A STORY OF HOPE

This e-mail forward a friend sent me is such a beautiful story of hope, I wanted to share it with you.  Apparently it's an old classic that's been making the rounds for a long time, but it's new to me.

Enjoy!

THE FERN AND THE BAMBOO

One day I decided to quit…I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality…. I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

“God”, I said. “Can you give me one good reason not to quit?”

His answer surprised me.

“Look around”, He said. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”

“Yes”, I replied.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.

“In the second year the fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.

“In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. The same in year four.

“Then in the fifth year, a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.

Compared to the fern, it was seemingly small and insignificant.

But just six months later, the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.

It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle.

“Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots? I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you.

“Don’t compare yourself to others.” He said. “The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful.

“Your time will come”, God said to me. “You will rise high.”

“How high should I rise?” I asked.

“How high will the bamboo rise?” He asked in return.

“As high as it can?” I questioned.

“Yes.” He said, “Give me glory by rising as high as you can.”

I left the forest, realizing that God will never give up on me. And He will never give up on you.

Never regret a day in your life.

Good days give you happiness; bad days give you experiences; both are essential to life.

–Author Unknown

TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

This wonderful post was written by my friend, Lara Love, over at Walk by Faith Ministry.  I hope it blesses and encourages you as much as it did me.

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Resurrection of the Trees

I couldn't believe my eyes. Nor could I believe what the Lord had placed in my heart. Probably few people have been as excited, and humbled, by little buds of leaves on a tree. But I was. After all, I had been quite certain that the once glorious trees that form a long line across my yard were plain and simply - dead.

"God, please do something with these trees," I had prayed dejectedly, and not so sincerely, just days before. What could I possibly do with a bunch of dead trees? With the South Carolina climate bringing forth months of brutal heat and a large number of dogs that love the outdoors, I couldn't imagine what my life - and yard - would be like in the upcoming months since my trees had so obviously failed to revive this year.

Where would the dogs lie down and enjoy the shade of all these previously beautiful trees? How would I enjoy my yard quite as much when I looked out at a row of dead trees? How could the trees possibly be bare of leaves at this time of year? We have had plenty of warm weather and sunshine thus far in weeks past. Quite obviously, the trees had died. What could have killed them? I wondered as I perused their "legs" (trunks) and "arms" (branches) for signs of disease - not that I know much at all about trees. I can hardly remember saying a prayer, but somewhere amid my sad spirit I surely tossed one up to heaven.

But alas, the Lord knew my trees truly didn't need my prayer at all. The Lord, after all, knows the seasons of the year. He knows all of our needs, even the trees. He knows the life span of everything. He knows the cycles of everything and everyone. He knows the time of birth, and He knows the time of re-birth. He knows all about trees, and He quite obviously knows all about me.

Surely the Lord was smiling down from heaven as He watched His daughter murmur about the state of her trees. The funny thing is, they are not my trees at all. They are His. The yard is not mine. It is His. The dogs belong to Him, and so do I. He knew what was to come, and I can only imagine He looked forward to what would happen when I discovered the resurrection of the trees.

Yes, just today I saw it all. All the buds. The buds of leaves. The buds of leaves of trees I had assumed dead. How I smile to see what the Lord has done. But truthfully, the Lord has not resurrected the trees. The trees have produced their buds of leaves right on time. His time. And not only could I not believe my eyes at the sight of the buds on the trees. But I marvel at what the Lord has placed in my heart. Yet another lesson in faith.

How often in our lives do we presume something is dead? How often do we walk away from a person, place, or thing because we have no hope? How often do we give up praying for someone we love because we believe it is too late? How often do we put the brakes on a vision the Lord has given us because we have not yet seen it come to pass? How often have we imagined a dream has died and failed to give it a chance to come into being? How often have we turned away from a relationship because we would not wait for the Lord's appointed season for it to blossom?

