Life is filled with colloquialisms. Here are a few:
These phrases speak to the undeniable correlation between the product and the producer.
You and I didn’t crawl fully grown out of a stork’s delivery bag.
We were conceived by others, we were birthed by others, we were raised by others and we continue to this day to be shaped by the involvement of others.
That’s why — if we want to have lives of godliness pleasing to the Lord — we are to be discerning in who allow to be our inner circle “influencers.”
If we want our lives to produce the sweet honey of kindness, moral purity and generosity, we need to stay close to the hive of holiness.
I pray that you have a circle of friends who love the Lord and strive to become more like Christ.
I pray that you have a congregation where the leadership is closely connected to the Vine of Jesus Christ.
I pray that you have an immediate and extended family that pursues personal holiness and spiritual fruitfulness and invites to join them in those pursuits.
I need more of this.
I need to provide more of this to the people I know.
Here’s the catalyst for today’s Morning Devotion —
“For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.” (Romans 11:16)
The Apostle Paul was referring specifically to the faithful patriarchs during this explanation of how God grafted faithful Gentiles into His Kingdom that was launched 1,500 years earlier by God.
His point was this — faithful people committed to holy living are always committed to imparting that same level of commitment.
Please send the roots of your faith DEEP into the Bible via daily reading and reflection and prayer.
Please spread those roots WIDE as you seek Living Water (biblical insights) via other sources such as Christian music, faithful testimony from Christian friends and theologically sound Bible teaching on the radio.
And please look for every opportunity to feed what you’ve learned into branches that reach wider into the world, providing shade for the spiritually weary and fruit for the spiritually hungry.
The world desperately needs more holy branches.
Let’s ask God to grow us, to shape us, to prune us and to feed us so that we might do the same for others, with them doing the same for others.
It’s how this thing called Christianity is supposed to work.
As always, I love you
Martin
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