BE A TREE OF LIFE!
BE A TREE OF LIFE!
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. —-Proverbs 11:30
A few years ago, when I turned 65 years old, I was talking with our Lord and mentioned that I wanted to be more of an impact for His glory than I had been up to that point. Although I was grateful for all our Lord has done with and through me up to that point, I wanted to honor Him more with the time I had left to live.
I was actually thinking of this verse above along with Mark 8:24 when Jesus healed a blind man in two parts. After the first part “He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.”’ Putting these two verses together, I thought, “Men ought to be like trees, trees of life!” Then I started wondering about my own life— “What type of tree am I?”
Elaine and I regularly walk near a lake where we live. On that walk we pass a tree and I typically will look at it when we pass. This is a pine tree that someone cut the top off. It is about 30 feet high, branchless without any bark. It looks like a very large telephone pole standing there. That tree got me wondering about my own life. “Is my life (tree) branchless, barkless, lifeless without any fruit. Does my tree have stubs for branches, people making professions of faith, but go no further or does my tree have branches that branch out to more branches right down to the end of time— People calling on Jesus, becoming disciples that disciple others right down to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20)? My desire would be branches that keep on branching out to the end of the age. What better way to honor our Lord than to be obediently making disciples that would also be lovingly obedient to Him? That is my desire.
So, as I was thinking and praying about this, I got an email inviting me into the training of https://lifewayglobal.org I had been connected with Lifeway Global from 2007-2012 and then got disconnected. I met Aila in Connecticut in 2005. I accepted the invite and went through their level I and level II training. Lifeway Global started as our Lord impacted Aila and through his faithful, loving obedience, God started a disciple-making movement through him that is now in 30 countries, reaching unreached people groups and making hundreds of thousands of disciples who love Jesus and are making more disciples— faithful to the Great Co-Mission of Matthew 28:18-20.
I trust that I will be more of an impact with the life I have left than I have been up to this point. May it be so to honor my Lord God Almighty! How about you? What does your “tree” look like? That 30-foot limbless, barkless and lifeless tree standing there is so unnatural. May our “tree” not be like that. Instead, may our trees have branches that keep branching out until the end of the age. Yes, may we make disciples that will make disciples right to the end of the age. Even so, Dear Father, may it be by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Your Son Jesus. Yes, so may it be! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu75ATYbufI