Fruitfulness

John 15 has been my life passage for 20-plus years. Each year I take the first couple weeks of January and sit in these words spoken by Jesus. I think they are significant for a couple of reasons. First, Jesus, fully God and fully man, said them. That would be enough. But, secondly, they were some of His last words spoken to the group of rag-tag men that had left their fishing nets, places of business and trade, and their families to follow their rabbi. I don't think they could have possibly known what the hours and days ahead would hold. A disturbing night in a garden, guards, arrest, beating, questioning, and the cross. After all the trauma, grief, and fear, surely these words rang in their memories as they desperately tried to remember every word He had spoken to them. 

 Abide, dwell, and take up an intentional posture. Abide in what? In Him, in His word, and His love. Glorify your Father in heaven. How? By bearing much fruit. How does that happen? Through pruning, scraping, and cutting anything and everything that does not promote healthy growth in you. What is the fruit? Everything that looks like, feels like and tastes like the Vine! The fruit that glorifies our Father in heaven is Christ-like fruit. Being conformed to my Christ is the goal. (Romans 8:29) 

 In this posture of fruit-bearing and abiding, Jesus' joy is in us, and our joy is full! Whoa! 

 Much fruit only flows from much pruning. 

 Real-Jesus-Joy is only a result of abiding. 

 Abiding is my participation. 

 I can do nothing apart from Him. NOTHING. 

 The questions that this passage asks me: 

 What is my abiding like? 

 What do I need to change? 

What or Who am I being conformed to? 

 What is the condition of my joy? 

 Am I willing to have anything and everything that can't produce Jesus-fruit in me cut off? 

 The invitations that Jesus extends: 

 He wants to abide with us. 

He wants us to participate.

 He does the heavy lifting. 

 He produces the fruit. 

 My cup overflows, 

 Kim 

 You can find me at kimday.online

The Women Of Christmas

View this email in your browser Greetings! Every year as we walk through the advent season, I look at the women surrounding the birth of our Christ. And every year, their stories and how their lives intersect with the birth of Jesus encourage me.  I ponder and desire to have the willingness of Mary, Jesus' mother, who said, "Behold the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word," after she heard that as a teenager she would be pregnant with God's son.  I ponder and desire the faithfulness of Elizabeth, who was unwavering in her faithful service to the Lord and beside her husband, even as her womb was empty, and her arms must have desired to hold a baby.   And I ponder and desire the awareness of Anna. Anna was advanced in years and was only married for seven years before being widowed and left alone. When we find her in scripture, she is serving in the temple, praying and fasting, and immediately was aware that she was in the presence of Jesus, her Redeemer, when Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus to be circumcised.   Each woman exhibits willingness, faithfulness, and awareness, although her life did not look like she expected.  Then there are the women in Jesus' genealogy that are shocking and yet beautiful to me! Traditionally women would not have been mentioned in the written genealogy.  Luke holds to this tradition in his desire to show Jesus as the savior of all humankind, and goes all the way back to Adam to show Christ as the last Adam, but doesn't mention any women.   In Matthew's account, he is primarily writing to Jews and shows the kingly succession that leads to Jesus, and he includes women, something that had to have been scandalous. Still, as I sit here writing, my heart is filled with gratitude that he included them!   Who are these women? There is Tamar. We find her story in Genesis 38.  She was a woman of grief and a woman that was treated unjustly.  To find justice for herself, she resorted to trickery, dressed and posed as a prostitute to trick Judah, her father-in-law, to get her pregnant so she could have a son within the family linage and receive what was rightly hers.  Judah was a sinner in this story too, but Tamar, because of this act, is often referred to as a prostitute, a blemish for sure on the family linage, right? Rahab is identified through scripture as "Rahab, the prostitute." We find her story in Joshua 2 and 6.  She is working as a prostitute and living on the wall of Jericho. She took in the spies and hid them so the plan of God could go forward.  This woman is also mentioned in Hebrews in the faith chapter as a prostitute and a woman of faith! Then there is Ruth, we all love her story and the love story between her and Boaz, don't we?  But wait, Ruth was not a God follower for a large portion of her life.  She was from Moab, which most likely means she was an idol worshiper and far away from God.   And how about Bathsheba?  You remember her.  The woman that King David saw, wanted, sent for, had sex with and then had her husband killed to cover up his sin.  She was a victim of David's lust and had no choice in the abuse, actions, or consequences that played out.  Who needs a lifetime movie?  Just pick up your bible! You can't make this stuff up, and it's recorded for us on the pages of holy writ. These women are powerful reminders that Jesus the Great Redeemer came to do just that, redeem. To purchase us, to make us His, and to transform us for His glory.  He reaches across every dirty detail of trickery, prostitution, the selling of one's soul and the obstacles of injustice, idol worship, abuse, grief,  rejection, and being far off and brings those who's lives are stained near, applying to their stained lives the bloodstain of the cross. I rejoice to see these women's names attached to Jesus' story, for they speak truth to me.  The truth that none are too far gone, too broken, or too stained.  As we focus on advent this season, don't leave the babe in the manger; follow Him to Calvary.  See your story swallowed up in His story and sing at the top of your lungs, Joy to the world, the Lord has come! Christmas Blessings,  Kim I have lots of songs on my Advent playlist, but here is one that I've been listening to on repeat. watch Copyright © 2020 Sojourn Enid, All rights reserved.  You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website.  Our mailing address is:  Sojourn Enid 902 S Adams St Enid, OK  73701-7312 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Do people blog anymore?  I clearly don't.  I have continued to write in other places with one goal in mind; that Christian women (men too)  would be encouraged to know Jesus more and learn to live out that relationship. I'm picking up my blogging pen again.   

