VBS is going great and the kids and workers are celebrating the Gospel of Christ creatively.
 However, on Tuesday night I was called away by a phone call from a neighbor who let me know that a large oak tree on our home property had split in the storm and a 40-foot branch was in danger of falling on our home. 

When we moved here 4 years ago we were delighted with the large, resplendent trees and all the wonderful shade they provide. 
They also host untold birds and squirrels which entertain us immensely!

Sadly, the whole oak tree is coming down today as a dozen workers dismantle it and turn it into wood chips.
 
The problem?
A rotten core.
Another reminder that our strength is not found on our outside, our appearance, --but what is at the center of our life. The unshakeable, unbreakable core for life is Jesus Christ!

This summer, let us daily review our interior lives, expunge whatever is not of the Lord and give Him full license to all that we are. 
Would you make that commitment today?

"The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;  planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
Psalm 92:12-14

"Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."  --Romans 8:33-37