Baby, it's cold outside. Sub-zero temps; ice-covered ground; more white stuff on its way? A great time to hibernate.
But it need not be cold inside ... especially inside your soul, as you bask in the warmth of God's loving truth. The Scriptures are ever old and ever new, and never out of reach. So the fire of God's Word is always accessible.
Read MoreThe 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 MoreA friend recently posted an arresting thought on facebook:
Your value doesn't decrease, based on someone's inability to see your worth.
Truth!
Where does our value lie? Our value is based on our Creator's opinion of us...which is love and grace and glory!
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 1 Corinthians 5:17 NLT
He has planted His own life in us through His glorious Son. So whatever our Father God thinks about His beloved Son, He thinks of us also!
Life, glorious life! How we take life for granted, until...
someone we love dies,
our health or safety is gravely threatened,
we realize our days are waning because of the years...
It is then that we value what we've had all along.
But there's a Life that we never need fear will diminish, be endangered, be lost...
In fact, this Life can grow in our experience even in this time-based, fearful, waning physical life.
What is this Life?
Read MoreBrothers & sisters, are you amazed, as am I?
Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. (Colossians 1:27 NLT)
The Lord Jesus Christ in you! The Lord Jesus Christ in me! What glory right here...right now!
The Sovereign Creator of the Universe lives in each of His children! His life courses through our spiritual veins! What glory for this life as well as the life to come!
Read MoreI’m so excited to share this blog post with you, dear friends. Let me tell you why…
The Lord has been teaching me afresh to slow down and to watch & wait for His movement and direction, His “signal,” so to speak, before forging on ahead. He has been doing this through Psalm 123:2 and my word of the year, Wait on God.
In the process, I have shared my thoughts in my blog post (New Year, New Word) and in conversations. One such conversation took place recently with my sweet, young friend Rebekah VanBuskirk via Facebook Messenger. What Rebekah shared with me was so amazingly illustrative of the heart of the whole issue of watching and waiting, I knew it was too good to keep to myself. So I asked Rebekah to share here at A Branch in the Vine.
Read MoreThe Holy Spirit has been flooding my email, my mailbox, and my thought life with messages about mentoring that all seem to be weaving seamlessly together … all within 24 hours. Let me share.
First, thoughts about two spiritually gifted sisters in the Lord with the realization from the Lord
Read MoreI had an interesting conversation with a friend about mentoring. We marveled at how so many Christians we know, who have matured in the Lord through the help of a mentor, end up being rejected by that same mentor for not agreeing with them on minor points of doctrine or practice, or for moving on in a different direction in ministry, or for some other difference of opinion. How sad. But how common!
Well, there is good news! There is a gem of a spiritual father tucked away in the gospels, one of my heroes of the faith, John the Baptist! He shows us what a true mentor is like. John is not only a clear example of "letting go," but also a stellar model of attachment to his Lord Jesus Christ.
Read MoreMagi, Wise men, Three Kings...those figures way at the end of the Nativity scene (I suppose because they were still traveling from afar)... In recent years, this trio (if it was a trio) have become my heroes. Think about it! People probably thought they were crazy following a star to God knows where. THEY probably thought they were crazy after a time. What courage! What perseverance! What joy in the finding!
Read MoreA new year is upon us, along with those pesky thoughts of New Years’ resolutions. Well, resolutions are no temptation to me anymore. I’ve given up trying to change myself by my own self-effort. The indwelling Christ is my “Game-changer” and my “Life-changer.” And a few years ago, He brought a lovely “new thing” to my attention … the idea of a word for my year. So for the past several years, I have had my word. But my word had never stuck until in 2016 I stepped aside and allowed the Lord to “give” it to me, rather than trying to come up with one on my own.
So each year my word just seems to “find me.” Every year it has appropriately come in the midst of my “all too real-life”circumstances.
Read MoreThere's a song that's been going through my mind and heart these Advent days. I even find myself bursting into a line of lyric here and there. The thoughts I love most in it are truths that have become more and more precious to me as I reflect Advent after Advent -- that our Emmanuel came to earth from heaven, not just to pay for our sins (as crucial as that is), but also to give us His divine eternal LIFE...deity indwelling our humanity. We can become children of Almighty God!!!
Read MoreThe TV police drama Blue Bloods grabs my heart as well as my mind week after week. I suppose it’s for a number of reasons: I’m from New Jersey and the show takes place in New York City. The Reagans (a large close knit Catholic family) reminds me of my own large close knit Catholic family. And many of the religious practices of the Reagans, like “grace before meals,” mirror those of the Renners (my family name). The individual Reagan family members are honest with each other and a bit out-spoken … and that is actually what many extended family members and friends (Renner-wannabes) “admire” about us.
So week after week, I reminisce as I watch Blue Bloods.
Read More1 Before time itself was measured, the Voice was speaking.
The Voice was and is God.
2 This celestial Word remained ever present with the Creator;
3 His speech shaped the entire cosmos.
Immersed in the practice of creating,
all things that exist were birthed in Him.
4 His breath filled all things
with a living, breathing light—
Emmanuel…a Christmas Reading
by Kathy Compton
Christmas means different things to different people. For some, it is a difficult holiday because of memories that are cherished…but they are just memories now.
There is an emptiness about Christmas.
For some, it is the delight of family and friends, of decorations and cards, of cookies and carols. There is a fullness about Christmas.
Read MoreHi friends,
Are you going into this holiday craziness season already shot? worn out? blank?
Really? Me too!
Some of you have walked through "the valley of the shadow..." of something. Big stuff or small. But even the small, piles up to make a big burden.
Would you like to pause with me these next weeks and reflect? Reflect on the God who became one of us ... not just to save, sanctify, and bring us into His glory (as crucial as that is), but also to experience humanness with His beloved creatures.
Read MoreAnother anniversary and a sad realization. We haven’t been doing a very good job at “touching each other’s soul” for the past 47 years.
I wasn’t even going to write this year, because I’m tired and kind of blank. But then this came in my email this morning, and I knew my thought for the next year of our marriage. So I am thankful for some more time to be refined in this way.
Read MoreGood morning Lord
I’m so thankful to be Yours.
Your daughter, O loving Father
Your sister and friend, O my Jesus
Your dwelling place, O mighty, yet gentle Spirit
Thank you for the people You have given me.
Read More…Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” …God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. … the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. Exodus 3:2-5 NLT
There is a “burning bush” in my daughter’s yard in Illinois. And it is ablaze with glory right now! So when three year old William and I came outside yesterday morning, we couldn’t help but notice the changes that seemed to happen overnight.
“It’s RED!”
“Yes, William, and it’s called a Burning Bush. You know what? God spoke to a man named Moses from a Burning Bush. It’s in the Bible.”
Read MoreYou are wound up tight!
So said my doc in relation to my blood pressure spike a few years ago. This was so unusual for someone who, all her adult life, has had BP below normal.
So again a wake-up call...this non-procrastinator needs to stay in the present...with her Present Tense Lord!
Read MoreJanet Renner Loyd has been a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ most of her life. Her formal education includes a degree in education from the University of Arizona and also a degree in Bible & Theology from Moody Bible Institute. For more than thirty years, she has been involved in teaching and leading women’s Bible studies, retreats, and meetings…most notably Precept upon Precept and various studies that she has personally developed. Professionally, Jan recently retired from teaching language and writing to GED and adult ESOL students.
About her life, Jan says, “The most important thing about me is my relationship with my Father God through my Lord Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful to Him for His love, mercy, and grace to me and my family and friends...and the world.”
Jan has been happily married to John Loyd for more than forty years. They have two adult, married children and five lively young grandsons.
