Jesus is Lord

Jesus is the Boss!

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 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. John 15:1 NIV

When I opened my landscaping and tree care business in 1987, I came in with more than a dozen years of experience, a professional license and plenty of specialized training. My plan was to use my expertise to guide and educate customers in the “right way” to maintain their ornamental gardens and trees. After butting heads with my “uneducated customers” for a year, I discovered that my plan would definitely never work! I then spent the next thirty years learning that my real job was to listen to those customers and meet their needs. Once I had that figured out, doing my work became a lot more fun and people usually loved the results!

Sadly, when some of us first become Christians, we start out with that same mindset. Because we have been to Catechism class, or spent years in Sunday School, we are sure that we know how to be good Christians. But then life happens, and we find out that our way of doing the Christian life definitely doesn’t work! What we all need to learn is summed up in a scene that happened years ago at the end of one workday. My customer had come out to say hello and noticed a bumper sticker on my truck that said, “We Have a Friend in Jesus”. Pointing to it, he asked humorously, “Is that your partner?” I just shook my head and laughed and answered, “Oh no! He’s the boss!” Yes, Jesus is both the boss, and our Master Gardener, and doing life our way is not an option. But when we get our plans lined up with His design, then He has promised that our lives will begin to yield beautiful fruit!

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The Guest Room

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love.                Ephesians 3:17 ESV

When I was a teenager, my favorite place to go on summer vacation was to my grandparent’s house. Of course, I loved their company, but they also made me feel special because they had a guest room just for me! It had really neat antique furniture and its own bathroom. But in the back of my mind, I knew that no matter how long I stayed or how much fun I had, that eventually I had to go home.

As Christians we begin our journey with Jesus by putting our faith in Him and inviting Him into our hearts. But Paul prays that we when we invite Jesus to come, that it will be far more than expecting Him to stay in our guest room for a while. Paul uses the word dwell, which means,” take up permanent residence.” Jesus wants to do more than just come for a visit. Dwelling means as Paul goes on to say that we are being rooted just like a tree into a relationship with God. Now if you go outside and glance down the street, I am pretty sure that there are not any trees going for a stroll around your neighborhood. No! Trees stay in one spot because that is where they are rooted. Last of all Paul shows us that we are not just rooted out of obligation to God, but because of love – His love. The God of the universe sent His only Son to die on the cross because of His love for us. And because of that, we can trust Him with every room of our house. In fact, we can joyfully sign over the title to our home to Him and hand Him the keys! Jesus wants more than a guest room.  He wants to live in our hearts forever!