The Vine- John 15

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

THE VERY SPIRIT OF THE VINE IS LOVE

Do you ever wonder if you are bearing fruit when your dishes are piled the high and the laundry is never done?  It's ground-hog day once again for me!

It's then that I wonder if I am truly connected..................It's simple really the branch grows out of the vine..........it lives there and grows......it has no responsibility except to RECEIVE the sap and nourishment from the root and stem.

It is days like these that seem so repetitive that I ask myself; "Am I really connected?"
If the sap is being received there will be fruit.  If there is no sap then there is NO CONNECTION! 

As I glide up the stairs to the tornado of the teens rooms..... I wonder if I will really miss this? Miss the emptying of the trash...........the making of beds..........the laundry that is never done.  Maybe it is me who is not the crucified with Christ!
Do I really want to be?   Who wants to stay the broken?
But HE has ordered our steps? So what have I sold my life out too?  Is it things?  A cleaner house?
Jesus poured the truth of God's word into his disciples...................and He sent the Holy Spirit from the Father. He was telling them how to stay connected.  Why is the flesh so strong? It is all out war-fare.
Do I really want to be connected?


There are 3 stages of fruit bearing:

1)  In stage one you are connected and are receiving sap but not fruit bearing like you should.
This is where 60-70 percent of all Christians stay!!!
This is also where you feed your flesh............you even feel at times that something your doing is not right but you do it anyway....By your sin many are defiled.  The rebuking starts in this stage as well:

Hebrews 12: 5-6
My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
⁶ because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”^[a]

There is conviction in this stage and you may even stop for a while but discouragement rears it's ugly head.....and it's a cycle that never seems to end.


2)  In stage 2 is where the pruning happens....Testing can even become intense. Trails are brought your way by God himself as He does the pruning. He starts to cut away the temporal things in your life. He wants the eternal views instilled. He is saying:  "worship only me!"

Deuteronomy 5:7-8;

⁷ “You shall have no other gods before^[a] me.
⁸ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

Your habits you have developed over the years determine now determine your priorities.....You come to a fork in the road.......... which path will you take?  The eternal or the temporal?

This is where most Christians that have made it to this stage turn and run back to stage 1.  This is where we need to pray for God to plant our feet on solid ground!!! To remain before him BROKEN!
If you hang on this is where He will bring you out of the firey furnace as His Trophy of Grace!

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5: 19-21)

God is telling us to let go of our baggage!!! Sometimes I feel like I treasure my sin! I don't want to let go.

3) The last stage is all about the Savior. This is about you running to His arms and Him being FIRST in your life. This is about you being and not about doing!
This is where you finally SURRENDER!  Setting ourselves apart........guarding our hearts and our minds at all times.....with the eternal view in mind at all times! Most Christians will never experience the gift........of such PEACE.  This is where He gives us what we need...........not what we want!

Set today apart from other days...........say it out loud:  ABSOLUTE SURRENDER to you Lord is what I have choose!

God is trying to get our attention!!!
THE BRANCH IS CALLING YOU AND ME TO ABSOLUTE SURRENDER!

Let your surrender to Christ be absolute. Cry out!!! Time is short!


all of grace,
Robbie


so thankful to God for:

the opportunity to be broken
Jesus
crumbs on the floor
clogged toilets again
sun glistening through the trees
leaves changing colors
peace
a pastor that teaches the word
friends that show up unexpected to visit your church
forgiveness
long talks after church with the teens
an extra hour of sleep

Weekends are made for light

All of grace is because Jesus is our all in all, and His grace is free...........it is the eternal light that gives us the very breath we breath! There is no life like the one lived in the light of Christ.

May your weekend be one of

walking in the light........thinking only of the eternal instead of the temporal

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12)

all of grace,

the Yahweh Sisters

Come to me

    It was 4:45 am this morning when I went straight into the Throne Room with aching prayers.
Begging God to deliver me from "self." 

Trying to sit in silence while battling thoughts popping in and out of my head like popcorn in a microwave..........begging to be poured out so He can pour in....trying to stay awake while the rain falls against the windows and the colors of my life begin to fade.

