THE TREE

I was shown a vision.   There was this dark gray forest, a forest I thought at first were hairs on a dog in the moonlight.  But as I looked more closely I realized these were no hairs of a dog at all but trees.  They were trees without any limbs or branches.  There were thousands of tree trunks and they were all leaning like a great wind at blown them in all the same direction but within this sea of grey slivers I was guided to a single warm yellow light.  I looked closer and realized it was a tree, a tree of light.   It was small and I would had probably missed it if it hadn't been pointed out to me.  It had branches and leaves and it was standing upright.  A tree of light.... in a "barren" wilderness.

It does remind me of dream I had of a ocean and a forest.  A ocean that was pouring onto the land stripping the trees of their bark and laying their fruit to waste.   The trees were no longer getting their water from the mountain but the poisoning ocean.

If you have the Spirit of God living in you, you know the ocean is the sea of immoral humanity.  It poisoned the trees with it's sinful values, rules, mandates, human understanding and so called "improvements".  You can also figure the mountain is God, the source of life.      

The forest in this vision also had been stripped.... and a darkness had come upon it.

When you think of the word “gray” what does it mean to you? 

Gray isn’t black and white.  When things are not black or white, then there is no real sense of right and wrong.  When these things become gray how do we define things like justice, morals, sin, love...? 

When people do not stand on what is right or wrong or know right from wrong then they are blown this way and that way like grass in the wind.  They can believe anything is right and true even though it is not.   Truth is not a matter of opinion.  Truth comes from God, what is written in His word.  When you have no REAL truth living in your soul then you just have a "barren" existence.

Think how those trees were stripped... why were they stripped?

Existing isn’t life but “Life” happens when God (TRUTH) is allowed to be engaged in a person’s soul.  JESUS made this possible.  

Christians, God wants us to be that tree of light in a gray world.  He wants to sing in our branches-so to speak.

Yes Jesus said.... “Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”  But He ALSO continued with: “ But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.  And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come…” Matthew 23:12-14

Has the end come? No! Of course not, so why act as if it is so…  Our true HOPE is Alive and Well. And that hope in us is contagious because God, unlimited in encouraging resources and trustworthy promises, is OUR SOURCE!

  

Jesus spoke and there was light.  Jesus came into our life and a newness beyond our imagination came into our life.  We were transformed were we not? Light had come into our life! Truth had come into our life.

Jesus said “I am truth, the way, and the life.  No one can come to the Father except through me.”

John said "God is light" (1 John 1:5) and if you have Jesus then His light is to shine in you for He is the light of mankind. (John 1:4)

Jesus said to those who believe in him, “You are light of the world- like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see.  Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead put it on a stand and let it shine for all.”

Let the goodness of God flow through you!  TRUST and call upon His goodness with expectation… and in this, the calm peaceful pleasant perfect centering will of God will be manifested in your life! Yes Joy!  And the dark things of this world will become POWERLESS in your life... as the saying goes.. "This too shall pass..."

Do you remember what Psalm 1 says?

"Oh the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with scoffers. 
 But they delight in doing everything the LORD wants; day and night they think about his law.   They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season without fail.
  Their leaves never wither, and in all they do, they prosper.  But this is not true with the wicked.  They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.  They will be condemned at the time of judgment.  Sinners will have no place among the godly.  For the LORD watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.”  

Be that tree of light! No matter how small a tree you might think you are- God notices and points you out.
  

The Snake

We had just returned home yesterday.  Something caught my eye outside our French doors.  It was a Mexican blue jay in rock planter.    

(I don’t much like Mexican Blue jays because their tendency to be bullies to other birds but they are good for something…  They signal when a snake is near by acting erratically.  They fly up and down and squawk as if to say, “It’s a snake. Get it! Get it!”)

“Could it be a snake?” I thought.  I took a closer look out the window and there, trying to climb our honeysuckle trellis to get to a bird nest, was a big-o-snake.

As soon as this snake saw me coming with my shovel it quickly tried to slither out sight underneath our propane tank.  I swept my shovel under the tank several times.  My bride, on the other side of the tank said,  “There it is! It’s all the way out!” 

I pitched my shove down on its’ thick coiled up skin.  It’s head tried to bite the shovel and it shook it’s tail in the dry leaves in the rock planter.   “What kind of snake am I dealing with?” I thought.

It reminded of verse in the bible that God spoke to the serpent.  “From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies.” Genesis 3:15

I needed my shovel closer to its head.  I quickly lifted the shovel.  Unfortunately it wasn’t injured enough to slow it down. 

To get away, it began to climb the trellis again with it long strong body... smart snake.

I glanced its body with my shovel and with several rapid stirs and swipes with the shovel it was back on the ground of the planter.  I jammed my shovel down on its neck where it disappeared into the deep of the composted soil.  Soft soil would only hinder my desire to end the large snakes life abruptly.

I jammed my boot down on the shovel repeated.  The exposed body contorted twisting this way and that way.

Finally it’s contortions slowed down where I could draw it’s head up out of the soil and position it on a hard surface where I could separate it’s head from it’s body.

I then took the snake to the still hot burning stump in the front yard and through it in the embers.  To my amazement its body reacted to the hot coals.  It started to move rapidly around before it solidified into a cooked mass.  I took a picture and then returned it to the red embers that soon caught its flesh into flames. (As the smoke reach my un-expecting nostrils it certainly did not smell like chicken.)  It wasn’t long before it was reduced to ashes.

I then thought of Revelation 20… “Then the devil, who betrayed them was thrown into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet.  There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” 

Just as the body of Christ will join Christ in heaven, the body of Satan will join Satan in the tormenting lake of fire…  the head will be separated from the body and the body will be separated from itself.   Scattered like the ashes in the tormenting lake of fire.

“But cowards who turn away from me, and unbelievers, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those who practice witchcraft, and idol worshipers, and all liars – their doom is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.  This the second death.”  Revelation 21:8

There are souls at stake my friends.  Think how heaven celebrates a saved soul in our LORD Jesus Christ.  Prize this in your hearts.  Do what you can in love to reach those who are lost among you, that they may have the opportunity to be saved from such destruction and have LIFE in Christ.