I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
The Miracle of New Growth
This scripture shares the important truth that new growth is coming. What is unique is the growth isn’t coming from a vibrant tree, but from a stump! A stump is the remains of something that once was vibrant and full of life, but is now seemingly dead.
But what appears to be dead is instead going to produce a “tender shoot,” meaning a young, new growth, and out of that new growth the branch will bear fruit.
For Christians, this verse is talking about the coming Messiah, Jesus, who will come from the family line of Jesse. A family that seemingly was done and cut off to just the stump. Yet, he came as a “tender shoot,” as a baby in a manger, and lived a life to bear fruit for his father and ultimately pay the sacrifice for all our sins on the cross.
This verse also points to an important application for us—that God can take things that look dead in our life and cause new growth to appear. Even when it all seems done and dead, the miracle of growth is always possible.
Centering Our Hearts
One of the most important biblical topics is your own heart. Throughout the biblical story, God shows that He is not nearly as interested in your money, time, or service as much as He is your heart.
Why is this important? Jesus taught his disciples that the heart is the center of our lives. Our emotions and our desires flow from the condition of our heart. If God gets access to our heart, then the rest of our lives follow after.
In Matthew 6:21, Jesus says that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. The things that we treasure in our life reveal where our heart truly is. The things that we think about, spend our money on, and use our energy to attain—that is where our heart is.
But it's not enough to just not let our hearts dwell on those things. Instead, we need to train our hearts to dwell on Jesus. The apostle Paul encourages us to dwell on the things that are of God:
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,...
