“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man (woman) remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5

“We have a bush that looks like it is dying. The top of the bush is brown, the needles are falling off and it is leaning over. It is one of a pair of bushes that flanks the sidewalk leading up to the front door. We purchased twin bushes at the same time, from the same garden center. They have received exactly the same amount of sun, rain, wind, air, and yes, even hail one night. They are about three years old and very established plants, but one started having a few brown needles at the top, then little-by-little it began to turn brown farther and farther down until it reached the middle of the bush. Yikes, I don’t have twin bushes anymore! What could be wrong with it? I began to nurse it with fertilizer and extra water, but nothing helped.

One day I got mad and decided to just rip it out of the pot and throw it away, it was taking too much of my time and energy. When I dumped the pot over and the dirt fell off of the roots, I noticed some funny looking bugs on one section of the roots chomping away. The largest root had been chewed in half! No wonder the top had turned brown. The root that carried “life” to the top of the bush was no longer connected. The top of the bush was not receiving sustenance of any kind. If that happened to any living thing, it would die.”

This time of year comes with fun, stress, fear, and struggles. You may look forward to it and/or you may already be stressed about it. Even though people say, “Jesus is the reason for the season”, from my observation point, a great number of faithful Christians neglect the person behind the “reason” this time of year, is that you? If your shopping doesn’t get done, if your decorations are not perfect, if you don’t attend every function that calls your name, make sure the “root” doesn’t get chomped in two. Talking about Jesus doesn’t keep the root attached… talking to Him does. Your relationship with Him is the most important thing this season. If you “remain”, you will “produce” Christmas fruit! Yum!

Love is the greatest gift we can give to each other. Let’s shower the world with it for the last few days of this year. If we do that… the world will be a better place next year, agree?

My prayer for you is that you will repair all roots that have been severed in your life, and that you will decide to live a life filled with the awe and wonder of Christ everyday. I pray health and wealth, prosperity and abundance for you and your household. But most of all, I pray for LOTS of Christmas fruit… YUMMY! It is very healthy and lives on and on…

Blessings, love and prayers for you…
Kathy

The excerpt above ” ” is taken from the study, “To Water or Not to Water… the Roots”. Watch for the series… available soon!

I was with a friend and during our time together she said, “You crave what you snack on”. That phrase has stuck with me… not that I “always” follow it, but it has impacted me in countless ways. I don’t know from whom it originated, but I know that the God was the real author of it… nothing that man says has the power that Gods’ words have in a life.

The more I pondered and prayed about the “snacks” in my life, the more God showed me that we “snack” in every area of life; spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental. The quality of the snack determines the quality of the meal. Example: if you snack on relationships that are not healthy for you-you will marry someone not healthy for you or have toxic relationships. Conversely, if you snack on healthy relationships only-you will have relationships that are building and destroying-how great would “that” be?

Do you remember the Lay’s Potato Chip slogan from a few years ago, “No can eat just one”? As it turns out… that slogan is true in every area of life. God implanted in man at creation a “craving” mechanism. It was intended for good-to keep us from starving to death, in love with our mate and attracted to good things, but like everything else that fell in the garden, it became something that could be corrupted. The scripture above is a warning against that possible corruption. The Hebrew word for crave is avah, it means, “desire, incline, covet, wait longingly, wish, sigh, want, be greedy, prefer”. How many things (emotional, physical, mental, or spiritual) do you crave that are not good for you?

God’s delicacies will never be deceptive, but his (that stealer, killer, and destroyer) delicacies will always be deceptive. Deceptive in Hebrew kazab means, “a lie, untruth, falsehood, a deceptive thing”. Everything that comes from the enemy of your Godly joy is a lie! BUT… you can sample, snack on, nibble, taste, bite, chew, try, and enjoy to your hearts content, the things that are provided for you by your loving Heavenly Father. The warning is-be sure you know which things are His! Weigh each snack carefully-before it becomes a full blown, belly-busting meal and you are sorry!

Pray for wisdom today… the wisdom that can only come from above. Look at all your “snacks” with God’s eyes. Do not put anything in your (spiritual, mental, emotional, or physical) mouth without thinking and praying about it first to see if it’s God’s will for you. Why? Because… you will crave what you snack on!

As this Christmas season rolls around, I know you are trying to stay healthy and not gain weight, (me too!), but remember this scripture is not just talking about food, but everything that we “snack” on. Wouldn’t you love to be healthier in every area of life?

Hungering for the snacks from above…
Kathy