I hope they will encourage you in your pursuit of claiming what E. M. Bounds calls, our "immeasurable inheritance."  Enjoy.

 

   "None can believe how powerful prayer is, and what it is able to effect, but those who have learned it by experience."  Martin Luther

 

    "Faith is the essential quality in the heart of any person who desires to communicate with God.  He must believe and stretch out the hand of faith for that which he cannot see or prove.  Prayer is actually faith claiming and taking hold of its immeasurable inheritance... Moreover, when faith ceases to pray it ceases to live. 

     Faith does the impossible because it lets God undertake for us, and nothing is impossible with God... Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God... Faith in Christ is the basis of all working and all praying.  All wonderful works depend on wonderful praying, and all praying is done in the name of Jesus Christ... All other conditions are of little value.  Everything else is given up except Jesus.  The name of Christ -- the Person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ -- must be supremely sovereign in the hour of prayer."  E. M. Bounds   

 

    "The first thing Jesus teaches His disciples is that they must have a secret place of prayer. Jesus says, 'And when you pray, go into your closet..."  Every one must have a solitary spot where he can be alone with his God... That spot may be anywhere.  It may change from day to day if we have to change our abode... There alone, but there most surely, Jesus comes to us to teach us to pray... The first thing in this closet-prayer is: I must meet my Father.  The light that shines in the closet must be the light of the Father's countenance.  The fresh air from heaven with which Jesus would have it filled, the atmosphere in which I am to breathe and pray, is God's Father-love, God's infinite Fatherliness. Thus each thought or petition we breathe out will be simple, hearty, childlike trust in the Father.  This is how the Master teaches us to pray. He brings us into the Father's living presence."    Andrew Murray 

 

   "Upright Christians pray without ceasing. Though they pray not always with their mouths, yet their hearts pray continually, whether asleep or awake, for the sigh of the true Christian is a prayer."   Martin Luther   

 

     "The power of the Church to truly bless rests on intercession -- asking and receiving heavenly gifts to carry to men.  Because this is so, it is no wonder that where we put our trust in our own diligence and effort, and work more than pray, the presence and power of God are not seen in our work as we would wish... It is difficult to conceive how much we ourselves and the Church will gain if, with our whole heart, we accept the post of honor God is offering us when He calls us to the ministry of intercession."   Andrew Murray

 

    "We live is a day characterized by the multiplication of man's machinery and the diminution of God's power.  The great cry of our day is work, work, work; organize, organize, organize; give us some new society, tell us some new methods, devise some new machinery.  But the great need of our day is prayer, more prayer and better prayer."   R. A. Torrey

 

     "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it is laying hold of God's willingness."  Richard Trench

 

     "'There are moments when, whatever be the attitude or position of the body, the soul is on its knees.'  Prayer, then, is an attitude of the heart that humbles itself before the living God, silently declaring to Him, 'I Need Thee."   Victor Hugo / Dick Eastman

 

      "The heart of an effective witness is devotion to Jesus Christ.  This devotion finds its greatest expression in prayer. It is kept alive through the continual practice of prayer."  William Krutza

 

 

     "In Ephesians 3:20, Paul seeks to express the inexhaustible potential of prayer:  "Now to Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that is at work in us." The power that works in and through our prayers is the Holy Spirit... There is indeed only one limit to God's omnipotence and that is God's eternal righteousness. Fasting will never change the righteous standards of God. If something is outside the will of God, fasting will never put it inside the will of God.  If it is wrong and sinful, it is still wrong and sinful no matter how long a person may fast.

       There is an example of this in II Samuel chapter 12.  David committed adultery.  Out of this a child born.  God said that part of the judgment was that the child would die.  David fasted for seven days, but the child still died.  Fasting seven days did not change God's righteous judgment on David's sinful act.  If a thing is wrong, fasting will not make it right.  Nothing will do that.  Fasting is neither a gimmick nor a cure-all.  God does not deal in such things.  God has made full provision for the total well-being of His people in every area of their lives -- spiritual, physical and material.  Fasting is one part of this total provision.  Fasting is not a substitute for any other part of God's provision.  Conversely, no other part of God's provision is a substitute for fasting."  Derek Prince

    

     May the Master, as Murray states, "teach us to pray" and "bring us into the Father's living presence." 

                                                                       In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Being Pruned

Greetings All,

This week's thought comes to you from the well-known devotional writer Andrew Murray (1828-1917). This particular selection is found in his book "The True Vine," which is a verse by verse expostion of John 15:1-16. A missionary to South Africa with the Dutch Reformed Church, Murray reacted against the deadening effects of raw rationalism and a Christianity that offered no vital experience with Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Murray has a special place in my own spiritual life, for he "discipled" me (in a way) in my first two years as a Christian. One week before I headed off to the Dominican Republic as a missionary (shortly after my conversion in 1980), I realized I needed some Christian literature to bring with me for that two year mission stint. And since I literally had no money at the time, and only a week before I left the U.S., I prayed earnestly for the Lord to supply some funds for the purpose of buying those books. Two days later a check for $55 came in the mail!

