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 Sometimes we need to trim something dead from our life in order to grow and thrive. The other day my daughter Caroline and I went to get our hair cut. My hair was a frazzled mess of split ends, and we could barely get a comb through hers without a lot of screeches, “ow’s!” + tears… It was time for a trim. Caroline has this long, beautiful, red hair that has only been cut a handful of times in her 7 years of life. She has asked us to cut it short several times before, but we have said “no, not until you’re older” pretty much every time without thinking twice. (Why is cutting our children’s hair so emotional for us parents??) So, this day we went in to get our cuts and they took Caroline back first, then me, with another stylist. I could see Caroline a few chairs over, but over the course of the haircut and chatting with my stylist, I stopped watching to see how Caroline’s trim was going…until she was done and came over to see me. Well…. that “trim” that she was supposed to get somehow turned into about 5 inches….and my baby girl with the long locks of gorgeous red hair now had a much shorter cut and looked about 2 years older. I wasn’t ready, y’all. But the smile beaming on her freckled cheeks told me that she was delighted with this new ‘do, despite any of my own reservations about it. So, I beamed right back and told her how beautiful she looked. As the day continued, I noticed a little more pep in her step and as she bounced around the house. Her freshly snipped locks bounced with her, and she seemed lighter, freer, more her true self…not a little girl weighed down by a thick, hot, burdensome weight of unnecessary hair on her head. She even played soccer better! She was more alive. She had needed that haircut. Can you relate to Caroline? Sometimes there are areas of our lives that need a good cut, maybe even a whole new makeover, when a little trim just will not do. That toxic friendship that thrives on gossip and wine O’ clock? That romantic relationship not rooted in the Lord. That job God told you not to take, but those benefits were too good to turn down and now you have no peace, time for your family, or time for the ministry He called you to. How about that business venture that makes you feel like you are “doing something” more than “just being a stay-at-home-mom?” Hmmm…. That one stung a little. In John 15 I find these words of Jesus refreshing to my soul. “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.” -John 15:1-3 Did you catch that? He cuts off the dead parts, and then He prunes us where we are ALREADY producing fruit, so that we will produce MORE. Have you ever been told that if you want to grow your hair out long, you need to cut off the dead ends first? It sounds counter-productive at first, right? Why would I cut something that I want to grow? Why? Because it is holding you back from your true potential. It is keeping you from walking in the freedom Christ died to give you. It is keeping you from increasing your fruitfulness. It is DEAD WEIGHT. For us to get back on track to the good and the glory God has planned for our life, we must let Him cut-away certain things that are not bearing fruit. This refining process is not pretty, or without hardship. In fact, it can be quite painful. But eventually, we are able to see the full perspective, and God’s hand in it. We see how losing that friendship, job, or whatever needed pruning from our lives led to healthier relationships, more fulfilling jobs, and more opportunity to serve a better purpose for the Kingdom. Jesus goes on to say this: “You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:3-5 NLT Without direct connection to Jesus, we cannot produce new fruit. He is our Source. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Staying connected to Him produces perseverance, character, hope, purity of heart, cleansing of hands a transformed mind, and a life more abundant than we can ever dream of or imagine. That’s great news, right? But wait, there’s more… One of my favorite passages in the Bible comes from 1 Peter 1 and it says this: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold – though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So, when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the entire world. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him, and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:3-9. What an incredible promise! Our inheritance of living hope in Christ Jesus is unshakable. We can have confident expectation in a perfect, face-to-face union with the Maker and Lover of our souls - secured for us by Christ’s sacrifice and culminating in our one-day arrival in glory. We can rejoice in these trials knowing that the reward for trusting Him will be the salvation of souls, an eternity of rejoicing with glorious, inexpressible joy! Can you even fathom what that feels like? Be encouraged today, sweet friends. You can be certain. In fact, you can bet your life on it, that He will use every situation to produce more fruit than you could ever imagine, for your good and His glory. And that’s even better than a fresh haircut. Guest Contributor: JEssica Chandler
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 I took this photo of my husband last weekend. It seemed profound somehow then.. How small he appears as he surveys all of the wild wisteria that has grown up unchecked in our new-ish yard. What can we even do about this? Where do we start? We are dealing with an invasive species. It grows rapidly and is dangerous, as it can smother shrubs or even understory trees beneath the heavy weight of its vines. It grows around the trunks of a few large oaks inside the fenced-in area of our backyard and it almost seems to circle the trunk at the ground, vining up, like a predator prowling for prey. It's interesting that wisteria is not likely to choke out a larger tree; mostly just those trees with a smaller diameter. However, it can grow up the trunk of a tree. It will creep out and around smaller side branches, strangling them as they grow. With its thick foliage, it can shade out a tree, weakening it, and all of those ever-thickening vines high up on that tree greatly increase its chance of coming down in a windstorm. It is recommended that