Fruit

November 2nd, 2013 dsisler

I am not a fruit lover. There I’ve said it. I’ve confessed it.

 

fruitI really don’t know why. It’s not like fruit makes me ill. Or that I completely dislike the taste of fruit. If I have to eat fruit, I will eat it. I have even been known to order fruit in a restaurant.

 

But I’m not a fruit lover.

 

Jesus, however, is all about fruit.

 

In John 15:1-17, Jesus dedicated an entire portion of teaching to fruit. In His teaching on the Vine and the Branches, Jesus mentioned nine times that we are to bear and produce fruit. Jesus also mentioned eleven times in this passage that the only way to do so is to remain in Him.

 

“If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.” (John 15:5 – NIV) Only through Jesus can we bear fruit. And only through Jesus can we produce a great harvest of fruit and fruit that will last.

 

In another teaching segment, Jesus spoke again of fruit. He mentioned in Matthew 7:20 (NIV), that good and bad are recognized by their fruit. “By their fruit you will recognize them.” When we bear good fruit by remaining in Jesus, others will know that we belong to Jesus by our fruit.

 

So, what fruit are we to produce?

 

Fruit of Repentance

“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Matthew 3:8 – NIV)

 

Fruit of our Attitudes

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  (Galatians 5:22-23 – NIV)

 

Fruit of the Light

“For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.” (Ephesians 5:9 – NIV)

 

Fruit of Righteousness

“This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11 – NIV)

 

Fruit of our Deeds

“And we pray this in order that you may please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.” (Colossians 1:10-12 – NIV)

 

Fruit of our Lips

“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” (Hebrews 13:15 – NIV)

 

Fruit of Wisdom

“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” (James 3:17 – NIV)

 

I may not like the fruit of this world, but I certainly love the fruit of God. My desire is to bear fruit so that others might see God through me. The only way for that to occur is when I remain in Jesus and allow God’s Spirit to do His powerful work in me.

 

I don’t have to be a gardener (good thing because I kill plants). I don’t have to be a botanist (good thing because I’m not good at science). I don’t have to like fruit (good thing because I don’t).

 

I simply must know Jesus and let Him do the work. My heart and my mind must be open to the change He desires within me. When that happens, a great harvest of fruit will be produced and others will see Jesus through me. They will know that I belong to Him.

 

Isn’t it exciting? It can be the same for you too. If you haven’t given your life to Jesus, this is the perfect day to do so. The difference Jesus can make in your life is amazing. Why not accept Him today?

 

As a Christian, you know the difference Jesus has made in your life. But how is your fruit harvest coming along? If your fruit crop seems a little skimpy, get in touch with Jesus. Remember, if you remain in Him you WILL produce fruit.

 

I’m thankful for the fruit Jesus produces in me. I pray that you can say the same thing.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

 

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Challenges

November 1st, 2013 dsisler

It’s November 1, 2013.

 

This is the first November 1st in five years that I haven’t started a novel on this day. I don’t have any story lines bouncing around in my head. I don’t have any pressure to write 1,670 words toward the final project. I don’t have the challenge or pressure of getting a 50,000 word novel complete by the end of November.

 

DSC02382However, there are many portions of the month that I will miss. I will miss the encouraging emails I received in the past to tell me “you can write this novel.” I will be the thrill of submitting a completed novel at the end of the month. I will miss the conversation with people about the novel I would be writing. I will miss writing a novel.

 

But for this year, I believe NaNoWriMo, NaNonFiWriMo, and any other challenge out there will have to continue on without this author. I have enough challenges of my own to keep me busy through November!

 

And if you’re like me, you will face your share of challenges in November. So today, I’d like to offer some passages of Scripture that will help you through some of the difficulties that show up in life. Maybe this is one of those lists you print out and hold on to for just the right time to use. Or maybe you’ll decide to memorize those verses that particularly help with a certain situation. Whatever you choose to do with these verses, know that God desires to be with you through the challenges. And that’s just one of the things I’m thankful to God for.

 

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6 – NIV)

 

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. (Psalm 23:4a – NIV)

 

“The Lord is my strength and my shield my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.” (Psalm 28:7 – NIV)

 

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18 – NIV)

 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 – NIV)

 

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trust in you.” (Isaiah 26:3 – NIV)

 

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, thy will walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31 – NIV)

 

“‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord.” (Zechariah 4:6 – NIV)

 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29 – NIV)

 

“What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27 – NIV)

 

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 – NIV)

 

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” (2 Corinthians 12:9 – NIV)

 

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 – NIV)

 

“I can everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13 – NIV)

 

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” (1 John 4:18a – NIV

 

There are many more that I could share with you today and if you need something specific, please let me know. I’d be happy to find that perfect verse (or verses) to help with what you’re going through. Just know that God is with you. It’s a promise. And yet another blessing I am thankful for today.

