Joy in January: God vs Fear {Song Added}

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Joy in January: God vs Fear {Song Added}

The last in my “Joy in January” series, originally shared in January 2015, is a post written by my youngest “Guest Branch” and my oldest grandchild Kaden. When he wrote it, he was just 8-1/2 y.o. and now he is almost 15 … how can that be? So it’s my delight once again to share this awesome blog. We can all learn from the young ones in the faith, can’t we? By the way, be sure to see Kaden’s “today photo” at the end…yikes!

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children [and grandchildren] are walking in the truth.
3 John 1:4 ESV

It is pure JOY for me to introduce my youngest "Guest Branch" to A Branch in the Vine. My 8-1/2 year old grandson Kaden is today's blogger.

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Joy in January: God vs Fear

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Joy in January: God vs Fear

The last in my “Joy in January” series, originally posted in January 2015, is a post written by my youngest “Guest Branch” and my oldest grandchild Kaden. When he wrote it, he was just 8-1/2 y.o. and now he is almost 15 … how can that be? So it’s my delight once again to share this awesome blog. We can all learn from the young ones in the faith, can’t we?

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children [and grandchildren] are walking in the truth.
3 John 1:4 ESV

It is pure JOY for me to introduce my youngest "Guest Branch" to A Branch in the Vine. My 8-1/2 year old grandson Kaden is today's blogger.

Read More

Obsessive thoughts...where is the Rest?

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The closest I've come to a full-blown anxiety attack in 30 years! Thoughts grabbed hold of my mind...obsessively, relentlessly...

Round 'n round...on 'n on...ad infinitum, ad nauseum...just miscellaneous nothings as well as daytime uglinesses in the darkness ...they wouldn't let go!  Robbing of sleep all night...then all day...then ready for the next night!

Where's the reprieve? the relief? the release...the Rest?

In the engrafted word that saves the soul:

But we have the mind of Christ.

I have the mind of Christ!  Do you hear that, O my soul?

I have the mind of Christ! Right here...right now!

Those obsessive thoughts are not the mind of Christ!!!!

And so I reflect and journal:

The Mind of Christ is a Present-Tense-Mind...not past, not future...

because Christ is a Present-Tense Person, the Present-Tense God!

The great Jehovah...the great I Am!

He was in the past when it was present.  And He will be in the future when it is present.

He is also the Present-Tense God made Man, Emmanuel.  He is the fullness of God...in bodily form...and that's huge!

So He knows what it's like to live in time...my present tense!

And He always lived it in present tense with His Father...so I can too, because He lives in me and through me, as me!

He is forever the indwelling I Am...

Living Water for my thirsty soul right now,

the Bread of Life for my hungry heart in this moment,

the Light of my world today,

my Good Shepherd for this situation,

the Resurrection and the Life for my present "deadnesses,"

the Way, the Truth, the Life for the path I take right now,

the True Vine in whom I am now abiding...

He Himself is my indwelling Peace, my ever-present Joy!

So I bathe myself in HIM and His Words.  I sink myself down in Him who is in me...I rest in Him, and I am set free!

The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:15-16 ESV

Thank you, Lord, for that Word grafted in by Your Holy Spirit that delivers my soul from the darkness!

Wait a minute...I have the mind of Christ!

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Round 'n round...on 'n on...ad infinitum, ad nauseum...one of those daytime uglinesses grabbed hold of my mind in the darkness of one night...which led to the next day/night and then the next and then...it wouldn't let go! then the prayer: Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace...

then the remake: where there is hatred, YOU sow love through me...

then the release...early before dawn, as I was waking up...the engrafted word that saves the soul:

But we have the mind of Christ. 

I have the mind of Christ!  Do you hear that, soul? I have the mind of Christ! That daytime ugliness is not the mind of Christ!!!!

So I scramble out of bed to find the passage and bathe myself in HIM and His Words.  I am set free!

The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:15-16 ESV

Thank you, Lord, for that Word grafted in by Your Holy Spirit that delivered my soul from the darkness of flesh and self!