wisteria be cut off at the base. This same weekend, my husband came to me with John 15. And there it was: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit." (John 15:1-2) Do you ever feel like the sin in your life looks a lot like this overgrowth of wisteria? Like you are just staring down this giant and wondering how in the world you can ever overcome? What in the world can we even do about this? Where do we start? I mean, in the case of the wisteria, we can start. Slowly but surely plodding away at cutting back the vines. But realistically, how much can we do? We can't eradicate it. At best, we can manage it. Oh, did I say that was in the case of the wisteria? Well, SAME, in the case of our sin. Look at John 15 again. God is the gardener. THE gardener. He's not someone who has never seen this before and He's not someone who just had to google wisteria (ahem). He is the One we can call on when we are overwhelmed and He is the One who prunes us. He cuts back every branch in us that doesn't bear fruit and He even prunes the ones that already bear fruit so that we will produce more fruit. And I don't know about you, but I don't want my sin to grow wildly and unbridled to the point that it has crept up and begun choking out any growth or fruit that may be growing. And I don't want to be consumed or weighed down so that when a storm comes, I can't withstand. I don't want to fall. I don't want to be destroyed. I think maybe I want to be more like those mighty oaks inside the fence. I want to be rooted. I want to have a thick diameter, if you will, that is strong and sturdy. I want the years of walking with the Lord to be easily read like the rings inside a tree trunk that are used to determine the age of a tree. I want this to be evidence of His goodness: here's where it all began, here is where there was a dry season and here, a rainy season. Here there was even damage sustained from a fire- but look at how through it all, there was still growth. Look at how, no matter what, she remained. And, ultimately, look at how, through it all, He sustained her and grew her and cleansed her. I look at these oaks inside the fence and I look at the trees outside. The ones outside are surrounded, covered, darn near consumed. And even those are not too far gone for the Gardener. But when I look at the oaks inside the fence, I think I would much rather have just a bit of wisteria creeping around, right? It's far more manageable, after all. There's this massive oak, though, right out front. And basically, these five oaks are in a row, with this mammoth oak leading the way. And I'm thinking now: no, I want to be like that one. No wisteria threatening to slither up. Just a firm, beautiful oak. Isaiah 61:3b: "..that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified [Or 'that he may display his beauty']." Oh yes. Let any sin in me, though it may at first be overwhelming and untamed, be cut away so that I may, in some supernatural and God-given way, display the Lord's beauty. May I be an oak of righteousness so that He may be glorified. Jesus, may I remain in You all the days of my life. May I stand tall: rooted in You, Jesus, dressed in your righteousness and displaying the beauty of the Lord. May I yield to your pruning, O God, knowing that You will produce much fruit and, from this, be so glorified. Oh yes, Lord. May You be most glorified. written by: Olivia CaldwellWe want to connect with you and encourage you! Click here to join our community of women over at our Sisterhood Conversations page!
 Getting stains out of my kid’s clothes is not a strong suit of mine. I forget to pre-treat. I use the wrong temperature water. I throw it into the dryer before checking if the stain came out. It is a disaster. With a couple of rough and tumble, outside loving girls, this is a regular occurance. I groan as I fold clothes and see the booty of new shorts forever stained with dirt or the front of a shirt spotted with food stains. Sometimes I will have to repeat the process a few times before I can finally get a stain to come out. You probably know where I am going with this thought if you have an idea of what our theme is this month: Impurity and refinement. In 1 Thessalonians 4:7 it says, “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.” Psalm 51:10 says “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” We walk around this earth and all its dirt every day. No matter how much we try, some of it splatters on us. We are exposed to music, television, movies, books, people, advertisements, and so much more that don’t align with a Godly perspective. We know the difference between right and wrong, but these things still influence us. If you go back to my visual of stained clothes, Christians walk around with Scotch Guard on, but the dirt still can get through. The great part about this is that Jesus is so much better at cleaning those stains than I am. He knew the perfect combination of things to take even the toughest stain away - the love of our Father God, a life lived as a perfect example, willing sacrifice on the cross carrying the impurities of all generations, resurrection and ascension to heaven to intercede for us. Not only did he take out the initial stain, but he continually is there to wash us clean. Washing us over and over. Repeating the process from moment to moment if needed. Here are some more laundry analogies: Pre-treatment : daily time in the word Heavy wash: prayer/repentance Spin/rinse: Jesus' blood continually cleansing us Line dry: meditation and reflection It might seem a little silly, but we can all relate. As we walk through our daily lives, let’s be aware of those things we might come in contact with that can “stain” us. Take some time reflecting today on how amazing it is that Jesus loves us so much, that he values our purity so much, he washes us clean daily. That he gave His very life so that we could come into His presence and eventually live with Him forever in heaven. Our amazing Savior and our loving God value this purity that pierces our very souls. What are some impurities that you can rid your life of today to bring you even closer to Him? Written By: Angie ReeseWe want to connect with you and encourage you! Click here to join our community of women over at our Sisterhood Conversations page!
