Sometimes, I just feel like life is out of sync. No rhythm. No music. Just a bunch of notes on a page that make no sense. Lots going on. Good things. But still, I have no idea what they mean or how they fit together.

Do you ever feel that way?

One night, Dale and I were watching a documentary on TV. It was about twins, Aaron and Jade Buckles, twins conjoined at the chest, facing each other. The story was about their family's journey through trying to separate them and the difficulties and heart-wrenching struggles they had with decisions, and all the uncertainty that accompanied them. The process to get them ready to be separated was long as they had to slowly but surely help them grow skin to cover where they would be separated. Finally, the day had come to take the girls into surgery. To the surgeon's surprise, when they opened up the girls, they found that their hearts were beating at the exact same rhythm.

Man, that's what I want. I want to be so conjoined face-to-face with my Savior that my hearts beats with His. I want to have my eyes so focused on Him and His goodness and grace and guidance and love. I want all of the other stuff that I think I need or think is important to be captured by what He knows I need and what He sees as important! I want my will to get lost in His. I want my heart to be synchronized with God's.

Reminds me of an old hymn: "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."

"Set your heart on things above....set your minds on things above." (Col. 3:1) "Walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the deeds of your flesh.....keep in step with the Spirit." (Gal. 5:16, 23)

May you and I continue to press in. May we push hard after walking with God every moment of the day. May we practice His presence. Oh God, that You would give us a continual awareness of Your presence that we may have continual conversational intimacy throughout the day, so that our hearts and minds are in sync with Yours. In the name of Jesus, I ask. Amen

I don't know how many of you have read the story that has peppered the newspapers, but there was a woman who was kidnapped when she was 11, and has now been located some 18 years later. So many emotions flooded my heart, as I read her story. But one thing stood out that gripped me: a psychiatrist said that she could have easily been brainwashed or experienced "Stockholm syndrome" which causes a person to become emotionally attached and even defend the person who abducted and harmed them. And it can take as little as 7 days....7 DAYS! Can you imagine how much time it will take for this innocent woman to become re-oriented to who she was/is?

How long will it take us to be re-oriented and rehabilitated to who we were originally created to be: Children of God who walk with Him? I mean, that's who we were/are. And yet this world, the flesh, and our enemy, the devil, have kidnapped our thoughts into doubting God's goodness, grace and deep deep love for us for years! We've been deceived into thinking that it's all about me, and the part about walking with God is a distant memory or maybe washed right out of our minds completely. Anybody been disoriented? Brainwashed? Lost your true purpose for existing?

It's going to take time, love, and hard work for this young woman to retrain her mind to the truth. And for you to be retrained to walk with God will take time, His love, and hard work It will take resolve to discipline yourself to practice His presence and learn to engage God 24/7 as you walk through life. God's Word tells us to "work out our salvation", because "no eye has seen nor ear has heard, nor mind can conceive what God has in store for those who love Him" .....for those who walk with Him. He desires to love us back to the truth: we were created to walk with our Creator and allow Him to reveal His deepest and most precious promises and purposes for us.

Would you go on the journey with God to do a deep work within you to re-orient you to your original purpose: to walk with God? Come to Him in reckless abandonment.....in sweet surrender to His will and purposes for you. Ask Him to help you become aware of His presence throughout your day. Ask Him to give you big ears to hear Him and a heart of obedience to follow by faith. And then look. Be still. Listen. It won't take long for your brain to remember: hey, this feels like home!

P.S. And just for us married folks: has life caused you and your spouse to lose each other even though you live under the same roof? Has the busyness of life brainwashed you guys into forgetting the marriage and the love God gave you for each other? Maybe it's time you set out on a journey to become re-oriented to each other. Maybe it's time someone took a step towards the other to re-connect. It will take time, God's love flowing through you, and hard work, but it can be the most fulfilling relationship on earth. Would you be willing to take the first step in the process?

Dale and Jena

There have been times in my Christian life where I feel like being a Christian is too much hard work. I try so hard to do the right things only to screw it up over and over again. Then, I go to bed, wake up and do it all over again. Now does that sound like the abundant life God promised us in His Word? I think not.

Can you identify? I mean, don't you sometimes feel that you are told to be kind, be loving, have joy, have peace, and the list goes on and on, and yet no matter how hard you try, it just seems to fall so short? You find yourself weary of hearing about how you are supposed to be, but not seeming to be able to accomplish it.
Am I the only one?

Jesus knew that our natural bent would be to seek to be "Christian" apart from Him. And so He just came right out and said to us in John 15 that apart from Him, we can do nothing....NOTHING! He begins to correlate our relationship with Him to that of a vine and its branches, saying "I am the Vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me, you will bear much fruit."

In thinking about that for a minute, let's look at a branch. Do we see it working very hard to produce the fruit? Do we see straining and toiling? Nope. All we see is a branch hanging there, attached to the vine. The nourishment needed to bear fruit comes up from the ground, through the roots, to the Vine and then out through the branches. Without the branch being attached, there would be no fruit.

So clearly, our part is not to feverishly strive and strain to bear much fruit. Our part to play is to make sure we are staying attached to the Vine, the only Source by which the fruit will come. The Bible uses the word "abide", which means "to be at home with".  It goes back to walking with God. When we are walking with God, 24/7 listening, attentive, recognition of His presence, and conversational intimacy with my Father, then we are "abiding" in the Vine. It is then and only then that we will bear much fruit.

Apart from the Vine, we are unable and incapable of producing real fruit. Now we can produce imitation fruit: fruit that we muster up and others perceive as the real thing; you know, like that old plastic fruit at your Grandmother's house that stayed in that basket on the kitchen table for 50 years and other than a little dust looked as much like fresh fruit as it could! But you know the problem with fake fruit? It gets revealed as soon you get close to it and touch it. And it gets revealed that our fruit is plastic when struggles come up close and get personal.

Jesus, as He was walking with His disciples cursed a fig tree for not having figs (Matt. 21:18-21 and Mark 11:12-14, 20-24). Ever wondered why? Because the fig tree, though out of season, contained leaves. Fig trees develop fruit before leaves and therefore, if leaves were on that tree, there should have been fruit. The tree was being deceiving, because though it had leaves, it had no fruit. As a result, Jesus cursed the tree for misrepresenting itself and before long, the tree withered away.

When we choose to live our lives apart from walking with God, yet try to display His fruit, we are misrepresenting Him. We pretend to have His fruit and may even look like we do from afar, but in reality, as people get closer, they find there is no fruit at all. Only a facade. And honestly, when we do this, we make God sick. As a matter of fact, in Revelation, Jesus puts it this way: "I'd rather you be hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:15&16) This is a hard teaching, but we can't ignore what the Bible says!

When we are not connected to the Vine,  it will only take a short time before our fellowship with God has withered to virtually nothing. We may still have a relationship to Him, but our fellowship is void, and thus our lives are unfruitful and thus lack abundance. And just take that concept and apply it to your marriage! When you and your spouse do not stay connected, it is not long before the fellowship begins to wither and threaten the relationship.

So as you begin another week with Your Maker, Redeemer, and Friend, walk with Him. Abide with Him. Practice His Presence with you 24/7. As you do, watch His life overtake your life. See His fruit burst forth from your life just as natural as breathing. And practice it with your spouse, and see if new life and new blooms begin to appear! Away with the plastic! I want the real thing!

May we all become branches that display His fruit as we walk with Him!

Along this journey with you,
Jena