Tree On a Hill

[Feb. 2009]

I was driving home down a very familiar road and something caught my eye that I had never really taken notice of before. There was one lone evergreen pine tree at the top of a hill surrounded by dead trees of various kinds. It was a really pretty sight. My only thought at the time was, “I wish I could stop and take a picture of that.” As I continued to drive, the voice of the Lord was so clear in my spirit. “That tree represents my people. You are to be like that tree.”

Wow.

Do you know why that tree remains green all year round? It is an “evergreen”, but what is different about it from the other kinds of trees, you ask? Every needle on an evergreen pine tree is coated in a very thick water-proof wax. A protective covering.

Jesus was sent to us as a Savior. His purpose on this earth was to shed His blood so that we might have a protective covering. The blood of Jesus is our protective covering.

      Romans 5:9 – “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (NKJV)

      Ephesians 1:7-8 – “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (NIV)

      1 John 1:7 – “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (NKJV)

Another important detail is the shape of the “leaves” of this tree. They aren’t broad flimsy leaves. We see most trees with big leaves that turn pretty colors in the fall and then turn brown and fall off in the winter. Not so with the evergreen pine. It has needles that are long and slender, allowing enough space only for the water it needs to survive, which it stores all year in order to survive in the winter… the hard times… the bleak months.

      John 15:5-8 – “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (NIV)

      John 4:13-14 – (Jesus to the Samaritan woman at the well) “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of living water welling up to eternal life.” (NIV)

One would think that all of these long and skinny needles are fragile or easily broken, but on the contrary, they are tough and very resilient to the elements. An evergreen’s needles are always a vibrant green and stand out among other types of trees, especially in the winter months. They are different. Their needles don’t change from color to color, season to season, eventually losing any color altogether. Green… alive… year round.

We can obviously equate these “other trees” with those in the world. Changing continuously, not sure which “color” to be, their “broad leaves” soaking up whatever comes their way and letting it change their appearance and character. We are to be imitators of Christ. Set apart. Different. Alive in Him.

      Leviticus 20:26 – “You are to be holy to me (my holy ones) because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” (NIV)

      I Peter 2:9 – “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” (NIV)

God is so awesome. Even His creation cries out in worship to Him. One lone evergreen pine tree on a hill top. God’s promise to us that even in the winter months, when times are the darkest, the coldest, and the loneliest… we will survive… but only by His power and the merciful blood of His son Jesus.

      Psalm 96:11-13 – “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for He comes, He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His truth.” (NIV)

      Psalm 98:7-9 – “Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord...” (NIV)

Come to Jesus

I love Point of Grace. I think they are incredibly talented and gifted women of God, not to mention they are seriously funny and so down-to-earth. They just released their new album No Changing Us, and it is awesome! The very last song on the CD is titled Come to Jesus (not the same song as the one by Chris Sligh). I watched a YouTube video of Denise Jones talk about the song and why they chose it for the album, and I wanted to share that here with you guys. I'll also post the lyrics below the video for y'all to read. I highly recommend you go out to iTunes and download the whole album or it's available at Target, Wal-Mart, and Amazon for some reasonable prices (iTunes = $9.99 & Target = $10.99 for your cheapest buys). I hope everyone (all 2 of you) is having a great week!



Come to Jesus
 This is for the weary and the weak
This is for the desperate and ashamed
This is for the hopeless hiding in the shadows
Cupping hands around a flicker of faith

This is for the one's who don't belong
This is for the silent castaways
This is for the sinner peeking through the stained glass
From a sidewalk in the cold driving rain

Chorus:
We all fall down
We all need saving once in a while
You are not alone
We all lose faith and lean on mercy
And through our darkest night, He said He'd wait for us
Just come to Jesus

For anyone who's given up on God
For those who've tripped and fallen out of grace
For anyone who's lookin to the bottom of a bottle
For the strength to make it through another day
(Chorus)

He did not come to raise the living or touch the eyes of those who see
It was for the bitter and burned-out
It was for the unforgivable
It was for the failure, standing on the bridge, because the guilt's too high a price to pay to live
(Chorus)

In the Season of Rain, Pray for Rain

If you've noticed the (in)courage button on the left of my page, maybe you've clicked over there a few times and read some of their awesome posts. If you didn't happen to read yesterday's post by Lisa-Jo, I encourage you to do so :)

You may remember a few posts back when I told you I liked to think and pray while doing the dishes? Well, so does Lisa-Jo, and she is more talented with her words than I am... so go read it!

The Little Post That Could

I realize it's been days since I said "more later tonight..." I'm real time conscious like that :) In reality though, I've just been plain busy. Busy with work and school and the in between. All of that to say...

The other night I was going to tell you that over one year ago I wrote a letter to Cindy Cruse Ratcliff. She is the director of music and worship at Lakewood Church in Houston, TX (Joel Osteen's church). I know everyone has their own personal opinions about Joel and Lakewood, but this has no relevance to that at all. I've been listening to the Lakewood Live CDs for years and was always blown away by the quality and professionalism of the songs. Also what is so striking are the words to the songs and how beautiful and intimate some of them are. My absolute favorite has always been "Show Me Your Glory." Such a sweet and prayerful song. I wanted to know who wrote it, and discovered that Mrs. Ratcliff along with Israel Houghton had written almost every song that has been recorded by the worship team. So, that's how I came to be interested in her music (personal and with Lakewood).

I got off on a rabbit trail... the letter... I wrote to her because I have always been drawn to the music business and producing and A&R and all of that, so I was interested to see if I would be able to intern with the music department at Lakewood for a summer or a few months. Basically I told her (or whomever read it) who I was, where I am, what I do, and what I wanted to do. After six weeks of waiting on a reply, I had pretty much given up and figured it had either never gotten there (I sent it to her personal ministry address, not the church) or they read it and weren't going to reply.

Almost a year to the day later (I sent my letter on Feb. 19, 2009 and their letter was postmarked Feb. 20, 2010) Emily called me after work and we were just talking about the day. She said she checked the mail and we had gotten the usual... and "oh, you got something from Cindy Cruse Ratcliff." Excuse me? Really? She read it to me and it was a very sweet (although vague) letter that was hand signed in ink by Cindy's husband Marcus. He said that he had forwarded my letter on to the church and that they did take on interns (so I assume it has to go through the church). I was a little more than excited that someone had actually even read it, much less had taken the time to send me something other than a stock letter with a stamp for a signature.






While I'm not even sure I'll ever volunteer/intern with Cindy and the Lakewood team, I thought I would share and shed a little light on what I feel to be the most effective and anointed tool (the music department) that Lakewood has to share the gospel. Y'all have a blessed week!

Not So Uneventful

Lest you think I've died, I figured I should probably post and update about my less than uneventful life at the moment. I've been spending most all of my "free time" at Dick's Sporting Goods. Not that this is at all a bad thing. I get paid on Friday! :) However, this does mean that I don't get home until close to 11 p.m. on the nights that I close and then I go immediately to bed because chances are I need to be back there at 9 a.m. the next morning... but anyway, I'm not so sure that details of my work day make good blog fodder.

Well, I've been writing and deleting it all for about an hour now and I can't quite figure out how to say what I want to say... so, maybe I will save it all for tomorrow (well, later today).

I apologize for my scatterbrain :) There'll be more to come...

Be blessed,