I could have chopped down the trees in my yard because I had declared them dead. At the very least, I had given up on them. I was already morose over the loss of them. But such a short time afterward, the Lord showed me they were not dead at all. They are as alive as they have ever been. This is the time of their season.

Sometimes we give up on people, places, and things the Lord has ordained just a short while before God's appointed time for them. Other times, we turn away because we believe we have waited far too long. Sometimes God gives us a dream or vision for something so far in the future that we give up on it because we cannot imagine waiting that long for the vision to be born.

Do you have something or someone the Lord has put put on your heart that you have quite simply determined dead? Have you given up on a dream He gave you? Or praying for a person in dire need of prayer and love? Or a vision He keeps reminded you is for an appointed time in the future - not now. Please don't give up. Please trust the Lord that He not only knows the seasons of the trees. He knows your seasons also. And He knows your future, and mine. He knows the order, and cycle, and seasons, of all that He has created.

Perhaps the dream He has given you is not dead at all. Perhaps it is simply not yet time. Only the Lord knows.

I look out the window and smile as I see the trees with which the Lord has blessed me and the dogs. Sometime soon, I know, the Walk by Faith Ministry dogs will be lying in their shade. And I will watch them, and remember, that the Lord made these trees. And He has given them another season. And He has given me another reminder that His ways and thoughts are His own - and always the very best. In His time.

Ecc 3:1 "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecc 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecc 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
Ecc 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecc 3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
Ecc 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
Ecc 3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
Ecc 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."

Reprinted with permission from Walk by Faith Ministry, www.walkbyfaithministry.com

AND THE WINNER IS...

The winner of my giveaway (picked by Random Integer Generator) is #2 -- Randi Fulton.

Congratulations, Randi!

COME TO JESUS

Just wanted to share one of my very favorites.  It so touches me every time I listen to it.  May it bless you too.

GIVEAWAY -- THE BEAUTIFUL SIDE OF EVIL

"If anyone adds to these things, God will add
to him the plagues that are written in this book;
and if anyone takes away from the words of the
book of this prophecy, God shall take away his
part from the Book of Life, from the holy city,
and from the things which are written in this
book." - (Revelation 22:18)

I've been wanting to do a giveaway on this blog for a while, and this morning as I went through a box of stuff that had been sitting in a box on the floor of my den just waiting to be put away, I came across some extra copies of a book I had read many years ago when I was a baby Christian.

I thought back to that time and how difficult it was for me to accept that there really was only one way to be reconciled with God, and that that was through the Cross.  The cult I had just come out of quoted many Scriptures, particularly from the Gospel of John, and since I wasn't as familiar with my Bible back then as I am now, I didn't realize that some of the verses had been altered just slightly--a word here, a word there--so that John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," for example, was quoted as "I am the way, the truth, and the light..."

The book I am giving away was what finally enabled me to let go of the one little doubt I had been struggling to relinquish.  The author, Johanna Michaelsen, had been involved in many of the same things I had been involved in on my path to the foot of the cross, and had believed the same lies.  In the beginning, neither one of us had known to heed the warning in Matthew 24:24, "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."

The following is taken from the back cover of the book.

Are all miracles from God, or is there a beautiful side of evil?  The blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame walk.  Is God always behind such miracles, or can there be another source?

This is a true account of a young woman who, while in search of spiritual truth, became a personal assistant to a psychic surgeon in Mexico for 14 months.  Then, in answer to her prayers, God revealed the true source behind the miraculous healings she witnessed.  Lifting the veil of deception, He allowed her to see the evil behind the outward appearance of beauty and holiness.  Johanna Michaelsen reveals how this deadly deception is not isolated to her unusual experience, but rather is invading our everyday lives, even in our churches.

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment and an e-mail so I can contact you if you are the winner.  I will use Random Integer to draw a winner on Wednesday, March 21st, the 5th anniversary of my very first blog.

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

Powerful video I took from a friend's FaceBook wall.