 Life is hard. It’s a well known fact. Even the Dread Pirate Roberts says, “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling you something.” (Princess Bride, William Goldman). And you might rightly ask, “Why? I’m a God-fearing, bible reading, church going believer. God has saved me from my sin. His Son, Jesus died for me, so that I might be saved. His grace covers me. Where is the abundant life? Why is life still hard?” My usual answer to that question is that we live in a fallen world that displays the result of sin. Ever since the fall in the Garden of Eden, things have been going downhill. Everything has been affected by that choice made so long ago. And the enemy is still at work in this world seeking to destroy everyone in his path. So, even though we have personally been saved through the work of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection, we still live in a fallen world. We still struggle against our own heart of flesh. His work brings us into the state of grace, no longer condemned but pardoned. Justified as the righteousness of Christ Himself covers us. This establishes a right relationship between us and God. But He doesn’t just leave us there...as we are when we come to Christ warts and all, He begins the work of sanctification in our lives. In his Systematic Theology, A. H. Strong gives us such great illustration of this: The steamship whose machinery is broken may be brought into port and made fast to the dock. She is safe, but not sound. Repairs may last a long time. Christ begins to make us both safe and sound. Justification gives the first...safety, sanctification gives the second...soundness. So where does this leave us? Not without help, girlfriend! And I, for one, am so thankful that we have the Holy Spirit to guide us through the trials ...to conquer the remaining sinful nature of the flesh , even as we continue to struggle against it. The goal is a pure heart as we are told in Matthew 5:8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Purity is something we do not achieve through our own sweat and blood. It does not come about through sheer determination and work on our part. It’s a heart issue. But how does the heart become pure? How do God’s ways become the strongest desire of my heart? Remove the dross from the silver, and a silversmith can produce a vessel ~Proverbs 25:4. It is God who does the refining. To refine is to purify. In Biblical times, the refiner would put the silver ore into a melting pot and then into a furnace with flames hot enough to burn off the ‘dross’...the impurities that keep the silver from being turned into a useful vessel. I found it interesting when I looked up the word ‘dross’... The Oxford English dictionary as this:
God uses this ‘word picture’ of the refiner’s fire throughout scripture, as it correlates to our faith being refined through painful trials. And as He removes the dross, the worthless rubble from our lives that keep us from being useful vessels, He purifies our hearts and they become more and more a vessel of His love. Yes, it is a necessary process in the life of the Christ follower. The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart. ~ Proverbs 17:3 See, I have refined you, though not as silver: I have tested you in the fire of affliction. ~ Isaiah 48:10 We are even told not to be surprised when we encounter the fire of affliction and trials. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. ~ 1 Peter 4:12 This refining process, though it can be painful, is a necessary part of our lives. Our character is refined, and we become a reflection of His grace and mercy. One more word about this…because, to some, it may seem to be a cruel thing for our God to put us into the fire of affliction and leave us there. Accept that He does not leave us there. Oh no, my friend. He sits with us there! But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. ~ Malachi 3:2-3a Just as God spoke to Job from the midst of the storm, He sits with us in the refining fire of our trials on this earth. He did not leave Job and He will not leave us! Not only is His presence assured, but His purpose is not to harm us. He, as the Word and the refiner’s fire, burns out the power of sin in our lives. He removes the desire, by removing those habits that keep us from walking in step with His word. Be patient...it’s a process, not a once and done deal. Because we are assured of His very presence as He does His work in our hearts, our response to this process can be, as Peter and James say: In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” ~ 1 Peter 1: 6-7,(ESV). Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ~ James 1:2-4 I want to be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Don’t you? So what will it take? Surrender...let the refining fire of God’s fierce love sweep over you and do it’s transforming work in your heart. And trust the One who has your heart in His hands. As the Psalmist says, Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls: all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me …a prayer to the God of my life. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, For I will yet praise Him, My Savior and my God. ~Psalm 42:7, 8, 11. I’ve come to understand that yes...life is hard. Through the many trials I have endured in this life, I have learned to place my trust in Him. And through it all I’ve come to the resounding conclusion that in spite of the difficulties of this life… God is good! Blessings, Gay WRITTEN BY: GAY IDLEFor more from Gay, head to her website: www.gayidle.com We want to connect with you and encourage you! Click here to join our community of women over at our Sisterhood Conversations page!
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