Friday, April 29, 2011

God Loves Fruit Too

Did you realize ... God craves fruit?

As you may well know by now, several of my Blogs deal with my ongoing episodes with produce. I have so many that I actually asked the Lord about this. Yes, really.  He, of course, took me back to His Word.

Genesis 1:11 “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.


12: And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

The fruit trees were among God’s first creations. Fruit was used throughout the Word as a token of the blessing or curse and judgments in your life. Children were compared to fruit. Fruit was the prize of the promise land. Nehemiah declares that fruit trees were a portion of the enemy’s plunder. Psalms sings songs about fruit. The wisdom of Proverbs warns that men’s deeds will produce fruits of righteousness or destruction. The poetry of Song of Solomon uses the metaphors of fruit to describe the love between King Solomon and his beloved Shunamite. Jesus had no patience for trees that did not produce good fruit. The Word commands us to bring forth much of it and encourages us to be fruitful in every good work. Fruit can be peaceable. The fruit of our words generates life or death.

Fruit can be used to measure our spiritual growth. Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

God compares fruits to our different levels of giving: Deuteronomy 18:4 - First Fruits -Leviticus 27:30 Tithe.

I think you would agree the most notorious fruit was connected to the fall of man.

Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

We as a nation, have sent men to the moon, but still have not understood or harnessed the full healing power of raw fruits and vegetables. The Prophets of old knew the earth’s secrets. Isaiah 38: 21 Isaiah had said to Hezekiah’s servants, “Make an ointment from figs and spread it over the boil, and Hezekiah will recover.”

Seeds, crops, harvest, Parable of the soils, vineyards, seasons, break up the fallow ground…you get the jest. God is the Master Gardner, and He loves fruit too!!!

From Genesis to Revelations there are 253 references to just fruit. Wshewwww! Who knew there were so many life lessons in the humble fruit basket?

Sooooo…with that said this is the beginning of our summer season and I already have two more episodes under my belt. Never mind the fact that I drove around this past Sunday for two hours with 5lbs. of lettuce in the back-end of my 76 degree SUV. At least it gave the cantaloupes a break!

With fear and much trepidation, I purchased a new Smoothie/Juicing book. The recipes are sure to carry me through many new adventures and much riper life lessons. So if you see me perusing up and down the produce aisles with ear buds on and I fail to speak, please forgive me… I’m just singing ‘Silly Songs’ with two of my favorite fruits and vegetables “Bob and Larry.”

One more thing before we go…just couldn’t resist!

Q. What is a ghost favorite fruit? Boonanaa !


Q. What do you do if you see a BLUE banana? Try to cheer it up!

Q. What do bananas do best in gymnastics? The splits!

Q. Why don’t bananas snore? Because they don’t want to wake up the rest of the bunch.



t-t-f-n (ta-ta-for-now)

P.S. I think I'm being stalked by my produce....this was in my pickle jar!

Monday, April 11, 2011

I Hate the “P” Word!

I HATE THE “P” WORD!
The “P” word?
YES, THE “P” WORD… PROCESS!”

P-R-O-C-E-S-S ..."fact of being carried on" - "journey" - “to yield”
  a. series of actions that produce a change or development
  b. a method of doing - of producing something
  c. a forward movement
  d. the course of time

To even whisper the word “PROCESS” evokes a range of emotions. The word makes the stout of heart weak in the knees. We scream, “Oh-h-h No-o-o!” Spin around three times, and swoon with the ‘vapors." We immediately bemoan the fact that we are not getting our supposed needs met NOW! (Stomp foot for emphasis)

Side Note: This term was used by polite 19th century women to mean (ahem) becoming emotionally overcome. Beginning in the 15th century, doctors thought gases from your stomach, called "vapors," could waft up to your brain, causing headaches and ill health. By the 18th century, these vapors had become "the vapors" and referred to a more general class of disorders that could include depression, hypochondria, nervousness, and excitability. Sometimes a person with the vapors had a lasting or chronic condition, but sometimes "getting the vapors" meant just having a brief headache or a fainting spell to be cured with smelling salts.


With my poetic license I could imagine this being a statement from Gone With the Wind. “Oh, Rhett, I am et up with the vapors!”

The word “PROCESS” is synonymous with an extended period of time that we don’t believe we possess, or delays to much needed answers. It is often associated with pain and prolonged distress.

Quote: “So then disappointment is the undoing of any given or hoped upon appointment. In other words our expectations were not met for one reason or another.”

About a year ago, I felt the Lord gave me this word for ‘SOMEONE’ else. “Do not curse the process.” All of nature knows and understands these laws. Without the proper processing time malformation or premature death can occur. It is God’s most willful creation, man, which is unwilling to yield to this code. We kick, scream and try to manipulate or microwave our way out of it.

Don’t you just hate when a well-meaning friend reminds you that you just have to go thru the “PROCESS?" Tell the truth…you feel the overwhelming urge to stuff an argyle sock in their mouth! It is a very different matter indeed to hear these words directly from your heavenly Father.

The duration of "PROCESS"can be a very dangerous, vulnerable time. Our Adamic Nature is quick to believe the lies that God has forgotten us, or worse, forsaken us.

Proverbs 13:12 (New Living Translation) "Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life."


Proverbs 13:12 (The Message) "Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick,
but a sudden good break can turn life around. "

The Word of God is overflowing with the Prophets of old cries for mercy during their times of "PROCESS." None more poignant than from the lips of King David after his long wait for the throne that had been rightfully his for 20 years, and the prolonged battle that ensued for his life.

Psalm 18:4-6 (The Message) The hangman's noose was tight at my throat; devil waters rushed over me. Hell's ropes cinched me tight; death traps barred every exit.
6 A hostile world! I call to GOD, I cry to God to help me. From his palace he hears my call;
my cry brings me right into his presence— a private audience!

Unfortunately, revelation often comes only by way of suffering through the ‘Plan of Process.” Leo Tolstoy, the Russian Author of War and Peace, wrote that “It is by those who have suffered that the world has been advanced.”

Even history’s perfect example, Jesus the Christ, begged for a Plan B more than once.

Matthew 26:40-44: "Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour?

41 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”


42 Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away[a] unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open. 44 So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again

A precious friend and I are currently sharing a ‘time of process” together. She recently encouraged me with these words, so aptly put; she had successfully made it from the fetal position (place of hopelessness) to her knees (place of faith). It is my prayer that I don’t force my own agenda for myself and those I cherish dearly. Prayerfully, in God’s timing we will all emerge mature and whole once more having survived the "PROCESS."

The Easter Season is the perfect time to reflect on the fact that even out of death, the "PROCESS" works.

t-t-f-n  (ta-ta-for-now)