I take my seat on the floor with a notebook and my bible...........not able to cease the thoughts of what  lies ahead in the day.  His presence overwhelms me and my breathing becomes the hard.........I beg him to speak.........but only His presence woos me and leaves me as fast as it comes.
I wonder what I did wrong?  Was it my thoughts that won the moment? 

I finally give in to my rages of mental battle...........and open up the Word and read the coming of the day of the Lord.

I read because He has said over and over again............SEEK.......SEEK ME FIRST!!!!!
And I have learned that if you need peace for the day it starts at daybreak with Him being the first. Remembering the way up is down.

They are not just idle words for you--they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."(Deuteronomy 32:47)


So I read it because it is the eternal food that is everlasting;

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming.
It is close at hand—
² a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains
a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was in ancient times
nor ever will be in ages to come.
³ Before them fire devours,
behind them a flame blazes.
Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,
behind them, a desert waste—
nothing escapes them.
⁴ They have the appearance of horses;
they gallop along like cavalry.
⁵ With a noise like that of chariots
they leap over the mountaintops,
like a crackling fire consuming stubble,
like a mighty army drawn up for battle.
⁶ At the sight of them, nations are in anguish;
every face turns pale.
⁷ They charge like warriors;
they scale walls like soldiers.
They all march in line,
not swerving from their course.
⁸ They do not jostle each other;
each marches straight ahead.
They plunge through defenses
without breaking ranks.
⁹ They rush upon the city;
they run along the wall.
They climb into the houses;
like thieves they enter through the windows.
¹⁰ Before them the earth shakes,
the heavens tremble,
the sun and moon are darkened,
and the stars no longer shine.
¹¹ The LORD thunders
at the head of his army;
his forces are beyond number,
and mighty is the army that obeys his command.
The day of the LORD is great;
it is dreadful.
Who can endure it?
(Joel 2: 1-12)


Who can endure it? 
Us if we can surrender our hearts.



Even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
¹³ Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the LORD your God.
(Joel 2: 12-14)

He who is gracious..........compassionate........slow to anger...............and abounding in LOVE......
is saying..............."COME.................TAKE...................RECEIVE.....my grace.
Come to me..........(Matthew 11:28);


"His word come means "to act."  Yet the last thing we want to do is come..........But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God will invade you.....The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act joined you to God and tapped you into His redemptive power"......Oswald Chambers; My utmost for His highest.
Yes our redeemer lives!!!!

I fill my cup with coffee it's warmness invades me............it is raining hard..........it's a new season.....I end with a prayer of Thanksgiving..........I am empty no longer..........the house is starting to stir and I know that fullness will not last......that we have to feed on His flesh daily!

Watching the leaves fall like God's grace in the rain at daybreak,  realizing that His grace truly does abound.

all of grace,
Robbie

Abide

The Cove.............a place of inspiration. Where the agenda belongs to God!

While in the beautiful mountains in Asheville, NC......... Amy and I had to sit in silence and draw near to the King. We prayed for a transformation of our hearts. It was there on the mountain that the Lord himself took me to a deep, dark , cold place!

  ³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13: 34-35.

I decided to hike up as far as I could and pray along the way for the perfect spot to spend time with God. After an hour of hiking and praying...........I came to a place where I felt in my spirit I needed to stop and pray.
As I was standing at the edge of a ledge.........trying to breath.......the sun warming my face.....it was then that I saw it.................the blackest...........deadest forest in the whole 1600 acres.
      Fear (my old faithful friend) ran through my body............me trying to breath..........it was at that moment I begin to understand what the Holy Spirit was showing me........that I must truly die..................die to self..............die to my will................and surrender my all.
The FEAR...................did I really have to die?
     Maybe it was the dead everywhere.................was how my life was supposed to be? Me dead to self? 
Something is holding me back................from the dying. What is it that I can't let go of ?  Is it me in my me-ism little world screaming please..........more of the easy? (Anything that you put before God is an idol.)

How can I become the one with Him........when I can't even let go and surrender? Is there such a thing as abide?

As I lay on my back wrestling with;  "who am I really?".......Praying my heart could be his altar. It was then I could hear deep down in my soul..............SEEK.....SEEK.............SEEK......SEEK me with the all of you.

What is the pleasure of Christ?


Am I seeking only..............to have God's blessings while I live my own life?

