Pruning or Topiary?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:19:18 -0400

When God prunes us He does so in order that we might produce more fruit. He never trims us so we will achieve a certain shape...a spiritual topiary to grace some church lawn. He is not interested in ornamental Christians. We assume too often that He has a shape in mind for us - then He trims us into that shape. Not true. Even though He has work planned for us to do (Eph. 2:10) He is pruning us for more growth. He has one shape in mind, one image...His Son.
As leaders, do we hinder God in His pruning? Are we simply attempting to produce Christian topiaries?

As we struggle to ‘make disciples’, are we lopping off what doesn’t look like what WE think they should look like? Do we have so many preconceived notions of what a ‘mature believer’ looks like, that we are actually thwarting God in His work on that person? Are we trimming so much that fruit is never allowed to develop?

As you go through your day, think about this. Do you see the potential for growth that God sees in the people you know? Do you then assist in the pruning to help them grow to that potential?

Counting Oranges

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:47:55 -0400

If I handed you an orange, you could probably take it apart and tell me how many seeds there are in it. You could do this orange after orange after orange. A lot of things come into play for this to happen. Your dexterity, your ability to dismantle an orange, your sorting and counting skills are all crucial. All of these would come into play for you to be able to accomplish this task. But if I gave God just one of those seeds, He could tell me how many oranges He sees inside.

The difference is in the ability to see beyond “what is” and into “what could be”. Only God can do that! We limit ourselves by only seeing “what is”, instead of moving with God toward “what could be”.

Much of the time our dreams are not too big, they are too small. If we are to imitate God in our character, as Ephesians 5:1,2 suggests, why don’t we imitate Him in our creative ability? Our dreaming ability? Because it has been engineered out of us. We have bought into the idea that if we tithe, do our day in the nursery, usher from time to time and help out in Sunday school that we have done our part and we expect that God will give us some kind of prize. These are really good things to do and they are only is needed. But can you dream beyond what is needed?

Lets say dreaming was represented by oranges. We can see it in our mind. Originally we dreamed of only one orange, but we need to dream big enough to ask for the whole tree. And yet, all the while God is wanting to give us an orange grove…and all the seeds within them. Now how many oranges are we talking about – including the ones He sees within each seed?

Our job is to release the seeds in whatever He gives us. He can then use what we give to help us create the dreams He has for us. Both of these situations require new perspective, God’s perspective. It may be costly to dream, but it is deadly not to.

THE RC Blog

Pruning or Topiary?

Counting Oranges