life. faithful.

"JESUS: Who do people say the Son of Man is? DISCIPLES: Some say John the Baptist. And some say Elijah. And some say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. JESUS: And you? Who do you say I am? PETER: You are the Anointed One. You are the Son of the Living God." ~Matthew 16:13-16 There are all sorts of ideas about who Jesus is. Some people just call Him a good teacher (see this post for my thoughts on that). Some, including Muslims, say He was a prophet sent by God to show us how to live. In some churches today, He's basically said to be some sort of genie who grants wishes (except they call them "answered prayers"). Even the demons recognized Him as the Son of God. It doesn't matter who everyone else says that Jesus is. Being able to repeat what others say doesn't mean anything about your relationship with Him, and that's what He wants. What He cares about, what He's asking, is, "What about you? Who do you say that I am?"...

Just. Such a little word with such a big impact in my life. If I could just get more done during the day... If my kids would just do what I ask... If I could just get my kids at school to understand that math doesn't have to be terrible... Those are the minor "just" statements, though they aren't really minor things. The bigger ones, the ones that keep my awake at night and keep my mind jumping from one thought to another during the day, cause a lot more anxiety for me. If I had just been able to make it through my PhD... If I could just get my writing to take off... If I could just make a go of this farm... If I could just be good enough... If I could just figure out the road I'm on... This morning, I did day 24 of my 40-day devotional, whispers of rest, by Bonnie Gray. My 40-day journey through this book actually started about 2 months ago, so it should be over by now. Rest has been a bit elusive for me lately, though, so my 40 days ha...

We talk all the time about bearing fruit. The Fruit of the Spirit is well known (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control), and we spend a lot of time talking about how followers of Christ are to be known by their fruit. I think, though, that we forget what it takes to bear fruit. In John 15:2, Jesus was talking about His Father and said, "He leaves those bearing fruit and carefully prunes them so they will bear more fruit." Prune. It's such a small word, but it holds so much significance. At first it might bring to mind a picture of somebody snipping back one or two leaves here and there, maybe taking an ugly leaf or a dead branch. But here's the thing: when you prune something back for producing fruit, you typically take a lot off. Since Jesus used the picture of a vineyard, we might as well look at that, too. When someone is trying to get a good crop of grapes, they cut back all the pretty stuff. The vines...