Silence is Golden

I find myself this holiday season getting frustrated on occasions in regard to Christmas and how the true meaning is being lost.  Sometimes I just want to scream at the top of my lungs at the mockery being made of my Savior, but God in His humble nature simply points me back to His word.  In reflection on His word, it is as if I can hear Him saying, "Let my word stand for itself".  This verse, I believe, says it best - "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." ~ 1 John 3:18.  Simply put, Silence is golden.  Our words mean nothing without action.  So this CHRISTmas season, let your Godly actions be your words in times of frustration...let the truth lead you and not your tongue.  Show those around you why this is truly called CHRISTmas!!!  Enough said.



This little video (below) gave me the inspiration for this week's harvest.  Please take a look and share with friends.  Also it may take a bit of time to load, so if you don't see the video on screen after a minute or so, simply click refresh.  If it still doesn't work then try this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSk8h1oG8nY

Thank you all for stopping by, God bless, and Merry CHRISTmas!!!!

My Prayer:
My God and Father, please give me the wisdom to know when not to speak and simply live out your Word in my actions.  Guide me through the Holy Spirit and show me your ways.  Let my life be a testimony to others and my actions be a reflection of why there is Christ in Christmas.  AMEN!

Ring the Bell

As my family and I were leaving Fredericksburg the other day something interesting caught my eye as we approached the end of the Rappahannock River bridge.  Off in the distance to the right stood a church steeple, white and perfectly nestled back in the trees, yet high enough on the hillside that it was perfectly visible for all to see.  I had noticed it before, however now I felt as though it calling out to me...

It wasn't too very long ago at the age of about 10 or 11 that I remember witnessing similar churches in my home town of South Boston, Va.  Many of those churches still stand today, but not as bold as they once were.  See I remember back then and how those church steeples towered over most of the area.  Those massive giants looked down upon us all and could be seen from quite some distance away.  From anywhere within about a mile or more radius one could hear those thundering bells ringing out like John the Baptist, as if to say - "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.'" ~ John 1:23.  Yet now, the bells are silent....and most are all but forgotten.

Lumber Yard

I was driving into work yesterday listening to either Chuck Swindoll on
the radio as he discussed how Paul was actually being judged / condemned
by several of the Christians he was attempting to minister to. Suddenly
I became overwhelmingly grieved in the spirit and I began to weep
uncontrollably. As I began to try and grasp what was causing me to
mourn so, I was reminded of Lordship.

See even though we may accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, it doesn't
mean that every day we are letting Christ be the Lord of our life. What
I mean by this is, that when we overcome by worry - we are not
submitting to Lordship, when money is more of a focus than helping a
brother / sister - we have forgotten Lordship, when we would rather live
our lives the way we want instead of following His word – we are
ignoring His Lordship….the list goes on and on but for me – when you sit
in judgment of others you have completely missed the point of Lordship.

Be Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving is once again upon us and I find myself more in a
state of sorrow than happiness this year. Don't get me wrong, it is not
due to lack of blessings….because God's hand has definitely been evident
in the life of my family this year, however, I just feel God calling me
to something more this time around. It is great to be thankful, but if
we are called to be in the image of Christ, then we have to ask
ourselves – How am I being someone else's Thanksgiving??? Another
words, are my actions such that glory is being brought to God?

Let me elaborate a bit here: As I mentioned before I have been reading,
"The Hole in Gospel" by Richard Stern (yes I am a slow reader), and it
has hit home how much I have been missing the mark when it comes to
Gospel fulfillment. See in Luke 4:14-19, Christ stands before the
synagogue and states what He is there to fulfill, and it is far more
than basic discipleship and general evangelism. Christ proclaims His
fulfillment of the following: "to preach good news to the poor….proclaim
freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to
release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

So if I are in His image, then how do I fulfill this as well????

What is my purpose???

I have been pondering for some time lately as to what my purpose is in
God's kingdom. Like typing this email, I find it difficult sometimes to
put it all together and truly make since of exactly where God is taking
me. Recently however, He has really been hammering home the fact that
if I just let go and let Him be in charge, everything works itself out.
This is very hard, nerve racking, and even TERRIFYING at times. But
again, like these emails they seem work themselves out when I let go.

Yesterday, a friend of mine asked, "How do you create these Weekly
Harvests?" Honestly, I have to say I don't. I know too many this is
going to sound freaky, creepy, or something else altogether, but many
times when I sit down I have no clue what to write. All week I could
have been in Word, praying, and even thoughtfully pondering some idea,
but at the last minute God takes me somewhere completely different.
Like now. For the first few minutes I just sat here mind racing,
clueless as to what to put down. Now my fingers are just going and I
can't take credit for where it is all coming from. Mind racing,
thoughts connecting, but it all came after I just relaxed, prayed, and
let God be in control.