The bible uses the word meditation over twenty times.  It means to reflect, contemplate, think, ponder, and or to remember.  All of this has an object and a directive; it is the word of God.  It is not an emptying of our minds as much of Eastern meditation teaches, it's actually a filling of our minds. We are to fill and rotate our minds around the word of God.  

Meditation is much like a cow chewing her cud.  What in the world?  Yes, I did just type that!  Stick with me here, a cow eats grass and chews on that mouthful of grass a lot.  After chewing on it for a while, she swallows it and it goes into one of her four chambers of the stomach. Then it comes back up (I know a little gross) and she chews on it again.  This process happens over and over; I read this week that it is possible for a cow to chew on one cud 30,000 times. That is a lot of chewing!  I believe this process is a great way to think of meditation.  You see, the cow chews on her cud until she has gotten every ounce of nutritional value out of the grass she is chewing, even if it takes chewing on the same grass for 30,000 times.   

We need to be women that chew on God's word, think about it, ponder it, study it and remember it.  There is a whole lot that my mind wants to chew on, and I'm continually fighting what I'm dwelling on.  The world we live in, our environment, our culture, the media, and social media want to tell us what to let our minds dwell on.  The result; A confused mind that is filled with nothing of spiritual nutrition.  I'm not saying that we shouldn't educate and inform ourselves so that we can be wise.  I just know the scale tips too easy, and we become consumed, and our minds become easily entangled with the affairs of this world, which is not our home.  Let's be wise women and women of the word, that let the word of God inform us more than the media. And let's be women that practice and learn what meditation on the word of God truly is.    Below you will see some of the scriptures that mention meditation, get into God's word, look at these scriptures, and start chewing!

Still learning,
Kim

PSALM 19:14
PSALM 119:15
PSALM 1:2
PSALM 104:34
PHILIPPIANS 4:8
 

How Do You Measure Influence

How do you measure the influence of one life, one conversation, or event?

I'm very contemplative today with this question.  In the span of this week I have heard, "the chemo isn't working", heard the voice that I have listened to since in utero say, "If its my time then I'm ready for God to take me",  read the words from a friend,"my mom has passed", heard that one, who made a huge impact in Jim and I's lives, just left this earth to go to his heavenly home today, and the remembrance of a conversation of unwavering commitment spoken over lunch with a friend.  This life is truly like a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow.  What do we do with the in-between?  We invest.  We speak words of love, grace, and truth.  We share ourselves, time, and resources.   We recognize that we all walk around like containers needing to be filled.  Filled, of course with God and His word, and filled with other's investments that spur us on to want more of God and His word.  Is that my investment?  Will I seek to be that kind of influence to those around me and those that Father allows across my path?

My dad and stepmom's faith in the face of struggle and the unknown has invested in me a boldness to live each day to the fullest and receive all things from my Father's hand as gifts.

My mom's frankness with Father regarding her time on this earth invested in me an acceptance of Father's plans over my own.

My friend's willingness to walk out her mother's final days serving her invested in me a faithfulness that is an overflow of Jesus in her.

