Grafted into God’s Family
During a visit with my father to his beloved Ecuador a few years ago, we visited the family farm where he grew up. I noticed a group of strange trees. My dad explained that when he was feeling mischievous as a boy, he would take a discarded branch from one fruit tree, make slits in a different kind of fruit tree, and tie the loose branch to the trunk like he saw the grownups do. His pranks went unnoticed until those trees started bearing different fruit than expected.
As my dad described the process of engrafting, I got a picture of what it means for us to be grafted into God’s family. I know my late father is in heaven because he was grafted into God’s family through faith in Jesus.
We can have the assurance of eventually being in heaven as well. The apostle Paul explained to the believers in Rome that God made a way for gentiles, or non-Jews, to be reconciled with Himself. “You, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root” (Romans 11:17). When we put our faith in Christ, we’re grafted in with Him and become part of God’s family. “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit” (John 15:5).
Similar to engrafted trees, when we place our trust in Christ, we become a new creation and can bear much fruit.
What’s in Your Hand?
A few years after I received salvation and dedicated my life to God, I felt Him directing me to lay down my journalism career. As I put down my pen and my writing went into hiding, I couldn’t help feeling that one day God would call me to write for His glory. And indeed, He has. During my years of wandering in my personal wilderness, I was encouraged by the story of Moses and his staff in Exodus 2.
Moses, who was raised in Pharaoh’s palace and had a promising future, fled Egypt and was living in obscurity as a shepherd when God called him. Moses must’ve thought he had nothing to offer God, but he learned God can use anyone and anything for His glory.
“What is that in your hand?” God asked. “A staff,” Moses replied. God said, “Throw it on the ground” (Exodus 4:2-3). Moses’ ordinary staff became a snake. When he grabbed the snake, God turned it back into the staff (vv. 3-4). This sign was given so the Israelites would “believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you” (v. 5). As Moses threw down his staff and took it back up again, I laid down my career as a journalist in obedience to God and later He guided me to pick up my pen to write publicly again and I’m writing for Him.
We don’t need much to be used by God. We can simply serve Him with the talents He’s given us. Not sure where to start? What’s in your hand?
From Age to Age
Two grandmothers from Texas became media sensations recently for completing a journey around the world in eighty days at the age of eighty-one. The globetrotting best friends of twenty-three years traveled to all seven continents. They started in Antarctica, tangoed in Argentina, rode camels in Egypt, and took a sleigh ride while at the North Pole. They visited eighteen countries including Zambia, India, Nepal, Bali, Japan, and Rome and ended their trip in Australia. The duo said they hoped they’d inspired future generations to enjoy traveling the world, regardless of their age.
In Exodus, we read about two octogenarians who were recruited by God for a different kind of adventure of a lifetime. God called Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand he free God’s people from bondage. God sent Moses’ older brother Aaron for support. “Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh” (Exodus 7:7).
This request would feel daunting at any age, but God had handpicked these brothers for this assignment, and they followed His instructions. “So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the
Moses and Aaron had the honor of witnessing God deliver His people from more than four hundred years of slavery. These men demonstrate that God can use us at any age. Whether we’re young or older, let’s follow God wherever He leads.
Cleansed by Christ
My first short-term missions trip was to the Amazon jungle in Brazil to help build a church by the river. One afternoon, we visited one of the few homes in the area that had a water filter. When our host poured murky well water into the top of the contraption, within minutes all the impurities were removed and clean, clear drinking water appeared. Right there in the man’s living room, I saw a reflection of what it means to be cleansed by Christ.
When we first come to Jesus with our guilt and shame and ask Him to forgive us and we receive Him as our Savior, He cleanses us from our sins and makes us new. We’re purified just like the murky water was transformed into clean drinking water. What a joy it is to know we are in right standing with God because of Jesus’ sacrifice (1 Peter 1:18-19) and to know God removes our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).
But the apostle John reminds us that this doesn’t mean we’ll never sin again. When we do sin, we might be assured by the image of a water filter and be comforted as “we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Let’s live confidently knowing that we’re continually being cleansed by Christ.
Impromptu Praise
During a short-term missions trip to Ethiopia, our team accompanied another team from a local ministry on an outreach to a group of young men who'd hit hard times and were living in shacks in a literal junkyard. They were such a delight to meet! We shared testimonies, encouraging words, and prayers together. One of my favorite moments that evening was when a local team member played his guitar and we got to worship with our new friends under the radiant moon. What a sacred moment! Despite their desperate situation, these men had hope and joy that can only be found in Jesus.
In Acts 16, we read about another impromptu praise time. This one broke out in a Philippian jail. Paul and Silas had been arrested, beaten, flogged, and imprisoned while serving Jesus. Instead of giving in to despair, they worshiped God through prayer and singing in their jail cell. “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose” (vv. 25-26).
When the jailer realized the prisoners hadn’t escaped, he was in awe of God, and salvation came to his family (vv. 27-34).
God delights in hearing us praise Him. Let’s worship God during the highs and lows of life.