Faith like a child

Funny story – I was listening to the radio today on the way in to work
and they were talking about the upcoming time change. The BIG question
was: How many of you out there have ever had a time change event?
Another words, have you ever been late or extremely early to where you
were going because you forgot to change your clocks forward or back. I
know I have!!!

Mine seem to always be in the spring however, which stinks. Why you
might ask? Well…..Spring Forward. Showing up to church for the last
service of the day, going in and setting down, and then realizing that
they are starting to take the chairs makes you feel quite stupid. The
even funnier thing is trying to make your way out of the church as if
you were there all along so you don't feel even more stupid. And yes,
this has happened multiple times…..LOL!

Full Moon

Wow!!! Did you see that moon this morning…it was gorgeous.
I was walking out to my car this morning, praying for God to give me
some insight into what the "Weekly Harvest" should be this week, when
low and behold there it was like a bright Morning Star. Then about 5
mins into my journey to work I hear these words coming across the
airwaves – "I'm giving my life to the only one who makes the Moon
reflect the sun. On that Starry Night, He changed my life." ~ Chris
August – Starry Night.

So that got me to thinking how much the relationship between the moon
and the sun represents our relationship with God. We of course are the
moon and Jesus Christ is the Son (or in this case the Sun). When the
moon is full the nights are bright, much like when we completely
surrender our lives and are living in full obedience to God – reflecting
the Full light of Christ. However, like the moon many of us are a slave
to our sin (the world) and many times circum to its gravitational forces
getting pulled this way and that until the light is just a glimmer
(Crescent) or sometimes not reflected at all (New Moon).

Bumper Sticker ID

I never wanted to be a "bumper sticker Christian", a person who puts a
sticker on their car to let everyone know who they serve, but then
doesn't necessarily live out that fact in their life. But about a week
ago I got another one of those blindside truths that really struck home.

See I was chatting with a friend of mine and somehow we got around to
discussing living out our faith at work. Like most conversations the
dialog went back and forth when suddenly my friend said something that
floored me. [Paraphrasing here] "When I first met you Mitch I thought
you were one of those angry people. You looked mad all the time. Then
I came up and saw your cube and saw the BUMPER STICKERS (God is Good,
Real men love Jesus) and said to myself this guy is a Christian??? I
need to check this out, maybe my perceptions were wrong….." Needless to
say that was a knife to my chest, little did they know of course.

Isn't it awesome how God works…he uses you and you don't even know it.

Going through the motions

Do you ever find yourself spiritually just going through the
motions???

Went to church this week….check, read my bible today….check, said a few
prayers….check.

Me too. I think we all come to those points, at different times in our
spiritual walk, where we feel like we are just going through the
motions. The thing to remember most of all in these type of moments, is
to draw closer to God in all aspects of our lives, not push Him away.
Many times in hardships or trials we get a bit sanctimonious and think
we don't deserve something or ask "Why is this happening to me???"
simply because we feel we are doing all the right things (all the boxes
are checked).

Run Awaaaaaay!!!

How many of you have ever seen Monty Python's "Holy Grail"? If you
have, then you probably remember that famous and funny quote, "Run away,
knights…Run awaaaaaay!"

I found this quote ringing in my ears this morning as I was praying
about what to write. See the last couple of weeks at my church we have
been going over the Book of Jonah, and personally at home I have been
reading the book entitled, "The Hole in the Our Gospel" by Richard
Sterns. In both these stories the men are faced with a serious
challenges – are you willing to do God's will no matter what the cost.

With Jonah, his personal feelings towards the Ninevite's got in the way,
because he felt that such deplorable people were outside of God's grace
and that they should not even be given a chance to redeem
themselves….and so he ran. With Richard Sterns, his comfort zone got in
the way, as he reflects on leaving a million dollar job as CEO of Lenox
(upscale fine china distro) to follow God's call to be the President of
World Vision. Giving up the money, the comfort, the perfect house,
wonderful schools, and in his mind the perfect life - did not make since
in order to travel around the world to various third world countries in
the hope of saving lives….and so he ran.

