Happy are those…

151219Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
(Psalm 1, NRSV)

This Psalm is one of my favorites. Plus it sets the tone for all of the psalms.

Happy are those…

Who do not follow the advice of the wicked
or take the path of sinners
or sit with the scoffers

in other versions it is a progression of following or walking in the ways of the wicked, standing with the sinners, or sitting with scoffers.

You see we chooses in life, and we can choose whom we hang out with. We can choose to follow those who will lead us places we don’t want to go. We can choose to linger with them, and sit with them.

But if we follow after God and His commandments for our lives, we will be like a tree planted by streams of living water, and we will produce the fruit of God.

bear fruit

151218“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.  (John 15:1-8, NRSV)

Somehow a bear carved into a watermelon is not what Jesus had in mind when He said, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

And bearing fruit does not mean bringing fruit to people. Well ok the literal meaning of bearing fruit is bringing it to people, but we are not talking about real fruit here.

Jesus is saying that you are so connected to Him and the Father that your life is flowing with their will and their deeds.

The vinegrower takes away the branches that do not do the will od the Father so that those branches that are doing His will will get the food.

And those branches that do do His will, He prunes and trims back so that they will produce all the more.

So live in Christ and allow Him and the Father to permeate your life.

unknown

151217Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31, NRSV)

To an unknown god…

What you worship as unknown we know. Think about that for a moment.

God wants to be in a relationship with you.

He wants to know you and for you to know Him.

The creator of all the universe, the cosmos, wants to know you and be known by you.

And to accomplish this He came to live among us as a baby and a man to show us the way He wants us to live.

Do not think of God as unknown, because He wants to be known by you!