Month: June 2017

Time to Flourish

Last spring I decided to cut down the rose bush by our back door. In the three years we’d lived in our home, it hadn’t produced many flowers, and its ugly, fruitless branches were now creeping in all directions.

But life got busy, and my gardening plan got delayed. It was just as well—only a few weeks later that rose bush burst into bloom like I’d never seen before. Hundreds of big white flowers, rich in perfume, hung over the back door, flowed into our yard, and showered the ground with beautiful petals.

My rose bush’s revival reminded me of Jesus’s parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:6–9. In Israel, it was customary to give fig trees three years to produce fruit. If they didn’t, they were cut down so the soil could be better used. In Jesus’s story, a gardener asks his boss to give one particular tree a fourth year to produce. In context (vv. 1–5), the parable implies this: the Israelites hadn’t lived as they should, and God could justly judge them. But God is patient and had given extra time for them to turn to Him, be forgiven, and bloom.

God wants all people to flourish and has given extra time so that they can. Whether we are still journeying toward faith or are praying for unbelieving family and friends, His patience is good news for all of us.

Faith in Action

As a friend drove to the grocery store, she noticed a woman walking along the side of the road and felt she should turn the car around and offer her a ride. When she did, she was saddened to hear that the woman didn’t have money for the bus so was walking home many miles in the hot and humid weather. Not only was she making the long journey home, but she had also walked several hours that morning to arrive at work by 4 am.

By offering a ride, my friend put into practice in a modern setting James’s instruction for Christians to live out their faith with their deeds: “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (v. 17). He was concerned that the church take care of the widows and the orphans (James 1:27), and he also wanted them to rely not on empty words but to act on their faith with deeds of love.

We are saved by faith, not works, but we live out our faith by loving others and caring for their needs. May we, like my friend who offered the ride, keep our eyes open for those who might need our help as we walk together in this journey of life.

The Time Is Today

The musical group The Association sang “The Time It Is Today” in the 1960s, calling young people to live for something more than themselves—to make a difference in the world in their own generation. That same call comes to followers of Christ today. We are given this moment in time to represent our God in the world. And, like Elijah,…

Times Of Frailty

Few emotions so quickly expose the frailty of men and women as the emotion of despair. When we are battling with our own hearts—regardless of the reason for the struggle—we can find ourselves in a life-and death war. Despair, that darkest of human emotions, can woo us, entice us, and even destroy us. Sometimes we meet it...

  • at our job,…

Times Of Conflict

Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (Jn. 18:38). People are still asking that question today.

The issue was the same in Elijah’s day—the people had rejected the God of truth for the lies of the gods of the land. Truth had been lost in a culture of idolatry.

In the time that had elapsed since the prophet had left Zarephath,…

Times Of Faith

Someone has defined “faith” with the acrostic, “Forsaking All I Trust Him.” That’s certainly what happened with Elijah. He had forsaken all to trust God. After he confronted King Ahab and ridiculed his idol, Baal, he ran into the wilderness. But he had to trust God to provide for him in a desolate place.

Elijah had learned that God could provide…

Times Of Training

Several years ago, sports-shoe maker Nike ran a series of ads themed, “What are you getting ready for?” One showed an NFL football player throwing himself down a steep, rocky hill. Another had a soccer player doing everything in life with his feet. The point? What we do today is getting us ready for something.

What are you getting ready…