I can feel the wind starting to whip...........the leaves are falling...........it is then all alone in the mountains...............where God himself has taken me.....a place where the trees are dead...........that I cry out to God:
"LORD, keep me from EVERY sin.

The branches are swaying to the rhythm of the wind..............and they are calling..............me and you to an ABSOLUTE SURRENDER! He wants possession = unbroken fellowship.......by abiding in him.
                                                               Death = Resurrection

Why do I hold myself captive?...................Is it because I don't want to be the FREE?  Refusing to give up my will..............  Scared of disappointing the King?  I crave the easy remember.........spiritual laziness it seems. Pipe dreams I tell myself..........I am just a want a be!

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  (Romans 7: 14-25) 


        The more we die to self.........................the deeper our peace.
To die to self is to embrace God's will.  After all aren't all Christians the walking dead? Crucified and dead.............unknowing, at the time of birth partaking of His death............ but alive in Christ!
So why do we believers run from our death and ressurection?  Because our greatest enemy in this life is our very own SELF!!!!!! 


The heart beat of the old me can thump in and out like there never was a death..........it is war for my very own soul. But those nail pierced hands are waving to us saying........"Are you ready? Ready to give up SELF to death?  To give up self entirely to death on the cross to be kept there until self is wholly brought under the power of Christ?

Yes abiding does exist...........but to truly abide in Christ.........prepare..........to part from self,
aka....(FLESH)  FOREVER!!!!!
(Praise God that in the middle of all the dead trees were tiny sprouts of green life coming up through the deadness!!!!!)
all of grace,
Robbie

faith building

" Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of sufferings are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world."  1 Peter 5 : 8-9

Be alert
Be watchful
Be clear-minded

Satan knows our weakness- we rarely hide them- we whine and cry to others about them. So why wouldn't Satan use them against us, and to his advantage.

James 4:7- " Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you"

In order to submit yourselves to God and resist the devil- you have to stay in his word and pray. Spend time with him.

My trials will not be yours- Each trial we face, depends on our strength. God tells us in his word, that he will not give  us more than we can handle.

James 1:13

" Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted any man

God does not have evil in  him. Satan  uses tests and trials to steal us from God and what he says in his word.

Mark 4:15

" Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their heart."

I feel "most alert" and ready for  the trials of the day, when I get up early and dive into his word- or simply sit still in his presence.

I am a busy mom- of three boys

A wife

A nurse in a Cardiac ICU

So.... I am busy...... But what I have prayed for in the last couple weeks, is for God to show me how to slow down, keep my eyes on him- to be a better mom and wife. Not to waste my energy, more that is required, at work or on other things, but to focus on my family.

I put on my June Clever mask and with a smile on my face- wait for the day.

Well the first day- my oldest son woke up at 4:30 am throwing up, not in the bathroom, but on the carpet. Not in his room, but in his brother's room and in the hall.

The June Clever in me left and I fussed as I cleaned up puke! " Why did you walk through the bathroom - to throw up in your brother's room?

Yesterday I was spending some time with my friend- we went to hobby lobby- we had been there for thirty minutes, when the school calls and tells me that my eight year old had knocked out three of his permanent teeth while at recess.

Why ?   

I ask

But every thing happens for a reason. My kids have their health, so do we. On the way to school I thanked God for this minor thing. It was  hard to pray, but I did. In the  middle of my pity party, my son got a phone call from a school friend. The one that Andrew prayed with during lunch detention one day. This friend asked Jesus into his heart that day, but that friend was the only one to stay on the playground and look for the teeth, and also to call and check on him after the accident.

God's ways are not ours, and I also put out a "all Prayer" that the root of the front teeth re-attach and become strong again. I talked with Andrew - my youngest without teeth- or at least without all of the teeth.

That there is POWER IN PRAYER.

He agreed with me and we prayed. We felt the prayer from others. I felt them and I know Andrew did.

Amy

God's dream for you......