Blind Side

Our pastor started a new series last Sunday entitled Blind Side. During
the opening of his presentation we listened intently as Sandra Bullock
narrated the start of the movie titled by the same name. She walked us
through Joe Theismann's career ending play, where he suffered a compound
fracture, brought on when he was hit blind-sided by Lawrence Taylor.
The story goes on to outline how important it is to have a strong left
tackle and how vital their role is in protecting the QB.

My wife is my left tackle. She is awesome at what she does, and I love
her "more than my arms can stretch". She doesn't get paid at all what
she is worth, but she does the job regardless. I say she is my left
tackle (especially spiritually) because she sees what I don't. When I
mess up in my day to day walk with God, she sees it even if I don't.
When God is saying run this play and I decide to do it my own way, she
lets me know. This weekend was no different.

Deep Sea Fishing

First let me start my extending my deepest apologies. I realized when I woke up on Thursday morning to my much needed labor day vacation, that I had not sent the Morning Fruit distro to my home email. That being said, I didn’t want to piece meal it and end up missing someone so I just decided to take the much needed vacation and rest from everything. You will be happy to know however, that Tyrone Wheeler and I, have been diligently working on taking this to the web where we hope to open up several other opportunities in addition to the “Morning Fruit”. Please keep your eyes open for the Grand Opening email. Well without further delay here is this evenings Afternoon Fruit.

In Mark 4:19, Jesus said to His apostles, many of whom were fisherman - “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” This resonated in their hearts and minds and was completely understood, but I catch myself wondering from time to time, if I fully get it. I say this because too many times in my walk I have found myself fishing for trophies and not fishing for men.

Cruise Control

Did any of you look up this morning and see that sky? I hope so.

Well today is Sept 1^st my oldest Son’s B-Day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAUN!!!! He is now 13 years old and boy does this terrify me. He is a great kid with a sound head on his shoulders, but I keep waiting for the bomb to drop. I see all my friends and the wonderful experiences they have with their teenagers and wonder when the fun will begin. Remembering back to before he was born, I hear me and my wife discussing parenting styles and proclaiming how we will never be like “those” parents, and that our kids will be so much better….blah, blah, blah. 5 kids later - I will never, ever, ever ridicule another parent again and laugh at others when they do. This is simply because it is not easy; it is a challenge; and at times a lot of fun.

However, it too can be is also painful; sometimes scaring; and not always roses and rainbows. For example - the first time your little one says they don’t love you; You may keep a stern face, but deep down inside your heart breaks. Or when your child is in pain and you can’t help them overcome it. Or when you go all out to make something special for them and they either toss it to the side or keep asking for more. So how do we do it?

Guidance

Wow, what a morning! Did any of you bother to look up when you walked outside this morning?

Well being out in Stafford, God blesses us with some pretty beautiful skylines at times, and this morning was no different. I carried the trash to the curb and began to stand in awe of what I saw. Standing there gawking at the spectacular light display got me thinking about how very little we look up anymore. In the past, farmers used stars to gauge the seasons, sailors to plot their courses, and astronomers to truly understand our universe. Now with the age of Technology the skyline has been washed out; either we don’t bother looking up anymore or the city lights just don’t allow it. The funny thing is that even when the Sun is up, the stars are still there.

So then I thought how much this parallels our nation’s view of God. In the beginning, our forefathers came here seeking God without persecution. They diligently sought His guidance in all that they did. One example can be found in the paintings of the First Continental Congress. In these paintings, depicted in the Time life series on Ben Franklin, members of Congress are all seen praying for guidance before the opening session. Likewise, former Presidents and other founding fathers have been quoted citing scripture and referencing God and His significance in their lives and the life of our nation. But then somewhere along the way, with all the new technology – God, like the stars, got washed out. As if our rising freedom, like the Sun coming up, washed out the night sky.

The Tree

Our pastor shared an interesting story the other day that opened my eyes to seeing the big picture. In his story he spoke of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector (Luke 19:1-10). This story talks about how diligent the collector was to see Christ among the crowd, so much so that he climbed up into a tree in order to catch a glimpse. What was interesting about my pastor’s story was the character I had never seen before…..the tree.

He went on to question us asking, “If the tree hadn’t been there then how would Zac have seen Christ?” The tree is the one that provided the foundation, the rooted structure, the footholds if you will, that allowed Zac to overcome the world (the crowd) and see the Lord for the first time. Needless to say I was convicted deeply that day to be the tree. Whether a lone maple in the middle of a abandoned lot or an oak among a great forest, I believe we are called to be the tree. We must be rooted in his word, bearing fruit, and be strong enough to support the weight of others. All of these can be attained in Him, but we must first be willing to be the tree.