Sneak Peak

The journey has begun.  It takes energy and a healthy body to fulfill the great commission.  You cannot Go without it.  I will deliver my first ever manuscript encouraging church leaders to care for their bodies to an editor by my birthday Feb 14 and see what story God want to write with it.  

Chapter 1:

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves are evergreen, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

Trees do not have legs, they cannot walk, but if they could walk like Ents in Lord of the Rings, every tree would walk itself close to a source of water.  Close to the nutrition it needs.  Close to a stream of living water.  Close to the resource it cannot live without. 

How are you doing as a tree?  Do you feel Evergreen?

Our bodies are temporary. Tiny houses for our souls.  We cannot pause time or teleport our bodies. We are very much like a tree.  If we are planted beside a stream we are good to go, but if we are planted elsewhere when the heat and drought comes we fear death.  And unless you grew up with professional chef, nutritionist and personal training in your house and never left it is likely you are at least a few feet or miles from the closest stream when it comes to health, like I was.   

It is not a matter of if the drought comes, for us trees, it is a matter of when.  Heat and drought translated from ancient Hebrew to modern day human means sickness, disease, hospital stays and death.  We cease bearing fruit when we are on the sidelines of life not being able to participate because our bodies are shutting down, losing leaves, dropping branches or ditching its fruit in the same way a tree does when it kicks into survival mode.

So how can we always bear fruit?  Reverse engineer Jeremiah’s words.  In order to keep bearing fruit you send out your roots into the source of nutrition.  Trees are nourished by the stream. We are nourished my what we eat and drink and through the replication of cells.  Tree’s have roots.  We have hands, feet and a mouth to go along with our 100 billion brain cells and 30 trillion total body cells.

As a believer in God’s truth you know that bearing fruit is a symbol of health, so what if you could increase your fruit bearing capacity.  What if instead of incremental growth you had exponential growth?  Since it is unlikely you can physically move your church building, park your car always next to the health food store or never eat out again; what options are there? 

Allow Jesus to guide us. 

Jesus told this parable in Luke 13, “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ Sir, the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ 

What follows in an excavation, fertilization and time lapse plan to ensure the tree, called your body, bears fruit and is properly nourished for the entirely of your life.

Let’s start that journey because your fruit bearing capacity is at stake.