To Purge or Prune, That is the Question

Most Christians, at some point in their Christian walk, have heard someone say something about purging and/or pruning. For some it was part of a sermon; for others it was the whole message. For those who have never heard anyone ever say anything about either p word, keep living; your time is coming. Over the years I've heard more than one message about pruning; many involving purging. Both words can be seen as being negative words, but with different purposes, with vastly different outcomes. Let's take a brief look at both words, their purposes, and when to incorporate each or both in our lives. Let's start with purging.

The word purge means to remove, get rid of; to eliminate. Applied to our walk with God it means to examine our lives and remove, get rid of, and eliminate those thoughts, words, actions, and areas contrary to God's Word. These would include areas such as hatred, anger, lust, unforgiveness, and fear. Definite areas of purging here.

To prune means to cut back, cut off, to reduce (such as branches on a tree or plant) to improve shape or growth. One exception to this definition is the use of prune juice in the encouragement of,  shall we say,  elimination. I'll move on.

Purging is for total elimination, while pruning is cutting back to bring new growth. Example: television time. There's nothing wrong with watching some television, including an occasional sports program. But if you're watching hour upon hour of television-even Christian programs-it's time to prune. It's time to cut back/reduce-time spent in front of those square inches of (mostly) entertainment and invest it in doing something of more value, like spending time in improving your own life. Spend more time working to achieving your dreams than watching others live out theirs. 

How about consistently praying for others, including your pastor, or learning what those Sunday School lessons were really about? What about calling someone to give encouragement?  Cleaning your office-especially if it's in your home-could prove helpful in more ways than one. Improving life, starting with a clean room.

There are lots of ways to spend an additional hour or so a day that's been freed up by pruning back time with that one-eyed monster some call a television. Look around. Ask God to show you areas needing to be pruned. Him showing you is the easy part; doing what God says takes more effort-but it's worth it.

I can think of a few areas in my life needing purging; more needing pruning. What about you? What are some areas in your life needing some pruning? Maybe, just maybe, there's something that requires actual purging. Ask God to show areas needing adjustment, then trust Him to guide you in the process of either pruning or purging.

 © Hubert Gardner Ministries 2016-2024

Guard Your Roots

Trees, plants, fruits, and vegetables have roots. Weeds do too, but I'll focus on the positive. Whatever seed is planted will produce roots. Those roots provide the grounding and stability needed for that tree, for instance, to survive, grow, flourish, and fulfill its destiny. The same is true with Christians. Every Christian has been planted, if you will, into Christ by the Holy Spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 12:13. We've been placed into what the Bible calls the Body of Christ. Jesus is the Head; we are the Body. As with any new life in the natural, we must begin to grow roots. Those roots lengthen and strengthen as we hear God's Word, believe it, and act like it's so in us.

Without a strong root system trees stop growing. Sometimes they die. Why? In part because the roots weren't protected; they weren't watered, kept weed-free, and allowed, in the case of an apple tree, to bear fruit. The same is true in our lives. Without a strong root system of God's Word, prayer, fellowship with other believers, and service, spiritual growth is stunted, even ended.

Neither God nor I want that to happen. Our root system depends on us to guard it, to see that it has every opportunity to reach its potential, in Christ. Our root system-our foundation if you will-needs our constant vigilance. It's up to us to, as Proverbs 4:23 points out, to keep (guard, protect) our hearts with all diligence. Why? Because the devil is a meanie; he'll try everything to keep your roots from even getting started, much less growing. If he can't do that, he'll try to isolate you, to keep you from influencing others to grow in Christ.

Guard your roots. Make the time and effort to check your roots, your foundation, to ensure that they are being fed what they need, to grow as they ought. Make sure your roots are both lengthening and strengthening. Someone out there needs to see your life as a living example of what the Christian life looks like in everyday life. Without your roots in place, branches and fruit won't be much to look at.

How well are you guarding your roots? What are you doing to ensure your roots are growing on a consistent basis?

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2015-2024

How's Your Framing?

For a few months I worked as a framer, a carpenter's helper on a construction crew. Once the foundation was ready our job was to frame both the outside and inside walls of the home we were building, With enough workers and decent weather, we could frame a two-story home in under two weeks. Framing changed a flat foundation into the beginnings of rooms, closets, and the garage. As a framer I used a lot of wood and nails, an electric saw, and my 24-ounce framing hammer. Building your life on a solid foundation is great (for more on foundations watch our Life Change episodes). The best foundations, however, still need something on them to fulfill their purpose. For a home it starts by framing bedrooms, kitchen, living, and laundry areas, plus a garage and bathrooms. For your life it starts by "framing" it with what God says about you in His Word.

