THE OTHER TREE (A Story About the Goodness of God) - by Brent Lokker

I want to tell you a story about a good, good Father who loved his children so much that he wanted them to share the same heart he and Jesus and Holy Spirit share together. So, he created them from the essence of his light and love with a desire for them to learn to live from their shared heart.   Like every good parent would do, this exceptionally good Father wanted to teach his children what was life-giving and what was not, what was good for them and what could hurt them. He planted a tree in the middle of the garden. It was a Knowledge Tree—the Knowledge of Good and Evil (or as our Jewish scholarly friends would say, the Knowledge of Order and Disorder). But God didn’t put it there for the reason you may think. He actually instructed them not to eat of its fruit and he had a perfectly good reason to do so since everything he does is motivated by his perfect love.   For one thing, Father God knew that to be exposed to and aware of the vastness of a realm of all that’s evil and good, all that’s chaotic and ordered, would be far too much for his children, and it’s not something he wanted them to be burdened with.   Although God’s first children listened to the deception of a crafty snake and ate the fruit of this Knowledge tree, don’t worry!  Though their choice was to try doing life outside of intimacy with their Father, he never walked away from them. He’s not that kind of dad. Though they felt lost and scared and ashamed because of their decision to try out life on their own terms, God never lost his children.   Yet, the question remains. Why put this other tree in the garden and restrict them from eating of it in the first place?   Because of the perfect union of an eternal love shared by the Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit, the Creator knew the only way his kids could truly engage in this kind of life-giving love was to choose to. And to be able to choose to, one must be able to choose not to. This good, good Father put a tree in the middle of his over-the-top gorgeous garden with a delectable provision of yummies for their tummies because he wanted them to continually make a choice to trust him.   He knew that his kids could only give their hearts to him unreservedly if they trusted him. So, with purposeful intent, God placed this knowledge tree in the middle of the garden that they would walk past daily. Yahweh didn’t do this to tempt them but so they would have the opportunity to trust him again and again in the midst of their daily lives—even in moments when they didn’t understand, sometimes even when a deceptive lie from a ruthless deceiver was lurking.   When we observe the world our own lives and try to assess it with all our own version of knowledge without the clarity of the Father’s good heart——especially when deception creeps in—all can surely look bleak. But our heavenly Father is always good to us as his children. He’s good when we understand and he’s good when we don’t understand (which happens with much more frequency).  Let’s keep choosing to believe in the goodness of God and in the reality of his eternal kingdom of light and love even when it doesn’t always appear that way. In so doing, we are maturing as his sons and daughters who will accurately represent the truth of his heart and his ways.   “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” Ephesians 5:1-2 (Message)

DWELL ON THESE THINGS - by Todd Benjamin Lout

Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].  PHILIPPIANS 4:8 & 9 - Amplified -   This passage in the Bible opens a door for us to live in a way that leads to a better life.  For sure we will experience countless things that cause our meditation to dip into the negative....way into it. But here we are given a key to rising above circumstances, rather than allowing them to overtake us.  I don't believe God is expecting us to deny that hard things are taking place, or that certain sins are tempting and so on.  What our Maker is telling us is that we don't have to dwell in the muck and mire. Even King David, who went through some very tough trials, would "vent" about what's happening, but he would end up releasing them through praise once again. This ultimately worked out for him.  God has recipes for a better way of living all through His word.  Philippians 4:8 & 9 is one of them.  He  knows what staying in a negative mindset can do to us. As someone who has been on blood pressure meds for 20 years, I know too!  Doctors have run tests on me for 5 hours at a time. They would have me think of things that stress me out. My bp would skyrocket. Then, they would instruct me to focus on things that are life-giving to me, (a beach, mountains, being creative, solitude), and take my blood pressure again in a half hour.  The dramatic drop in my blood pressure has been shocking.  Thoughts have much to do with how the physical body functions.  We all know that anxiety can cause ulcers even.  Dwell on these things that produce life. It sounds nearly impossible for many, I know, but it is possible. We just need to invite Holy Spirit in to work with us to break life-long bad habits in our thinking.  We are kids of the King. We can certain take authority over our minds and declare that we have the mind of Christ (the mind of the Anointed One and His Anointing).  When we are intentional about this shift, God will help us with this.  Eventually we will see that we're handling things differently, approaching people in a better way, staying away from harmful things, and so on. Also, people will be drawn to us when we have a higher / positive mindset. God says it. Paul says it. Science proves it. Let's do it!

