Daily Verse

Stepping into the New Year

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I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

Today is the first day of another year and I am weaker than I was when I was younger, but my hope is stronger because weakness is teaching me to rely more on Jesus and less on me. Being crucified with Christ used to be a mysterious and frightening idea. But in today’s verse, Paul was teaching the Galatians that nothing on earth could make him afraid anymore, because his real life was now in the Christ, who had loved and given His life for him.

But trusting is a choice, and it our choice. Just as the trapeze artist must let go of the bar and fly across space, trusting in her partner to catch her, so we must let go of our own strength and ability in order to take hold of the hands of God. He is reaching out and calling us forward into 2024. Why not surrender your life to Him, and step into the year ahead, with confidence in His love? That same Jesus who gave Himself for us, will certainly watch over us and care for us, no matter what lies on the road ahead.

Editing Advice from the Orchard – Part 3 – Removing that Fire Blight

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This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 
John 15:8 NIV

Finally, we come to the last and most difficult things to prune and those are the diseased branches. In apple trees these are branches infected with a bacteria called fire blight, and every old tree has a little. Though there is no known cure, a careful pruning can extend the life of a tree for years. If the sucker growth is the most obnoxious, and the deadwood most obvious, diseased branches as well as diseased writing, is the most obtuse to deal with. You see, sucker growth will never bear fruit and deadwood cannot bear fruit, but blighted limbs may still produce a few withered looking apples. In our writing, disease is not about the double negatives, misspelled words or run on sentences, it has to do with the why’s of our craft and the motives behind our manuscripts.

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If we are just churning out slick stories that appeal to the lowest desires of readers, there may be a bit of fire light creeping in. When we start finger pointing at the faults of others or stirring people to angry debate instead of compassionate service, it is time to ask God to heal our hearts. Eventually a blighted heart will catch up with us, and if left unchecked, will destroy the very purpose for which God called us to write. The secret is that just as trimming in the orchard is done in the Winter, God will choose the Wintertime in our life to root out a diseased direction. And in the editing of our writing, we will work best once the heat of inspiration has worn off and we can come to our pages, with passionless eyes, sharp pencils, and a determination to clear out everything that hampers a great harvest. Then we need to pray that the words we put on the pages of our life as well as our manuscripts will inspire readers to trust in God’s promises, grow in His grace and be filled with the hope that comes only from Him!

Editing Advice from the Orchard – part 2 – Cut Out That Deadwood!

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I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:1-2 NKJV

Pruning is essential to our writing as well as our lives. Jesus tells us that the master pruner is our Father in Heaven and His pruning as well as our editing is a step-by-step process. In part one we talked about clearing out the sucker growth of overblown verbiage. Today, we come to our next group of compositional ne’er-do-wells called: dead branches. Since pruning in the orchard is done in Winter, first-time trimmers logically ask, “How can you tell which branches are dead, when there aren’t any leaves?” Finding out which are living requires getting close enough to take hold of them. Grabbing on to a live branch you will discover that it is flexible, while dead twigs snap off at the touch of our fingers. In the same way our dead branches in writing as well as our lives, are rigid and dry. When people get close enough to touch them, these dead phrases and dried up ideas make no living connections to our readers. They are like low-calorie deserts, that look scrumptious in the commercials, but artificial sweeteners in snack cakes and as well as sentences leave a bitter aftertaste, and no one will want to go back for a second helping!

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In the orchard, deadwood removal looks brutal when the ground is littered with piles of branches. But cutting those limbs out is vital to the health of the trees. If they remain, they will crowd out the good branches and invite insects and disease to infect the trees. But once they are gone, there will be more space for the healthy branches, and even the tiniest healthy bud has a great advantage over the largest dead limb: it is still alive! Some dead limbs in our lives as well as our manuscripts are so large that a chain saw must be used to cut them out. If the trees in the orchard could talk, I am sure that they would complain loudly while I was removing their sucker growth and deadwood. But in April, the trees that have been pruned will fill with leaves, in May they will be covered with pink blossoms and if you come back in the Fall, you will find them heavy with delicious fruit!

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