NEW PHOTO BLOG

I have started a new photo blog, The Splendor of God's Brushstrokes in My Little Corner of the World.  Please stop by to visit.

HAPPY NEW YEAR -- 2012

Happy New Year, dear bloggy friends and readers!  I wish you peace, joy, good health, and many blessings.  I've also been wanting to share this devotional by Ron Hutchcraft, entitled "Going Not Knowing," and this seemed like the perfect time to do so.  
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Going Not Knowing

Mystery rides were part of growing up at our house. Usually it was a Sunday afternoon, and I'd pile our three kids, who were little then and never will be again, into our car for a ride. I think we explored every corner of our area. And as we did, we discovered over the years, a lot of great things. But I've got one son who's a lot like me. He wants to know the plan before we leave.

"Hey, Dad, where are we going? Where are we going to eat? What are we going to eat? What are we going to do while we're there? How long will we be there? What time are we going to get home?" He would pump me with questions; I felt like I was being interrogated by a police sergeant. Sometimes I knew it was better not to explain where we were going. Oh, we've done things that would have sounded boring if I had told about them, but they turned out to be exciting and I knew they would. Plus surprises are fun anyway. So, my kids got used to hearing two words when we were about to begin a mystery trip, "Trust me." I don't think I let them down. It was good training for journeys with their other Father.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Going Not Knowing."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the life of the Apostle Paul; he's still Saul of Tarsus here. Acts 9 - he's on his way to wipe out Christians. He missed some in Jerusalem. So he said, "I'll get them in Damascus. They all went there; I'll find them in Syria." We begin in verse 3: "As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?' 'Well, who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. 'Now, get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.'"

Now, it's interesting that Saul's training for his whole life in Christ began immediately with a mystery trip. Yeah, did you notice that? He has just opened up to Jesus, and the Lord says, "Go into the city and you will be told." "Lord, what do you want me to do there? Who am I going to meet there? How am I even going to be able to see; I'm blind right now?" The Lord says, "Go and you will be told." Well, he spent the rest of his life living like that.

In Acts 20 , when he was on his way to Jerusalem as the great Apostle Paul and his friends were trying to discourage him, he said, "Compelled by the Spirit, I am going not knowing." See, you have a heavenly Father who often takes His children on mystery trips. Maybe you're on one of His mystery trips right now. There's a good destination He's got in mind, but right now He's telling you just the next step. In essence, He's saying to you as He did to Saul, "Go, and you will be told as you are on the way."

It may well be that you're in the middle of one of those times right now, and the tendency is to say, "Now, Lord, if you'll just give me all the information, give me all the facts, I'll start going that direction." And the Lord says, "No, you start moving in that direction I've told you to go, and you'll get more information as you go."

Now, maybe you're waiting to have all your questions answered before you move, and right now there are more question marks than there are periods or exclamation points for sure. Can you almost hear your Father saying as He bundles you into His car, "Trust Me, let's start traveling together."

Hey, He died for you. Is He ever going to do you wrong? God's mystery trips always lead to a destination that is selected with you in mind for your good. So, why not settle back, enjoy the trip, and let Him drive. Trust your Father and don't be afraid of going not knowing.

STEVE JOBS AND GOD

This post is not my own. I found it on Ron Hutchcraft's blog, and am sharing it here because the message really spoke to my heart. 
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STEVE JOBS AND GOD

When you're a kid, you're wet cement. Impressions get written so easily - and so deeply. Then they harden into the beliefs - or unbeliefs - of that kid-become-adult. Apparently, Steve Jobs was no exception.

Apple's communications genius/revolutionary, has been described as "intriguing, yet inscrutable." But as he battled cancer, he opened some windows into his mind and soul to the author writing his life story. According to the new biography that bears his name, Steve Jobs studied Zen Buddhism for years. A recent article in USA Today said, "He never went back to church after he saw a photo of starving children on the cover of Life and asked his Sunday school pastor if God knew what would happen to them. He was 13 at the time."

