The Tree Church

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I’ve seen You move the mountains and calm the raging seas.

In the quiet You are with me, in the silence You are with me. 

Even in the darkness…You are always with me!!

Jesus Christ my living hope!

The Father used the religious politics of the time knowing it would be used to crucify our King…I refuse to be swayed by any one other than Christ and Him crucified!

In the midst of our life we can have His peace!

God allows the good, the bad and sometimes the ugly but always with His eye on us and HIs love covering us.

God is working even when we don’t see it. He promises to change us to be more like Jesus.

There is some pain we will never get over. We can attach our hope, our dreams and our identity to what we think will be the future. When it changes we can question the whole of our life. Our reality can be shattered in an instant. 

“There are some losses that some people  will never get over.” Except by no longer caring about the loss OR you die.

The Apostles had their own expectations of what the Messiah would do. They were anticipating HIs coming. What happened was not what they thought. They were looking for a political , military leader who would conquer their enemies. To them there was no future without the Messiah without Him physically with them. 

He was nothing like they expected.

John 13:33 

33 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We love because He first loved us.

Pain always comes as a surprise. All of our plans and positive plans for our future can be dissolved.  All of the plans that the Apostles that they foresaw vanished in an instant at the cruxifixction. 

Jesus made 3 critical promises:

His presence

That we will never be alone

In Holy Spirit we are never forsaken He knows our hopes and our fears, our pain is never in vain. He will take everything that should have destroyed us and use is to change us in to the image of Jesus.

John 14:1-4

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

John 16:7

7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 

Jesus was the perfect image of the Father. He placed on Jesus all the sins of humanity and in His death so that we could live.

John 14:26-28

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.

John 16:13

13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

In the beginning there was perfect peace. Sin brought us the the awareness of evil. It was never what God wanted for us. Our only hope is Jesus and the salvation He offers. We must choose to accept it. Without Him we will never recover what we have lost. We can spend our lie trying to protect ourselves from past pain in anticipation of future pain.

Ever little thing He does is with our transformation in HIs heart.

Our pain, no matter how overwhelming in the present, will be on day be alleviated. Every tear will be wiped away.

Philippians 3:7-11

7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

In our suffering we can understand what Jesus was willing to suffer for us. No greater love exists. We must press on to the prize that we will receive for eternity. We must focus on our eternity. Someday all pain will be removed and we will meet our Savior face to face.

God is with me. God loves me and He has a plan.