I then took the money, went to a local Christian bookstore in Marion, Indiana (totally ignorant of what Christian literature was good and what was not), and spent every dollar on books. I bought two by A.B. Simpson, one by F.B. Meyer, and SIX by Andrew Murray (Like Christ / The Spirit of Christ / Abide in Christ (his most popular) / Absolute Surrender / and With Andrew Murray in the School of Prayer).

All of Murray's books are set up in devotional style, with short 2-3 page chapters, making them very easy to read, contemplate and digest. This thought has to do with God pruning us so as to bring forth greater fruit in His service. Enjoy.

"He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes, so it will be even more fruitful." (John 15:2)

"I look out my window on large vineyards. The chief care of the vinedresser is the pruning. You may have a trellis vine rooting so deep in good soil that it needs neither digging, nor manuring, nor watering, but pruning it cannot dispense with, if it is to bear good fruit. Some trees need only occasional pruning; others bear perfect fruit without any; but the vine must have it. And here at the very outset of this parable, our Lord tells us the one work the Father does to the branch that bears fruit -- He prunes it that it may bear even more fruit.

Consider a moment what this pruning is. It is not the removal of weeds or thorns or anything from outside that may hinder the growth. No, it is the cutting off of the long shoots of the previous year's growth. The removal of something that comes from within, that has been produced by the life of the vine itself. It is the removal of something that is a proof of the vigor of its life.

The more vigorous the previous years growth has been, the greater the need for the pruning. It is the honest, healthy wood of the vine that has to be cut away. And why? Because it would consume too much of the sap to fill all the long shoots of last year's growth. The sap must be saved up and used for the fruit alone...

What a solemn, precious lesson! It is not to sin only that the cleansing and pruning of the Husbandman here refers. It is also to our religious activity [to growth spawned by the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives] as it is developed in the very act of bearing fruit. It is this that must be cut down and cleansed away. We must, in working for God, use our natural gifts of wisdom, or eloquence, or influence, or zeal. And yet, they are ever in danger of being unduly developed, and then trusted in. And so, after each season of work, God has to bring us to the end of ourselves, to the consciousness of our helplessness and the danger of all that is man, to feel that He is all and we are nothing. All that is to be left of us is just enough to recieve the power of the life-giving sap of the Holy Spirit.

What is of man must be reduced to its very lowest measure. All that is inconsistent with entire devotion to Christ's service must be removed. The more perfect the cleansing and cutting away of all that is of the self, the less surface over which the Holy Spirit [like the sap] needs to spread. The less there is of us, the more intense can be the concentration of our whole being to be entirely at the disposal of the Spirit."

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Then he ends with this prayer: "O our holy Husbandman, cleanse and cut away all that there is in us that could make a fair show, or could become a source of self-confidence and self-glorying. Lord, keep us very low, that no flesh may glory in Your presence. We trust You to do Your work."

So often we think that we must always be building upon, or leaving intact, all the growth of the past. We can be led to think that the healthy shoots that grew during past year's of vigorous spiritual growth should never be snipped or pruned. It almost seems counter-intuitive (to someone who has never farmed) to cut back the branches that grew so strong and high during rich and precious seasons of growth! I myself have often suffered from the false belief that fruit of a more precious and useful nature will grow on branches that sprouted long in my previous years of growth.

But this passage tells us otherwise. Past growth (though good and necessary at the time it grew) can actually be a deterrent to the production of richer and sweeter fruit in the present. The sap of the Spirit, if we understand Jesus, is diluted and weakened and wasted when it flows through lengthy branches of past growth all over again. As with grape vines, you want the sap to go directly to the new year's fruit, to sweeten it and make it more lucious and nutritious.

Though we don't often pause to think of it, I fear that many Christians (myself included) have frequently placed their trust in their growth, instead of the Lord who produced it. Or, as I have also seen, people sometimes cling to past experiences with God, or become content to live in the memory of those past times of growth, when what the Chief Vinedresser desires to do is come and prune them away (painful as it may be), that we may have new and better growth. Old growth is not pruned because it is bad, but because we don't want the sap of the Holy Spirit to be diluted and diminished in its intensity by having to flow through that now unnecessary old growth.

Just as pruned vines produce the best fruit, so also there is a habitual need for less of us, and more of Him. Instead of glorying in our growth, every so often we need to ask God to prune away the past season's growth, that we may be better able to bear lucious fruit for God in this present season of our lives.

With prayers that that pruning may not be too painful! Pastor Jeff