Your life should be "framed" with God's Word concerning peace, walking in love, health, and prosperity. Your life will include  framing of individual direction, from God's Holy Spirit. Whether it's business, ministry, sports, teaching, or other field of endeavor, a whole lot of framing has, hopefully, been going. Not with wood, nails, and hand tools, but with words-those things you speak. Words which are framing, covering, and reinforcing the "rooms" of your life. Your life is being framed-outlined-by the everyday words you have been/are saying about yourself. Good or bad, positive or negative,  your words are creating your life room by room, so to speak.

What are you saying about yourself? Whose words are you allowing to dominate your thinking and, thus, your speaking? The media's? Your relatives'? God's? Successful framing of your life includes saying what God says about you in the New Testament epistles, letters written to fellow Christians. That's the best place to find out who you are and what you have, as God's child.

So, how's your framing? How are the rooms of your life coming along? Whose words are being used to frame your life?

Summer: Slump or Surge?

Summer is here. Officially it begins June 21, but it's here. Swimming pools have opened, schools are out-or nearly so-and temperatures are rising across much of this and other countries. Yes, summer is here. Churches and ministries traditionally experience a summer"slump." By that I mean a drop in attendance and income. Fortunately, decreased income used to happen more, before online giving became available. Technology has its benefits.

A number of  churches have found creative ways to experience summer "surges", rather than slumps. They've actually grown in number. How about your church: does it grow, decrease, or stay about the same during summer months?

This summer will your life experience a slump or surge? Will this summer be one of spiritual decrease or increase for you? At the end of the summer-traditionally Labor Day-will there be a difference in your life, as seen by others? What will the difference(s) be?

What you do with your life is up to you, summers included. Naturally speaking summer is a time between school years. For others, it's that first summer after graduation from college or trade school. In your walk with God, however, learning is for more than  seasonal; it's for a lifetime. These next few months are more than days and nights of good times and staying cool. This summer can be the "season" where your life bears more evidence that God is your Heavenly Father, that He is working in and through your life.

What kind of summer are you going to have? Relaxing? The same as other years? Or, perhaps, a summer that comes to define your life in ways neither you nor others could ever see for you, up to now? The choice is not others', or even God's. The choice is yours.

Your summer: slump or surge?

Where Are Your Roots?

Tree roots provide a tentacled anchor, enabling trees to withstand winds, adverse conditions, and seasonal changes. Having a healthy root system provides the basis for mature growth and development of trees. A tree's very life originates within its unseen roots.

Like trees, our lives need roots. We need roots to ensure our personal growth and development has something to draw from. Our roots are critical to succes in our lives-even life itself. The quality of our lives can be traced to the quality of our unseen anchor-our roots if you will.

Where are your roots? Who or what is your life's root system? When the storms of life come what anchors your life? What sees you through? What sustains you? Again, where are your roots? Your answer may reveal who/what you have chosen to draw your very existence from.

The Bible has already given us an answer that will work everywhere, all the time, in every situation. In Colossians 2:6,7 God instructs us to be rooted in Christ. This includes being rooted in the knowledge of who and what we are as Christians, as children of God. This is a truth no crisis can prevail against. Acting on the knowledge of who and what we are, in Christ, is part of the unseen root system God designed and made available for each of our lives. The length and breadth of that system is limited only by our willing obedience to God's Word in our own lives.

So, where are your roots? In yourself, the hope of having someone else's experience to draw from, or in the Word of God-especially the Epistles (letters written to Christians)? There are a lot of root systems around, however only one system works. Which root system are you relying on for life, strength, and health? Where are your roots?

God’s root system begins with His written Word. God’s written word is His will to us through, primarily, the letters written to the churches, Romans through Revelation. I’m not saying neglect the Old Testament. A former businessman said that we could run a business using the book of Proverbs. The 23rd Psalm is so beautifully written, for our benefit. The book of Isaiah has much we Christians can learn from. And the book of beginnings, Genesis, tells us what took place before and after Adam sinned, clueing us that the Messiah (Jesus) would come and defeat the devil (Genesis 3:15).

Hebrews 8:6 says that, as Christians, we have a better covenant, established upon better promises. Therefore, spend most of your time in the new covenant, written to us Christians. New is better than old, for sure. The Old Testament (covenant) has much to say about curses. In the New Testament we are told, in Galatians 3:13, that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law.

That’s one reason why the New Testament is much better than the Old. Plus, the Old Testament was written to spiritually dead people, because Jesus hadn’t yet come to redeem us. The letters written to us Christians tell what happened when Jesus went to the Cross for all mankind. The Old Testament proclaims the fact of Jesus’s coming. The Gospels tell us what happened, but only in the letters written to Christians do we find out why Jesus did what He did, for all mankind.