 

I pray that if your day brings a challenge with it that you will seek the One who is so willing to be with you through it all. Don’t try to get through it on your own. Our God is a great and awesome God who would love to be with you through each challenge.

 

Yes, I’m sad that I’m not writing a novel this morning. But I believe God has shown me that what I write each day has so much more value than a novel. And with that, I am completely satisfied.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

 

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We Gather Together

October 31st, 2013 dsisler

I am thrilled to announce that tomorrow is November 1! Halloween will finally be out of the way. It is my least favorite holiday, but I make the best of it by offering God’s love to everyone who comes to my door. Frightening movie commercials will finally be off the air so I can watch a television program without turning the volume down and turning my head. And most importantly, my favorite holidays are just around the corner.

 

cornicopiaMy Mom will once again join us for Thanksgiving and for several weeks after that. My son is coming home for Thanksgiving. A gal who is like a daughter to me will also be gracing our table for Thanksgiving. Not to mention my local family who will be at the table.

 

Around that time, Christmas trees will start popping up in my home. Christmas décor will fill the house before the week is over. And my festive mood will soar in anticipation of Christmas with three grandchildren!

 

Thanksgiving has been a special holiday for me. As I was growing up, our family lived many miles and several states away from the rest of our family. But when we were able to join them for Thanksgiving, it was a blessed occasion. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great-grant parents, great aunts and uncles, distant cousins and friends would fill each of my grandparent’s homes.

 

And the food was always delicious. Some of my favorites were pheasant, chicken and dumplings, cranberry sauce, corn, green beans, and of course turkey and ham. The dessert room would be filled with pumpkin pies, pecan pies and apple fried pies.

 

There was always laughter. Children playing. Sharing of stories. Photographs snapped. And lots of fun.

 

I miss these grand gatherings. It’s so special when I can gather at my table with my family and friends. That’s one reason I love Thanksgiving.

 

I believe another reason I love Thanksgiving is because we have the opportunity to thank God for all that He’s done for us. Yes, it should occur often, even daily. But with this special day set aside specifically to show our gratitude to the One who has offered us abundant life, why wouldn’t we be overflowing with thanksgiving?

 

King David loved to thank God for all of his blessings. Psalm 95 is one such writing.

 

“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

 

“Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.

 

“For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.

 

“In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.

 

“The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

 

“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

 

“For he is or God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”

 

Psalm 95:1-7 (NIV)

 

There is much to be thankful for. I pray that as you go through the month of November that you will recall all the blessings you’ve received from God and that you will stop and thank Him for His blessed gifts.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

 

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P.S. – If you’re interested in a delicious pumpkin recipe, try the one below. It’s so yummy!

 

Aunt Trina’s Holiday Pumpkin Crunch (Pauladeen.com)

 

Cake:

1 (15 oz.) can fresh pumpkin

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon (I use pumpkin spice)

1 cup sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup chopped pecans

2 sticks butter, cut into pieces

 

Frosting:

1 (8 oz.) package softened cream cheese

1 cup heavy whipping cream

½ cup powdered sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon (I use pumpkin spice)

 

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together pumpkin, evaporated milk, cinnamon and sugar until well combined. Add eggs and mix well.

 

Pour mixture into a 9×13 inch baking dish, prepared with a non-stick spray. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over entire top. Sprinkle nuts over cake mix and top with butter pieces. Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes. Set aside to cool.

 

Prepare frosting while cake is cooling. In a large mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, whip cream cheese until light. Add in whipping cream and continue to whip until fully combined and thickening. Add powdered sugar and cinnamon and whip until smooth.

 

There are directions “to serve,” but I think we know how to eat this!

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Full Extent of His Love

October 30th, 2013 dsisler

Take a look at this verse of Scripture. “It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” (John 13:1 – NIV)

 

In the past I have related this verse to Jesus’ sacrifice. That certainly would show us the full extent of His love. But what I’ve never connected to this verse is that it was written just before Jesus washed the disciple’s feet.

 

Perhaps service toward our fellow man is showing the full extent of Jesus’ love to them.

IMAG1052

I spoke with a woman yesterday whose home had not been filled with mud through the recent flood, but water had poured into her home and has damaged all of the electrical wiring in the house. They are unable to get assistance from FEMA or their homeowners insurance. They’ve been told their home is unsafe, the smoke detectors have been removed due to malfunction, and there is no fire service to their town. They have no money to stay elsewhere, so they have no choice to live in this home and pray for God’s safety and peace.

 

The only thing I could do in this situation was listen to this beautiful woman’s story, hold her hand, pray for her, and turn in her flood relief assistance form to our accounting department. I felt as if I hadn’t done anything.

 

I continued to listen to her story. A home destroyed in Hurricane Sandy. A disabled husband who has been diagnosed with PTSD. Hours of waiting for contractors to supply work quotes (and then contractors not showing up). Days and weeks without water or electric. Giving up one vehicle because they can’t afford the payments. And this list could go on.

