OUR DAILY BREAD : GROWTH PERSUASION

[cimi]

Octobr 25
Thursday


GROWTH
PERSUASION

READ:
Hebrews 12:7-11
___________________________

No chastening seems
to be joyful for the
present, but...it yields
the peaceable fruit of
righteousness to those
who have been trained
by it. __ Hebrews 12:11
___________________________

My Uncle Lester, who lived in Florida, was discouraged by the lack of fruit on his grapefruit tree. Someone told him he needed to whack the trunk of the tree a few times with a board.

Apparently, there is some truth to this unusual method of encouraging growth. One gardening expert says: "At times, the flowering hormone in the tree seems to get stuck and no flowers appear. Carefully persuade the tree to flower by shocking it. Hit the trunk... several times, [which will cause] small bruises in the bark."This advice may stimulate growth.

When trouble comes into our lives, we sometimes feel as if we've been hit broadside. We feel desperation and then we wonder, Why is this happening to me?

One possibility is that God is using a painful experience to get our attention. In Psalm 119:71, David wrote, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes." And Hebrews 12:11 says that chastening "yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness."

Is God using pain in your life to lovingly persuade you to change? The season of trouble may not be easy, but if we let ourselves be trained by it, new growth will result as we become more like His Son (Phil. 3:10). __ Cindy Hess Kasper
____________________________________________________________

~~~~~~~~~~~We shrink from the purging and pruning,~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Forgetting the Gardener knows~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~The deeper the cutting and paring~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~The richer the cluster that grows. __ Anon.~~~~~~~~~
____________________________________________________________

Affliction for God's people can be the pruning knife
to prepare us for greater fruitfulness.

***************Today's Bible Reading __ Hebrews 12:11************

7 If you endure chastening,
God deals with you as with
sons; for what son is there
whom a father does not
chasten? 8 But if you are
without chastening, of
which all have become
partakers, then you are
illegitimate and not sons,

9 Furthermore, we have had
human fathers who
corrected us, and we paid
them respect. Shall we not
much more readily be in
subjection to the Father of
spirits and live? 10 For they
indeed for a few days
chastened us as seemed best
to them, but He for our
profit, that we may be
partakers of His holiness.

11 Now no chanstening seems
to be joyful for the present,
but painful; nevertheless,
afterward it yields the
peaceable fruit of
righteousness to those who
have been trained by it.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The key word in this passage is chastening, which means "to bring
up or train a child." Chastening in the Bible is more than just rebuke
and punishment. It includes nurture, instruction, and training in
righteousness as well. In the Old Testament, God's disciplinary
measures included drought, famine, enemy attack, captivity,
sickness, and death. In life, we can be chastened through opposition
and persecution (Heb. 12:3), punishment from God (v.6), hardships
(v.7), trials (1 Peter 1:6), testing and temptations (James 1:3), pain
and suffering (Rom 5:3), personal loss or sickness, and even death
(1 Cor. 11:30). __ SKT