Fruit or weeds?

(05.20.21 –Value -Matthew 6:19-24)

My friend, may I ask you a question? Take a look at your heart today. Does it contain the treasures of a godly harvest? Or are the storage bins empty, closed to the goodness of God's spiritual bounty?

My friend, life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day.

I'm M. Clifford Brunner.

Are you a morning person or an evening person? I guess it’s a matter of your biological clock. Some of us are tuned to the rising sun, others to the setting. I happen to be a morning person. I am bound to stir around 3:00, and rise no later than 4:15. Then, it’s off to a morning walk and the day begins. Morning is the time I do my best thinking, and my best working. Normally, by around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon I begin to wear down; right about the time that your average evening person, like my wife Holly, it just starting to get warmed up.

I've often felt that my "best" time of the day gives me a chance to do what I call mental cultivation, a sort of cleaning out of the mind and heart; a time to clear out the mental cobwebs that make up the normal clutter that so often accumulates from the previous day. Like a farmer out in his field dragging first plow, then rake behind him, you and I often find ourselves plowing over and through yesterday's thoughts, raking out the lumps of confusion and even contradiction into a finely pulverized mental soil ready to accept the seed of "today's" promised hope. If you've ever stood in the spring on a newly raked field, soft and ripe with the smell of freshly turned dirt, it's an exhilarating experience. So much soil, so many possibilities!

A day doesn't normally go by when we don't find ourselves in that train of thought: what to plant and how to care for it? We stand in the mind's freshly plowed field, poised to begin sowing the seed for the day. We can choose to sow good seed that will require a lot of attention or simply to sow the easy thing, weeds. We can choose to clean out our hearts and minds or choose to leave them clogged with useless things. Jesus instructs us to clean out our hearts, to receive the fruits of a good harvest He's anxious to plant there. It all depends upon what we choose to treasure. Our treasure can be the easy to grow but difficult to harvest weeds or in the difficult to grow but easy to harvest fruits of the spirit: joy, peace, love, perseverance, gentleness, goodness, self-control and faith.

Take a look at your heart today. Does it contain the treasures of a godly harvest? Or are the storage bins empty, closed to the goodness of God's spiritual bounty? Take the time tonight or tomorrow morning, when your thinking is the clearest, to think on things spiritual, the fruits of the spirit, while carefully avoiding a preoccupation with the things of this life that are not. Weeds may be easy to grow but they're bitter to the taste and a bother to harvest; while the fruits of the spirit, sweet to the taste, are always worth the effort that goes into the harvest.

We pray. Heavenly Father, look at your heart today. Does it contain the treasures of Your love? Or are the storage bins empty, closed to the goodness of Your spiritual bounty? Help me by Your Spirit to take the time todays, when my thinking is the clearest, to think on things spiritual, the fruits of the Spirit, while carefully avoiding a preoccupation with the things of this life that are not. Weeds may be easy to grow but they're bitter to the taste and a bother to harvest; while the fruits of the spirit, sweet to the taste, are always worth the effort that goes into the harvest. Forgive us Father when our hearts fill with weeds and there is no good fruit in the harvest bins. Secure us today in Christ, that our harvest of faith may be assured. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

Therefore my friend, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry for itself; each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:34) This Passing Day. May this passing day honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be a blessing to you and everyone you meet. Find a stranger and say hello. Don't let another day pass without your day blessing someone else.

If you have a special prayer request, please send your request to ”This Passing Day!”

<thispassingday@gmail.com> From Beech Springs, God bless you for Jesus sake.

Fruit or weeds?

(05.20.21 –Value -Matthew 6:19-24)

My friend, may I ask you a question? Take a look at your heart today. Does it contain the treasures of a godly harvest? Or are the storage bins empty, closed to the goodness of God's spiritual bounty?

My friend, life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day.

I'm M. Clifford Brunner.

Are you a morning person or an evening person? I guess it’s a matter of your biological clock. Some of us are tuned to the rising sun, others to the setting. I happen to be a morning person. I am bound to stir around 3:00, and rise no later than 4:15. Then, it’s off to a morning walk and the day begins. Morning is the time I do my best thinking, and my best working. Normally, by around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon I begin to wear down; right about the time that your average evening person, like my wife Holly, it just starting to get warmed up.

I've often felt that my "best" time of the day gives me a chance to do what I call mental cultivation, a sort of cleaning out of the mind and heart; a time to clear out the mental cobwebs that make up the normal clutter that so often accumulates from the previous day. Like a farmer out in his field dragging first plow, then rake behind him, you and I often find ourselves plowing over and through yesterday's thoughts, raking out the lumps of confusion and even contradiction into a finely pulverized mental soil ready to accept the seed of "today's" promised hope. If you've ever stood in the spring on a newly raked field, soft and ripe with the smell of freshly turned dirt, it's an exhilarating experience. So much soil, so many possibilities!

A day doesn't normally go by when we don't find ourselves in that train of thought: what to plant and how to care for it? We stand in the mind's freshly plowed field, poised to begin sowing the seed for the day. We can choose to sow good seed that will require a lot of attention or simply to sow the easy thing, weeds. We can choose to clean out our hearts and minds or choose to leave them clogged with useless things. Jesus instructs us to clean out our hearts, to receive the fruits of a good harvest He's anxious to plant there. It all depends upon what we choose to treasure. Our treasure can be the easy to grow but difficult to harvest weeds or in the difficult to grow but easy to harvest fruits of the spirit: joy, peace, love, perseverance, gentleness, goodness, self-control and faith.

Take a look at your heart today. Does it contain the treasures of a godly harvest? Or are the storage bins empty, closed to the goodness of God's spiritual bounty? Take the time tonight or tomorrow morning, when your thinking is the clearest, to think on things spiritual, the fruits of the spirit, while carefully avoiding a preoccupation with the things of this life that are not. Weeds may be easy to grow but they're bitter to the taste and a bother to harvest; while the fruits of the spirit, sweet to the taste, are always worth the effort that goes into the harvest.

We pray. Heavenly Father, look at your heart today. Does it contain the treasures of Your love? Or are the storage bins empty, closed to the goodness of Your spiritual bounty? Help me by Your Spirit to take the time todays, when my thinking is the clearest, to think on things spiritual, the fruits of the Spirit, while carefully avoiding a preoccupation with the things of this life that are not. Weeds may be easy to grow but they're bitter to the taste and a bother to harvest; while the fruits of the spirit, sweet to the taste, are always worth the effort that goes into the harvest. Forgive us Father when our hearts fill with weeds and there is no good fruit in the harvest bins. Secure us today in Christ, that our harvest of faith may be assured. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

Therefore my friend, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry for itself; each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:34) This Passing Day. May this passing day honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be a blessing to you and everyone you meet. Find a stranger and say hello. Don't let another day pass without your day blessing someone else.

If you have a special prayer request, please send your request to ”This Passing Day!”

<thispassingday@gmail.com> From Beech Springs, God bless you for Jesus sake.