The home going of one who I consider a spiritual giant invested in me seeing missions in action, learning to study the bible, being introduced to what a life following Jesus really looked like, and one giving their life for the kingdom of God to be advanced.  What would our lives look like apart from this investment?

A conversation with friends who risk their lives to share the gospel saying, "God has made us brave" invested in me the clear understanding what life should be about and a bravery of my own that could only be birthed by the Father.

Things we may know or even learn but it is completely different as we get to observe them being lived out and then become the recipient. There is really no way to measure these investments.  Their deposits were made and I am the beneficiary of each.  God's plan for return is for each to produce in me more of Him and then overflow and be invested again in others.

I'm so grateful for the investment..... truly my cup overflows!

Always learning,
Kim 

The Cost of Abiding

The thermometer read 6 degrees this morning on the Oklahoma plains and the weatherman told me that it felt like 10 below zero with the windchill factored in.  That's cold!  I've spent the morning getting my home ready for those that will gather in it's warmth tomorrow, which will be a full day of the door opening with tea and coffee being poured, scripture opened, and prayers offered, a day that for this keeper of home is delicious and wanted.  Im checking things off my list so that I can spend the afternoon doing something that is like medicine to me.  As soon as the last chore is checked off I will sit with a cup of steaming sweet and spicy tea and all of my seed and plant catalogs to plan my flower and vegetable gardens.  There is something wonderful to me about doing it on a very cold and wintery day, the wonderful part is the dreaming of the faces of pink peonies, yellow sunflowers, and blue hydrangeas dancing in my yard come spring and summer.  And there is the thought of baskets filled with red tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs.  It all paints a picture in my mind that is quite delightful.  If it was only as simple as dreaming it up, planting a seed, and it would be exactly as I see it in my mind.  Any of you that have done gardening know it takes work.  Sometimes even growing a tomato in a pot in Oklahoma is difficult!

We moved to a different home a few weeks ago and even as we were remodeling my eye was on the garden area in the backyard.  It hadn't been tended in over five years and yet the sprinkler system had kept everything green and growing.  Everything, even the weeds were healthy!  So I started the process with some professional help of removing what needed to be removed and only keeping a few things that could stand the extreme pruning.  Extreme pruning....there's a mouthful.

The word ABIDE has been a word that Father has been tattooing on my heart for years.  You will always find the word somewhere in my home, not for anyone else but for me, to serve as a reminder of what my posture is to look like in the divine relationship.  Abiding is dwelling, living, making a home in Him and Him dwelling, living, and making a home in me.  John 15 is usually loose in it's binding in most of my bibles.  There is something that we often don't like to talk about but it comes along with abiding and that is pruning. Pruning is the cutting, scraping, and separating that happens in an effort to cause something to grow and to produce more.  It's costly.  It seems painful to me to go and chop off the top of something that has growth, but it has to be done for more growth.  I talk almost weekly with someone who is being asked for something or sensing Father is wanting them to step away or lay down someone or something. Maybe they can see the scars of past pruning on my life, for sure it's a part of my story, I pray they see the growth that He has brought about as well. It's real and it's painful and yet what it produces is more of Him and more abiding and that is beautiful.

What is it for you?  What is that thing or that person that has become an idol to you, that you hear the Father gently saying, "it's time to let me cut that off".  Maybe it's something that you are pursuing harder than God and he is prompting you that you need to let Him do some surgery before more growth will happen.  Its a new year, a time to hit the refresh button but in so doing it will require participation with the Master Gardner, for new growth to happen in this new year.

Below is a story that I always think of when contemplating what my abiding looks like and what the cost of pruning will result in my life.  I also attached a wonderful message from Pricilla Shirer that is on the message of separation which looks a lot like pruning!