Do you ever wonder what God's dream is for you? Are you ever afraid that you are going to miss it? Maybe it is just me. I no longer question my salvation. My fear is that I am going to miss it. Miss what God's dream is for me. And it will be my fault. I am afraid that I am going to spend my life on what is comfortable, easy, safe. I want to learn to abandon my life to a Greater Power and a Greater Purpose. I don't want to choose my own course. Their is so much thrills, joy and beauty if we allow God total control over our lives. God has shown me lately that I have only given him part of me for a sacrifice.
Look at Romans 12:1, Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship..
When we ask God what do you want? And he says, "I want your body." You see when he gets the body, he gets the contents. Paul gives us so much direction how to give it to him. "Present your body to him as a living sacrifice." If you are like me by this point you may saying OK what does that really mean? Why a living sacrifice? Paul was basically contrasting it with the old Testament sacrifices, which animals were first killed, cut into pieces and placed on the altar. Paul was saying, "Don't kill your body and place it on the altar. Place a living body on the altar."
When a sacrifice was placed on the altar it no longer belonged to the person who offered it, it belonged to God. It is as though God says here, "Place your body on My altar as a living sacrifice. From now on you don't own it. I own it. You don't make decisions as to what will happen to your body- I make them. I take full responsibility for it. I decide what you will eat, wear, and where you go. Hang with me this is the meat of this message: There are major benefits to this kind of commitment. God has a different attitude toward the property that is merely leased to Him as opposed to the property that is His. He accepts full responsibility for what he owns. This information came from a book by Derek Prince "Secrets of A Prayer Warrior."

God has made it clear that offering our bodies as living sacrifices is OBEDIENCE that comes from our heart. This is so much more important. Daily laying aside our own desires to follow him. Putting all our energy, resources at His disposal and TRUSTING him. This should be the least thing we can do, since God sent Jesus to die for our sins.
Surrendering your life to God is the most wonderful and hardest thing you will ever have to do. To cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it. (Matthew 10:39).
Drinking from this world will cause us to give up the dream that God has for us. The more we drink from this world with the earthly treasures: money, power, popularity, the more we will discover how empty we really feel. We have to realize that the earthly treasures are only temporary and that we are citizens of another world that offers us eternal life. We live in a world who favors blending in, being just like everybody else. Their is a cost to going after the "life that is living the dream that God has for us." At the end of my life when I stand at the throne of God, I long to hear those powerful words "Well Done My Good and Faithful Servant" you went after the dreams that I planted in your heart, and you fulfilled your purpose exactly the way my dreams for you were. Well Done!

all of grace,
Robbie

The Cross in Our Bodies

This is a pretty neat story and an interesting thing that few of us know. It's brief, so please read. (FROM A DOCTOR)

A couple of days ago I was running (I use that term very loosely) on my treadmill, watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio... And I was BLOWN AWAY! I want to share what I learned.....

He (Louie) was talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is... How He spoke the universe into being.. How He breathes stars out of His mouth that are huge raging balls of fire.. Etc. Etc. Then He went on to speak of how this star-breathing, universe creating God ALSO knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder. At this point I am LOVING it (fascinating from a medical standpoint, you know.) .. And I was remembering how I was constantly amazed during medical school as I learned more and more about God's handiwork. I remember so many times thinking..'How can ANYONE deny that a Creator did all of this???' Louie went on to talk about how we can trust that the God who created all this, also has the power to hold it all together when things seem to be falling apart...how our loving Creator is also our sustainer.
And then I lost my breath. And it wasn't because I was running my treadmill, either!!!
It was because he started talking about laminin. I knew about laminin..

Here is how Wikipedia describes them: 'Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue' You see.... Laminins are what hold us together.... LITERALLY. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart. And I knew all this already. But what I didn't know is what they LOOKED LIKE..
But now I do. And I have thought about it a thousand times since (already)....Here is what the structure of laminin looks like... AND THIS IS NOT a 'Christian portrayal' of it.... If you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see....

Now tell me that our God is not the coolest!!! Amazing. The glue that holds us together.... ALL of us...... Is in the shape of the cross. Immediately Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him All things HOLD TOGETHER.' Colossians 1:15-17 Call me crazy. I just think that is very, very, very cool. Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words. And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint, we are held together... One cell to another.... By the cross.

You would never in a quadrillion years convince me that is anything other than the mark of a Creator who knew EXACTLY what laminin 'glue' would look like long before Adam breathed his first breath!!

What I found when I googled laminin !!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

all of grace,

Yahweh Sisters