False Advertising

I pray that God blessed you and your church the way he blessed us at Macedonia on Sunday. We had a "sho-nuff", Hallelujah good time in worship, the Lord blessed us with three additions, two candidates for baptism and one by Christian experience and we are humbled that God allowed them to come our way.

I was very excited about the preaching moment and God honored our obedience to him as I had planned to start our church theme for 2009 in Matthew 25 but God told me to go to the fig tree in Luke 13 and I obeyed. That might not sound like much to you but I am a control freak and for me to just obey without question or conversation is a major step for me.

My girls went back home over the holidays to see their mother. When I came to retrieve them, we enjoyed our drive back to Indiana. On our way, we stopped to get something to eat and I wanted some chicken. I went into one of my favorite establishments only to be sadly disappointed. As I went to order my food, I was told they were all out of chicken.

Not truly comprehending what was being said to me, I asked how long of a wait will it be before the chicken will be ready? I was informed TOMORROW. Because of the ice storm in this area, the truck that delivers the chicken was way behind schedule and because of the holidays they had exhausted their inventory.

I was crushed. I mean, if they had told me they were all out of red beans and rice, I would have understood. If they had said, we are all out of biscuits, catfish nuggets or popcorn shrimp, I would have understood because after all those are merely SIDE ITEMS but chicken? Your specialty is chicken, your reputation is based on chicken, it's on your sign and your sign says you are open for business, therefore, I expected some chicken. How can a chicken house be out of chicken? What's next, will McDonald's be out of "Big Macs", Krispy Kreme out of doughnuts, Pizza hut out of Pizza?

I wonder what God thinks when he looks at some of our "churches" that bear his name but don't produce the fruit that the name symbolizes? Greater Trinity that has Greater division or Peace that has confusion or Agape that shows more hate than love. What is more alarming is a church that has the outside appearance of productivity, the "leaves of ministry" only to discover upon closer examination, it bears no fruit.

The owner has the right to say "Cut it Down" but thank God for the Vinedresser who in effect says, "Let me work with it". My intent was to talk about the tree's: Place, Purpose, Position, Performance, Punishment and its Probation. That was the intent but I got happy after "Cut it down" because I thought about my life and my fruit or lack thereof at times. I should have been cut down but the Vinedresser said, Let me work with him.

The Vinedresser Digs, and uses the Dirt and the Dung to Develop us until we produce Drupe. Drupe is more than just a "D" word that also means fruit but it is any fruit consisting of an outer skin with a succulent or pulpy middle layer and a hard inner shell that usually has a seed. We have this treasure..........Not sure what this was for anyone else in the church, but God gave me what I needed to keep going and I stand:

Still ready to run,

Owens