Always learning.....
My cup overflows,
Kim

Once upon a time, there was and Old Grapevine Branch.  He had been growing in the vineyard for a very long time and his fruit was the biggest and sweetest fruit around! People came from far and wide to taste his fruit.  The Young Branch beside him looked up to him and said, " I want to be just like you when I grow up.  What can I do to have fruit as big and sweet as yours?"  "Tell me what I have to do and I promise to be committed!"  The Old Branch said, "Be Willing".  The Young Branch thought, "that's strange...be willing"?  The next day, the gate opened and the gardener walked in.  The gardener bent down and on one knee reached into his back pocket, pulled out what looked like sharp scissors, and moved toward the Young Branch's friend down the row.  The Young Branch watched as his little friend cried, "No, no, why are you doing this to me?  Haven't I been sweet?  Please, don't cut me!"  The Young Branch looked up at the Old Branch and asked, "What's happening....why did the Gardner do that? Is it because he didn't like her?" The Old Branch replied, "No! What you just saw proves that the gardener loves that little branch very much."  The Little Branch replied, "Oh, is it because my friend did something wrong and the gardener is punishing her?"  The Old Branch answered, "NO. Your friend is being pruned.  Not because she was trying to do things wrong, but because she was trying to do things right.  Not because her fruit was not sweet but because the gardener wants it to be even sweeter."  The Young Branch replied, "Well, you don't have to worry about being pruned.  You have the sweetest fruit in the garden!"  "Oh, I want to be pruned!"  the Old Branch said.  "You what? It must hurt, and you're going to look bad."  The Old Branch chuckled and replied, "Yes, it is quite uncomfortable.  But it is necessary.  You see, my young friend, I have a fungus growing on my underside and that no one can see.  Pruning will keep me healthy.  So when the gardener comes to prune me, I won't pull my leaves back.  I'll lift myself high in the air to make His job easier.  And always remember, the very fact that you're being pruned means you will bloom again."  Just then the gardener stopped by the Old Branch, and the Young Branch saw the old branch raise his leaves high up in the air.  He heard a snip, and the Old Branch lay on the ground...all except for the nub.  Then the gardener turned to the Young Branch.  His little leaves were shaking, and tears rolled down his side, but with every ounce of strength, he raised his leaves high in the air, looked up into the gardener's face and said, "Kind and gentle gardener, I'm willing."

This is a great message from Pricilla Shirer, Its an hour long so get you a cup of tea, your bible, and some pen and paper and soak.

                 Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer - A Place of Separation               

A Tattoo On My Heart

Have you ever noticed when God wants you to learn something He seems to remind you of it over and over?  Maybe it's a life lesson, a biblical principle, or a verse that He desires to become apart of your story.  It's like He tattoos it right on your heart so that it becomes a permanent part of who you are and how you respond to life. Have you ever been asked to go someplace, to do something, or to walk a difficult path that you thought utterly impossible or didn’t make sense? Or maybe you find yourself in a place that isn’t comfortable and you’re searching for a way out. You know the places, they are steep and hard to get your footing.  The Lord has pressed Habakkuk 3:17-19 on my heart for years. It's been over ten years ago that He first took out his needles and began the heart tattoo that has become a permanent mark.  Especially verse 19, "The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds feet, and makes me walk on my high places"


I shared the following story five years ago but the Lord has brought it again to my mind along with the verses and steadfastness He is desiring to produce in me through difficult circumstances.

We were about to plant our lives overseas and decided to take our kids and our future son-in-love to Yellowstone and the surrounding area when I first felt the needle prick. I was feeling the uncertainty and insecurity that comes from taking a leap like that.  We also were leaving our daughter behind in college, that was hard on this momma.  I sat by a babbling brook one morning and my eyes fell to the words in Habakkuk.  I thought about what it might mean that God would give me what was needed to walk on my high places.  On the same day that I read those words the following drama unfolded and He taught me. My family likes to rock climb so we searched for some kind of rock face that they could climb. We stopped at the ranger station and a kind ranger directed us to a place that we could climb that was off the beaten path. He was careful to tell us that a grizzly bear had been in the area and that we would need to make a lot of noise going up, that was to keep bears away…I guess? We found the place, it was one of those places that has a sign-in and sign-out sheet at the entry point of the trail, just in case you sign in and don’t sign out they will come looking for you or what remains of you! Off we went on a narrow trail that snaked up the side of the mountain. The trail was only wide enough for one, so we looked like a parade going up the mountain. Every once in a while someone would recognize that we were being too quiet as we navigated the trail. They had obviously had a thought of a grizzly bear and would break out in a song like This Is The Day and clap their hands loudly. We would all laugh hilariously and sing along. When we arrived at the face, the kids noticed that the face was loose and they would have to climb without ropes or tying in. They would take three steps up and then slide down a bit, regroup and go again. Jim didn’t think I should try it, which made me laugh because I don’t think that thought ever entered into my mind! So off they all went three lunges forward and then slide down. I was standing on a narrow ledge with a drop off of about twenty feet below me, a raging river at the bottom of the ravine and a mountain face on the other side that my family was creeping upward on. It then hit me, I was alone and what about the bears?! Great, Jim really wasn’t thinking about me having a hard time climbing, he was using me as bear bait! I sang, clapped my hands, watched my family and prayed for them as they struggled to navigate the rock face. All of a sudden my family froze, a mountain goat had scampered out on this face that literally had very little angle to it. I know he had to be thinking what are these things clinging to my mountain?! That goat must have been stunned, because he stood there long enough for me to get my camera out and take a picture, then he scampered away effortlessly. I was delighted and couldn’t believe how wonderful it was. I knew what God was teaching me, He would give me the footing necessary to climb whatever path He placed me on. My family continued to struggle to get their footing and made it to the top. I realized that they were able to see things from the top that I was never going to see from the semi-safe ledge below. Although the climb was difficult, as proof by the torn clothing, dirt covered, scraped and bleeding family that returned to me…it was all worth it! The climb, the exercise in endurance, and the view from the top all evoked elation in my family.

