What Do You Think? Wednesday

In the midst of fruit snacks, brother spats, show and tell and tattle tells, I wrote the sermon, at least most of it, for a message at Kingdom Builders Christian Church in Redford, Michigan last Saturday. God had been speaking to my spirit for two weeks “speak life.” This is what He wanted me to tell the women. This is what He wanted them to do. This is what He wanted me to get. He wanted me to speak life, the one He has for me that is wrapped up in Him:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

I needed to know that because He shaped me, He fits me into the spaces He’s created just for me. The shaping is continual as I am formed more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. And as I am continually shaped I have to continually connect with God—who is my very life—so He directs me to the spaces that now fit into who I am becoming. Old spaces crowd out the new me, and the only way I know that is if I am so wrapped up into God there is no mistaking recognizing the new spaces:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:1-5).

So last week more than ever before in my life of developing sermons I knew Jesus wanted me to trust Him, to remember He’s the One that gives me the message, the words to write on the page and the ones to come out of my mouth. He’s the One who guides me with how to say what He wants me to say and appoints the hour to deliver and the people to receive His word. I can do nothing without Him. So when the musicians and speakers before me all had a word that confirmed the word God gave me, I stood back to see His salvation. That day He set women free, including me, to follow the life (with all its visible uncertainty) that He has chosen for me. What about you? Have you embraced the life God has for you, realizing that you are not your own but His alone to do what He alone has chosen you for? What has your journey been like? Please, tell me what you think.