In a separate article, USA Today includes this near-the-end spiritual observation from Steve Jobs' biography: "The juice goes out of Christianity when it becomes too based on faith rather than on living like Jesus or seeing the world as Jesus saw it."

None of us knows exactly where Steve Jobs finally landed in his spiritual journey. But in his words about Jesus is a glimmer of the bedrock truth that answers so many spiritual questions: It's all about Jesus.

Christianity, the religion, never has been the issue - although many have been unable or unwilling to separate Jesus from the religion that is about Him. But Jesus made it all about Him, and Him alone, in the simple two-word invitation He extended over and over again - "Follow Me." Jesus never said "follow My religion" or "follow My followers." And He didn't say "follow My rules" or "follow My leaders." No, the only reason to turn away from Jesus is if you have a problem with Jesus.

As for "seeing the world as Jesus saw it," He saw it broken because people walk past the wounded, absorbed with themselves - as in His story of the Good Samaritan. He saw it cold and lonely and twisted because every man has chosen to ignore the Manufacturer's instructions and become our own god for our life. And that has brought us a world of bleeding families, greedy hoarding that produces global hungering, and an endless drama of people being used, abused and walked on.

And what about those starving children? Jesus said when we reach for them to help them, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me." And, "whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me" (Matthew 25:40 , 45/). Jesus is so personally identified with the hurting people of our world that He takes our treatment of them as our treatment of Him. With eternal consequences.

This Jesus that it's all about came here as "a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering...pierced for our transgressions...crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:3 , 5). This is the God who leaves the Throne to die on the Cross. He's a God you can believe in. A God who stands alone above all the wannabe gods of earth's spiritual pantheon. And ultimately, we find in Jesus the only man of the billions who've lived who has come back from the grave - and promised eternal life to all those who would "follow Me."

Behind all the fog of all the "sophisticated" spiritualities and dueling religions of our world stands one real God. One real Savior. The God who hung on a cross.

THAT'S MY KING!

From Dr. Shadrach Meshach (S.M.) Lockridge's famous sermon.

CREATION CALLS

HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR ME

"...whenever our earthly stream or any other
outer resource has dried up, it has been allowed
so we may learn that our hope and help are in
God, who made heaven and earth." - F. B. Meyer

Several days ago, while making my bed, I found myself thinking of the Scripture verses about Paul's thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), and how easily they could also apply to me and my longstanding financial challenges.  Just as Paul prayed for the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh, I have prayed for a financial miracle, which in my mind, would take the form of a windfall that would put me on Easy Street and in full control of my life.  And just as Paul's request for his thorn to be removed was not granted, neither was my vision of said windfall.

These thoughts surfaced again this morning when I went to church to pick up a very unexpected little card stuffed with $20 bills that an anonymous messenger of the Lord had left in the Sunday collection plate for me.  It was a very beautiful little card with a painting by one of my favorite artists, Thomas Kinkade, on the front of it, and inside, a handwritten message saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love," and signed, "Love, Father." 

On the way home, I pondered what a blessing in disguise my financial challenges have been.  Not only were they instrumental in my rescue from the very dark path I was walking along that I had been deceived into believing would lead me back to God, but they have also kept me totally dependent on the Lord, and enabled me to experience His grace in ways that I could never have experienced otherwise.
 
I never cease to marvel at the creative and unexpected ways He has provided for my needs, and even most of my wants.  I have a whole notebook filled with testimonies ranging from a check not bouncing when, in the natural, it should have, to getting a huge tip on a very small typing job; from receiving an unexpected check in the mail, to finding money in stores, parking lots, or even floating on the water as I walked along a secluded beach.  Once I found a quarter in the middle of a cabbage, and another time, in a puddle, as I stepped out of my car wondering how I was going to feed the meter.

I can't wait to see what happens next!