Week Four: Master Gardener Day 26: Withering April 21, 2016

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"Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of

unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the LORD, until He comes

and showers righteousness upon you."

(Hosea 10:12)

Day Twenty-Six Devotions:

MORNING MEDITATION

AFTERNOON DEVOTION

EVENING PRAYER

MORNING MEDITATION

Glean the Word: John 15:6

Glimpse of Glory: "He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." (Psalm 1:3)

The Christian life is an exchanged life. Our natural fleshly life was exchanged for the new spiritual life when we were born again in Christ - when we trusted Him as Savior and Lord. Our new life is an active, growing life; and just as the physical body needs food and exercise to grow, so also the spiritual body needs spiritual food and spiritual disciplines to help us to grow to maturity in Christ. Where there is life and growth, there is always fruit. Where there is no fruit, that is a signal that there is no life. We are to be entirely given over to the Vine for His own special use, but an unfruitful branch is useless to the Vine; therefore it is cast away and burned because it is a burden to the Vine. "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them" (Matthew 7:19-20).

The Christian life proves itself with obedience to God and loving service towards others. But there are some believers who never experience the power of the abiding life and the fruitfulness that life in Christ produces. They never fully give themselves over to Christ and forsake all to follow Him, and therefore never experience the real need of the abiding life. The cares and concerns of the world and all that it offers draw them away from fully resting in the Lord. Believers who never really root themselves in Christ easily wither away when the winds of persecution blow through. It is a tragedy when the heart begins to grow cold and drifts away from the safety and security of Christ Jesus. Let take our spiritual temperature this morning, and pray that our hearts are burning ever-hotter for the Lord. May we be watchful for the coldness or lukewarmness that is producing withered branches in the church, and ask the Lord to sweep through and set the hearts of His people on fire for Him once again. "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit" (Jeremiah 17:7-8).
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AFTERNOON DEVOTION

Glean the Word: Mark 11:12-25

Gift of Grace: "The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:10-12)

During the week of His passion, Jesus went to the temple to do some necessary house cleaning. On His way, He made a pit stop at a fig tree to pick some fruit to satisfy His hunger (and to teach His disciples a valuable lesson). From a distance the leaf-covered fig tree gave the appearance of being fruitful, but up close it only proved to be an impostor which offered no nourishment, so Jesus cursed the tree and it withered away. "May no one ever eat fruit from you again" (Mark 11:14a). Jesus only made the tree what it truly proved to be - a bunch of dead branches. He would not have others being fooled by this deceptive tree, so He made sure that it was destroyed at its very root.

As Christians, we are to produce the fruit of spiritual life. The transformation that has taken place within us is meant to show itself in a fruitful and holy life. There are some who are only playing the part of a follower of Christ. Externally they have all the form and appearance of religion, but inside they are dead, powerless and lifeless (2 Timothy 3:5). Their words are empty, and they speak of man's wisdom, not the truth of God. This is what Jesus condemned the Pharisees for when He called them hypocrites. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness" (Matthew 23:27-18). The heavenly Father intends for His children to experience the fullness of the resurrection life, so that through us the life of Christ can be revealed to others. Out of the overflow of our hearts should come words of power and hope that will heal and impart life.

After Jesus cursed the fig tree, He cleansed the temple, turning over the tables, so that the inside would honestly reflect what it represented on the outside - a house of prayer! That is what Jesus wants to do with each of us. We have been called to the abiding life in Christ, so that through Him we can speak words of hope and power, and be a house of prayer given over to unceasing intercession, so we can lay hold of the blessings of heaven to breathe life into the dead souls of men on earth. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, let us pray and ask the Lord to come in power and turn over the tables of flesh, self, sin and the world, and cleanse and purify our hearts and lives, so that inside and out we can offer the world an undiminished reflection of the pure and holy image of Jesus Christ - because it is His life living in us.
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EVENING PRAYER

Glean the Word: 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Fruit of Repentance: "He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn - and I would heal them." (John 12:40)

Evening prayer focus: A prayer for watchfulness against withering away from abiding in Christ Jesus (click on the image below for our evening prayer).

"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the Word of God and prayer." (1 Timothy 4:1-5)

This evening, draw close to the fire and experience the warmth, love and light of Christ as we come boldly before the Throne of Grace and join our hearts together in prayer:

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