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2014-2024

Deep and Wide

"Deep and wide, deep and wide; there's a fountain flowing deep and wide. Deep and wide, deep and wide; there's a fountain flowing deep and wide." As a camp counselor many summers  ago, I helped sing this traditional chorus-complete with hand gestures. Fortunately or otherwise,  today's post comes with no hand gestures. Deep and wide-that's how your life's foundation should be. Deep enough to support a strong, vibrant life; wide enough to withstand the pressures of life common to all.  Deep and narrow is just as pointless as shallow and wide: both are recipes for disaster.

God doesn't determine how deep and/or wide your life's foundation should be-you do. You decide how deep you want God's Word to be planted in you, how deep your spiritual "roots" will be. You decide how wide you want God's influence and direction to be in your life. The choice is always yours.

One great thing about living for Christ is that, unlike a natural foundation, you can add to your spiritual foundation. It's never to late to review your life to ensure that you're "built' on a solid foundation of knowing who you are and what you have in Christ. It's never too late to make "construction" adjustments.

Deep and wide; deep and wide. More than words of a chorus, it's a description of how strong our foundation should be, in this life. How deep and wide is your foundation? How would you deepen/widen it?

Some of today's post was taken from LifeChange episode 64, also on our website.

Is All Faith The Same?

Faith. It's one of the most misunderstood words to people today, including Christians as a whole. With so many talking about it, it's surprising just how few people really understand what faith is. To meet this need, why haven't more people made things simple by explaining, in simple language, what faith is?  Hopefully today's post helps bring simplification to faith. Faith is faith. Faith for salvation, faith for healing, faith for prosperity, a new/better job-it's still faith.

How does faith come? By hearing the Word (Romans 10:17) in the area you need faith. Need faith for salvation? Romans 10:9,10, 13 works just fine, a practical application of John 3:16 itself. What about healing? Psalm 103:3, Isaiah 53:4,5, Matthew 8:17, Acts 10:38, I Peter 2:24, and 3 John 2 are but a few good healing scriptures to produce faith in your heart. For prosperity, hear these faith-building scriptures: Deuteronomy 8:18, Psalm 1:1-3, Proverbs 35:27, Isaiah 48:17, Matthew 6:33, Luke 6:33, 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, and 3 John 2, among others.

The same gasoline that runs a car's engine will also power a generator, lawnmower, or a motorcycle. Cookie dough at Christmas becomes a star, tree, snowman, or a reindeer. As with faith, the application determines the end result.

Regardless of application, how we get faith remains the same: by hearing what the Bible-God's Word-has to say on a given subject. We do the hearing, God does the providing (of faith).

Is all faith the same? Yes, in that faith is faith, gasoline is gasoline, and cookie dough is, well, cookie dough. No, in that the application of faith will produce salvation, healing, prosperity, or a job, to name a few results. The same faith, applied through different verses, will produce different results.

What other illustrations can you add to make faith simpler to understand?

The Challenge of Convenience

I well remember rotary telephones. Along with finger dialing and operator-assisted long-distance calls, there were party lines. These party lines had nothing to do with waiting your turn at a social function; it meant sharing your line with another person or family.  At one time having a party line was a real privilege, technology of yesteryear. A convenience of that time. Technology lasted longer then. What was good for Dad and Mom seemed good enough for the next generation. The most creative changes were found within the pages of comic books,  like Dick Tracy and his wrist T.V. Those were the days my friend.

Fast forward to the present. Who needs a rotary phone when most have something that can call anywhere in the world? Plus, it takes pictures/videos, and you can watch a television screen the size of your wrist, thereby proving that Dick Tracy was years ahead of his time. Don't leave home without your phone.

Where does it end? At what point will there be enough conveniences? Will the new conveniences outlast even a single generation? The inconvenient truth is that knowledge is increasing in these last days. What once lasted 50 years now lasts for 5, or less. Herein lies the challenge of convenience: getting used to something long after its replacement has come-and gone.

The same mentality is true in the Church world. What worked for generations isn't always working today. This is especially true with methods-particularly with the technologically-advanced generation,  better known as our future. These are those young adults, both single and married, between the ages of 18-25. Perhaps even beyond. These fascinating young adults are desperately wanting the truth, but without the rotary-phone approach that worked so well for decades. Affected by sight and sound, this sight-and-sound generation won't respond to hymnbook-based worship or marathon messages. As someone astutely pointed out: your spirit can't receive more than your seat can endure. Sometimes less IS better.

The challenge of convenience is enjoying something temporal, while being open to new ways of serving the timeless. Whether a modern oven for that family recipe or screens and lights for worship, let's be open to the next convenience, all while enjoying what's before us now.

What challenges are you experiencing with what presently conveniences you?