AS GOD HEALS OUR HEARTS, OUR FAMILIES HEAL TOO - by Sarah Breon

It boggles the mind that God entrusts us humans to raise tiny human beings. When we bring them home from the hospital their innocence and dependence on us inspires awe and wonder. “How can God trust me to do a good job?” “How do I make sure I don’t mess up this little life?” we ask ourselves. Or sometimes we contemplate,”how can I make sure this little baby is protected from all the harm, negative messages, or even from the painful lessons I have had to learn the hard way in this life?” Our desire is to do whatever we can to raise this little person in all the best ways of God’s love, peace, and joy and make sure they don’t suffer or struggle in any ways that we have. We feel this same weight of responsibility when we are positioned by God to influence other people’s lives, perhaps as a teacher, a coach, an aunt, or an uncle. God could put us in so many different types of situations where we are called to shine with his love and demonstrate his ways in relationships. In raising kids I discovered that the responsibility of caring for other lives can indeed feel very weighty. But God didn’t choose us because he didn’t have anyone else to be his representative. I believe he allows us to parent and be the primary influencer in little lives, knowing we will feel confused, clueless, frustrated, or even hopeless at times. But in our helpless state we will learn to trust him in greater ways, which will cause us to grow deeper in our walks with him and show us more of his beautiful, fatherly heart of love and commitment toward us. Of course we are not all called to be biological parents. But all of these truths apply to us anytime we invest in close relationships where we are impacting others. This verse from Isaiah is so reassuring of the guarantee we have in our relationship with God:   He will care for you as a shepherd tends his flock, gathering the weak lambs and taking them in his arms. He carries them close to his heart and gently leads those that have young. Isaiah 40:11 TPT In Your Family Can Heal, I document my and my husband’s journey of trying really hard to be good parents, using all the teachings and information we could collect in order to parent in healthier ways than we were raised. But all of the left brain knowledge only brought us so far once our three kids got a little older and started to have independent thoughts and ideas. Once they  hit the pre teen years, unresolved pain in the childhood parts of our own hearts as parents began to be triggered. The most anointed teachings could not get us unstuck from the many negative emotions we started living from, such as fear, anger, self-pity, and shame.  By the time the kids were 10-12  they had stopped sharing their hearts with us and were hiding their struggles and mistakes. We could see our family culture was not a place of connection, peace, or joy. As the kids reached high school age, I became more like an enforcer, and my husband practiced ways to check out from the pain of the disconnection and feelings of helplessness that ensued.     Our unresolved pain from our pasts was propelling us to react to their struggles with fear,control, and denial. So they learned to keep their own pain on the inside and cope with it in ways that brought more shame and disconnection from our family.  It was so painful to see our kids struggling with deep anxiety, perfectionism, addictions to pornography, and anger. But they didn’t feel safe enough to talk with us about their problems.    In desperation I cried out to God for help. Isaiah again provided so much comfort and awareness of God’s nearness and involvement in our family:    “Rise up in splendor and be radiant, for your light has dawned, and Yahweh’s glory now streams from you! Look carefully! Darkness blankets the earth, and thick gloom covers the nations, but Yahweh arises upon you and the brightness of his glory appears over you!”Nations will be attracted to your radiant light and kings to the sunrise-glory of your new day. Lift up your eyes higher! Look all around you and believe, for your sons are returning from far away and your daughters are being tenderly carried home. Watch as they all gather together, eager to come back to you!  Isaiah 60:1–4 TPT   God’s heart is for us to walk in light and victory in our relationships. He challenged me to take responsibility for my reactions, my emotions, and my own wounds from the past. He showed me that, although I had taught my kids a lot of good things about Him and His ways, I was still parenting out of past pain. I tended to control them because deep inside I was really scared they would make mistakes that I couldn’t fix. I thought I was trusting God with them, but because I hadn’t yet invited God to bring truth to many of the lies that still resided in my heart, I was just replicating the fear based parenting that I had experienced.  So much changed as we learned to humble ourselves before God and ask him questions about the fear and the shame and invite him to bring the truth and needed transformation. As we changed and learned how to create love bonds instead of fear bonds, our kids wanted to be more connected to us. God has been amazingly faithful to bring restoration to our relationships with our kids.    We are  still on the journey of healing with God, as we all are. I am so grateful that He truly walks with us as we parent our kids and pursue connection in the other close relationships in our lives.   If what I shared has made you curious and wanting to see some transformation in your own heart, here are some activation questions you can use to interact with God and invite him in for more healing.   Activation: Is there a relationship with a child in your life that feels painful? Or perhaps there is a relationship with a spouse or a parent or friend that feels disconnected?       *Ask God: what do you want me to know about you in this relationship?     *What do you want me to know about me?     *Is there a lie I am believing about this relationship?     *Where did that lie come from?     *Let’s bring that lie to Jesus and let him give us the truth to replace it.     *What’s the truth, God?     *Is there any action step you want me to take: a conversation, repentance,      forgiveness, thankfulness   Click to check out Sarah's book on Amazon