Sunday Motivation Post
Mar. 16th, 2025 05:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apachefirecatNobody's Excluded!
CHOOSE to Feel!
Why People Push You Away
Joy to Have in Class
Three Changes to Make in 2025 to Become a Better Leader: Strive to do more Listening than Talking!
Don't Miss out on the Gifts of Listening
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him:
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Jesus hasn't led us to this torchlit circle just to make our dreams come true. Our dreams, like the disciples', are always too small. We are here to fulfill God's dream -- that we will bring Him glory through a remarkably abundant life. That's how we find our greatest personal fulfillment, now and for eternity.
You'd think that something so crucial to God's plan would happen automatically in your life and mine. Nothing could be further from the truth. For the vineyard to really produce, the branches have to respond to the attentions of the vinedresser. But as we'll see, all branches do not respond alike. In fact, every branch in the vineyard is unique, and when harvest day arrives, each will have produced a different-sized crop.
Let's take our own walk in the vineyard. I'll show you four distinct levels of eternal yield. You're about to get a clear picture of what your life is adding up to for God at this very moment.
You pick up the first basket and look inside. You don't see any fruit. Not very encouraging -- some branches don't bear a single grape. Jesus had this kind of branch in mind when He said, "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit" (John 15:2).
You step over a row and peek into the second basket.
What a relief! You see several healthy clusters of grapes nestled in the bottom. Some branches, then, are not barren. You can find grapes on them if you look hard enough. Jesus described this branch as one that "bears fruit (v. 2) Still, not much to get excited about here. You start to wonder about the skill of the vinedresser and the potential of this hillside.
Fortunately, the next row over reassures you. You see a basket more than half full of plump, juicy grapes. You'd be proud to walk out of the vineyard with this basket. In Jesus' illustration, this branch bears "more fruit" (v. 2).
Can the harvest get any better than this? Yes! Just wait until you feast your eyes on the basket in the last row.
By the time you get home, you have a fuller sense of what Jesus was trying to say in the vineyard:
---Each of us is a branch that is producing a clearly defined level of abundance (which I ahve represented with baskets):
Basket 1 -- "no fruit"
Basket 2 -- "fruit"
Basket 3 -- "more fruit"
Basket 4 -- "much fruit"
--The Father wants more fruit from us so much that He actively tends our lives so we will keep moving up -- from a barren to a productive branch, from an empty to an overflowing basket.
Chapter Two: What God Wants
By Bruce Wilkinson
Perception vs. Perspective
Scars Are Stories
Love and Enjoy Everyday Life
Hidden Figures
TobyMac Talks about the Loss of his Son to an Overdose
(Second "scene")
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