 

But through all our conversation, this sweet woman smiled through it all. I’m sure she has deep hurt and pain beneath that smile, but to the world, she looks and acts as if there is nothing wrong.

 

While I don’t feel like I did a lot, sitting with her to acknowledge her pain and suffering meant so much to her. I pray that through me she was able to see the full extent of Jesus’ love for her.

 

So many outside of our little bubble believe everything is back to normal after the floods. We are far from that. While Samaritan’s Purse has pulled out of our parking lot, we have a projected 3-year, long-term plan to continue to work with people to make their homes safe and secure.

 

We are in winterization mode right now. Making sure that water pipes are well-insulated for the colder months ahead. Through the winter we’ll be able to work on the inside of homes and then in the spring and summer, there will be outside work to complete.

 

I drove past a road yesterday that is still completely destroyed and impassible. This is a reminder of the damage and the work that still is ahead of us.

 

Jesus had His work set before Him as well. Yes, this act of washing the disciples’ feet seemed small and unmeaningful. But when connected to the verse above, we know how very important our service to others really is. We are showing them the full extent of His love.

 

Please continue to pray for the folks here in Colorado who are still dealing with flood issues. Pray that God will give them the strength and courage to face today. Pray that they will not feel like they’ve been left behind and that there are still people here who want to help them. Pray that God will be glorified through it all.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

 

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Lost and Found

October 29th, 2013 dsisler

Yesterday had its challenges. The day started off with cold, misty weather (and never stopped I might add). Meetings filled my morning. My new laptop computer for work wasn’t working as it should. We had a fire drill (recall the cold, misty weather mentioned above). But after all of this, the real challenge of the day hit me.

 

skyAs I mentioned, I had meetings in the morning and one of my duties is to take minutes in our leadership team meeting. Since my computer wasn’t set up completely, I had to type the minutes in Wordpad instead of Microsoft Word. That program has its own set of challenges which made my minute taking pretty miserable.

 

After the meeting, I saved the document to the desktop of the laptop since I couldn’t save it to my private drive on our server.

 

After the fire drill and lunch, our IT gal finished the set up on my laptop. It was good to finally have everything at my touch and it all seemed normal again.

 

Until the time for me to work on the meeting minutes from the morning.

 

They were gone. They were not on the laptop desktop. I ran a search. I looked in every folder. They simply were not there. This is when my stomach began turning into knots and a sense of dread washed over me.

 

Another call to our IT gal. She began her search remotely (which is pretty cool if you’ve never experienced that before). She too was unable to find it.

 

She then remembered that when she first started working on my laptop earlier, it wasn’t connected to the right server. It had connected to the main server that no one should have been able to log into. She logged me back in to that server and there it was. My meeting minutes! I was ecstatic. The lost had been found.

 

There is an entire chapter of Jesus’ teaching on finding what is lost. Luke 15 contains the parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7), the Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-11), and the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32).

 

There are several lessons to learn from these parables and probably more than I have time to share here, but take a look at a few.

 

The first lesson I see is that when we realize we are lost and not living within God’s guidelines, we are to repent. We are to turn away from that particular sin in our life that is hindering us from a close relationship with our Heavenly Father.

 

These three parables speak of rejoicing when the lost is found. When a repentant heart finds its way back to God. That is just as it should be.

 

Another lesson we learn about the lost is that we cannot stop looking for it. The shepherd continued his search until the lost sheep was found. The woman persisted in looking for the coin until it was found. The father apparently continually looked for his son to return, for when the son was still far off, the father ran to him.

 

These three parables show us that we cannot give up on searching for the truth of God’s message. Without it in our lives, we may as well be eating slop with the pigs. Keep searching. God is waiting patiently for you.

 

And finally, I believe we learn that we must share this Good News with others. The shepherd, the woman, and the father gathered all of the friends together and asked them to rejoice. There were great celebrations. What was lost was found and they couldn’t contain their joy.

 

These three parables show us that we cannot keep this secret. We must share the Gospel with others. We must ask others to rejoice with us. We must acknowledge that the lost has been found.

 

I don’t know that I went this far with the finding of a small document on my laptop, but I certainly was happy. I didn’t have to recreate something out of nothing by memory (which is a very good thing!).

 

However, when speaking of the lost of this world, I must rejoice when a wandering one comes to know Jesus. I must continue to share the Good News of Jesus to those who need to hear it and I must be persistent in seeking those who are lost. It’s exactly what Jesus did.

 

I pray your day will be filled with searching, finding, and rejoicing. I look forward to a day just like that.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

 

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    "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe." Ephesians 1:18-19


    I am a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. I lived in the beautiful state of Colorado for 20 years where I found great inspiration for my novels and devotional writings. Currently living in southwest Ohio.

    I am passionate about helping women find their way to Jesus through Bible study, teaching, speaking, inspirational writing and creative Bible journaling.

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