Words from a Branch

  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him,   and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV             These wise words of counsel harkens back to the wisdom of Proverbs 1:7, and thus to the very foundation of wisdom itself. God is at the beginning of all wisdom, as He is at the center of all understanding. Failing to acknowledge God in all our ways is an act of willful ignorance, that will necessarily send our path in life here and there and everywhere as we try to find some way apart from the cardinal directions. We will subject ourselves to futility in reliance on our incomplete understanding. We shall move without going anywhere.             God’s understanding is alone perfect, and perfectly perfect, only He knows the way in its entirety. When He makes the path straigh...

Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul… Job 3:20             Job is in bad shape, far worse I imagine than any of us have ever been. Job lost it all, and he had a lot to lose. Even His health is gone. His friends have been struck dumb by his plight for seven days and seven nights. In the next few verses Job continues to lament by finding death far preferable to life. He wants to die; he wants to die very badly.               I pray you never have, and never will find yourselves in such a place where you must ask why life continues for you, and why death will not approach. I have been in such a place. It is very difficult to hear the answer in that place. There is an answer though. God is not finished with you yet.             God never tells Job the precise reasons he went th...

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:25 ESV                 This formulation is found in every gospel, Mark 8:35, Matthew 10:39, 16:25, Luke 9:24, 14:26, and 17:33. John 12:24 says, “Truly, Truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies it bears much fruit. One life must end so that a greater life may begin. You cannot have your own life, and have the life of Christ abide in you. The call to follow Christ as these verses tell us is a call to die to self.   This is exactly as difficult as it sounds. The more we are invested in this life, the more difficult it is to lay this life down.                 We want to eat our cake and have it to. We want to keep our lives, and gain the eternal lif...

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV             When we think of this book we likely first hear its dreary reframe, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” Solomon had the ability to pursue the various courses of men, and blessed with wisdom from god to evaluate them. At the end, the very end his last word is that God’s way is the best way. We should know this from Genesis 3. We should know this from a simple understanding of God.             Taken wrongly this idea might cause us to throw-up our hands in resignation, declare everything futile, and cease in all appearance of responsibility or purpose. This would be folly. God has provided us a way of salvation, He has done the great w...