High places are not easy places to get to usually. They are often rocky, difficult, and you fight to know how to keep your footing or what to cling to.They require perseverance, steadfastness, and wisdom to navigate.  Sometimes there are scrapes, bruises and blood accompanying the climb. The high places in our lives are the places that the Lord desires to take us. And although difficult, it is usually in the climb that we know Him more intimately as He teaches us things that would not otherwise be learned. All high places are meant to bring us to Him and ultimately to worship. My high places are not your high places. The difficult things that have come in and out of my life probably don’t look the same as yours, but we all have them. Cancer, chronic illness, marriage problems, a wayward child, infertility, financial ruin, loneliness, broken relationship, all of these and more are steep and rocky terrain, yet paths He asks us to navigate. His promise to us is to be with us, to guide us, and to equip us for the climb. Even when my climbing looks like taking three steps forward and sliding backwards or just hanging on, digging my fingernails into the dirt to cling and keep my footing. He knows the way I take. I never dreamed I would pray that God would make me like a goat, but I have! He continues to add ink to this heart tattoo and I continue to learn what it means to live and respond out of His truth.

Ever climbing, clinging, and learning
Kim

Habakkuk 3:19 The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.

Job 23:10 He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

A Quiet Heart

I just have a few words running through my mind this morning, but they seem to be running deeper through my heart.  Like a deep stream of water moving ever so slowly, yet still moving forward, and full of life.  Most of the time deeper is better than faster. My thoughts are about keeping a quiet heart. Elisabeth Elliot, (one of my mentors from afar) compiled a book of her writings on the subject and I've picked it up again after 15 plus years.  In it she typed these words that she had written in 1947 while at Wheaton College;

Lord, give to me a quiet heart
That does not ask to understand,
But confident steps forward in
The darkness guided by Thy hand.

Remarkable is the fact that she penned those words with no idea of what was in front of her.  The world needs those of us who know Jesus to be women of quiet hearts.  Hearts that are stilled and unruffled no matter what we are facing.  To be certain we all face the same things the material and or occasion just looks different in each life.  Disappointment, discouragement, uncertainty, loss, loneliness, and heartaches come to all of us, usually with no invitation on our part.  Quietness of heart comes to the woman who knows her God, who faces those un-welcomed guest with the theology and truth of who God is in the midst.  Realness here, take the time to feel the weight of each, grieve loss, and wrestle with what is being taught and pushed into your heart. It's not ungodly to be discouraged or to wrestle, there is a danger in thinking so.  The danger is that we become those that slap some God-statement on it and never suck all the rich truth that Father is wanting to implant because we don't want anyone to think we don't have it all together.  No on has it all together, hence the reason we all need Jesus!

A quiet heart is a heart of unbroken intimacy.  A heart that when the things of life press in says; "I don't understand but things I do know are; God is good, God is in control,  God sees all, and He will accomplish what He has planned for me." even when it doesn't feel like it! When times like described above hit, I actually have to rehearse these things out loud to myself.  Women with quiet hearts are women of abiding intimacy that face life with the truth they know about God even when they don't understand.  Always learning theology deeper and deeper rather than over and over.

I have been walking this out the last few weeks in my own life and heart, figured some of you have as well.....

Always learning,
Kim