THE NEW EWE

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'"

Luke 15:4-6

May 26, 2021

LIFE IN THE FOLD:

Ephesians 3:17 says, "Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong."

Colossians 2:6-7 says, "And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness."

I hadn't planted flowers for the past few years, so decided that I wanted to do so this year. I started in my backyard and planted several flowers by our back porch, planted a couple of small bushes in our backyard, and some seed for four o'clocks that my sister had given me.

I only planted them a couple weeks ago, but haven't yet seen the growth that I want to see. Every single day since planting them I've gone outside to check to see how they are doing. Honestly, they don't look a whole lot different than they did when I first planted them.

But gradually there have been a few noticeable changes that I've seen in the past few days. I've noticed that the flowers on the hydrangea bush have started opening up and showing their colors. The butterfly bush has started budding out. And the four o'clock seeds are finally pushing through the ground and I'm seeing 3-4 inches of green where they are growing and coming up. There are still several flowers that I've not seen any change in.

Just because I can't see the changes taking place doesn't mean that they aren't happening. There is work going on with the root system underground that's not visible to the eye. The roots are becoming established and growing and getting deeper. Once they do so, then the plant that is above ground will begin to grow and bloom.

Something else that Jon and I did in our backyard is take out some bushes. Jon dug up the rose bush, because it had died last year. We had planted it about four years ago, and it grew and bloomed and looked beautiful for two or three years. Last year it became brown and dry and stopped producing roses. When Jon dug it up, he found that the root system hadn't grown strong and some hadn't become established.

On the other hand, he cut down a couple of burning bushes that we had planted on the side of our shed several years ago. They had grown so large the last couple of years that the branches were rubbing against the side of the building; and were blocking the rain water so that it couldn't drain correctly. The result was, rotting boards on the shed.

Jon cut down as much of the bush as he could, but as he dug around the bottom of the bushes, he found that the roots were deep and hard to dig up. He ended up placing charcoal around the bottom of the bushes and let it burn, in order to kill the roots, which will enable him to dig them up more easily.

The scriptures that I used at the beginning speaks about us allowing our roots to grow down deep into Christ. In order for our faith to grow and mature, we have to stay connected to Jesus so that His Spirit will flow through us, giving us life so that we can become established and bear fruit.

These roots take time to grow, develop and mature. We can't always see what is happening and at times may not feel as if anything of value is taking place. The growth may feel so minuscule and slow that we wonder if we are growing at all. But what is taking place during those times is something that is happening internally and can't be seen with the eye. We may not be able to see it, and it may not be noticeable to anyone else either; but those spiritual roots really are growing and maturing and becoming deeper and more established.

How foolish would it be if I were to dig up the flowers each day to see what was taking place with the roots?! Even if I were to just dig the dirt away from the roots to expose them so that I could see them, it would still end up killing the plants. You have to leave the roots covered so that they can grow down deep and become established.

We sometimes like to try and dig around in the lives of other believers, trying to see their roots and question why they aren't growing as we think they should. We think there should be more evidence of fruit and faith and that they should act or be different than they are. What we can't see is what is happening in their heart. We can't see the evidence of what Jesus is doing in their spiritual root system. Perhaps a better alternative would be to water their lives with prayer and encouragement; speaking life, instead of death, into them.

If we aren't rooted correctly and try to rush the growth, we may look okay for a while, and may even bear some fruit for a period of time. But there will come a time when we will shrivel up and die.

It is imperative that we allow our roots to grow deep in Christ, and stay attached to Him, so that He can nourish us and give us His life-giving spirit. Perhaps we need to focus more on staying attached to the Vine (Jesus) and allowing His "sap" to flow through us, instead of focusing on the fruit. The fruit will be the evidence of letting our roots grow deep into Jesus and building our lives upon Him. It will come if we focus on our roots and making sure that they are grounded deeply in Christ.

We should never get to the place where we are satisfied with our spiritual roots, thinking we are good enough. We definitely should never ever get to the place where we think we can live separately from the Vine. But we should always remain deeply rooted in Jesus, allowing them to become deeper and bigger and stronger, so that nothing can ever sever us from Him and hinder our growth.

JON'S PERSPECTIVE:

When we planted the roses, we used potting soil and fertilizer. We built a raised bed for the bush, and amended the soil well for the best growth.

After looking at the roots, I believe we weren't doing the bush any favors by coddling it. The roots were thick and strong, but didn't run deep. They had all the nutrients and water they needed right where they started. So instead of searching out the food they needed, they grew thick, wrapping around themselves. When the fertilizer ran out, and it got a little dry, it was completely unprepared to draw deeper water or nutrition.

Some christians believe that once we have Jesus in our lives, everything should be easy. Our life on earth should feel like heaven. But just like the roses, that doesn't help us grow roots. We usually have to be pushed into digging deep. But it is worth the struggle.

ON THE MENEWE:

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

Mix all the sauces together in a small bowl. Lightly salt chicken as you put it into the crockpot. Pour the sauce over the top. Cover and cook all day on low (6-8 hours) or high (3-4 hours), until tender.

Remove the chicken and shred. Return to crockpot and stir to coat with sauce.

Serve on Hawaiian rolls for BBQ sliders or on hamburger buns for sandwiches. Or -- just eat alone! Leftovers are great, also.

**Note: I usually just place the chicken in the crockpot, dump all the other ingredients on top, then stir to mix.

I also use garlic salt to season the chicken, instead of regular salt (or you can omit the salt all together, which will still be salty enough).

THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER:

This past Saturday my family celebrated the 50^th anniversary of my oldest sister and her husband. Being almost 14 and a half years older than me, I was age 5 when they got married (I turned 6 that summer). Being so young, it's difficult to really remember a time when Joyce wasn't married or Robert wasn't part of our family. Robert was a farmer in Kansas when they got married, but soon afterward, God placed a call on Robert's life for ministry. Over these past 50 years, they have raised 4 sons, have 6 grandchildren, and have pastored 10 churches. They've endured times of having very little and hardship, and times overflowing with blessings. They've faced difficulties and struggles, and times of green pastures and still waters. But through it all, they have remained faithful to God, to one another, and to the ministry. They are well loved and respected by their sons and their spouses and grandchildren; as well as extended family, friends, and people whose lives they have touched throughout the years.

THOUGHT TO PONDER:

Even when you don't understand what is happening, the one thing you know is that

God has never failed you before, and he is not about to start now. - Christine Caine

OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO YOU:

We love you!

Loretta & Jon

http://www.graysheep.org