Endless Summer Missions
The Summers Family: Missionary Associates to the PhilippinesArchive for Bible
Settling In
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As I write I am preparing for bed. It is only 8pm here. We operate by a much different schedule here. We wake up around 5am each day to experience a beautiful sunrise, drink coffee and spend time in prayer and bible study. With eagerness we anticipate what each day will bring, who we will meet and what opporutunities develop. By the time the sun sets we are exhausted. Right now we are still working hard to move in to our own place, help the boys get familiar with their new home, and just adjust to a new culture and language.
After a long, hard, stressful, and wonderful year, it has all come to fruition on being here now. There is much peace in my heart and I feel as though we have finally arrived at the destination we were traveling to for months. Thank you to all those who have supported us and sent us, we look forward to keeping you up to speed on our adventures in the coming months.
Christian
Spiritual Peach Trees
Our back yard is full of planted peach trees. I think we have over 12. They had been planted there by the previous owner who loved any kind of vegetation and would stake and nourish any little volunteer plant that sprouted up. He placed these peach pits, from one original tree, around the yard and eventually they sprouted up. Here’s the thing, only the original tree is strong and actually producing fruit. The rest are stunted in their growth and look like they’re only in their first year of growth when they’ve actually been there for years. The reason, poor root growth and development. They have no foundation on which to grow. The life giving nutrients can’t be taken in to enable them to produce the amazing fruit they are supposed to. The whole purpose of that tree is to produce peaches, without doing that it’s just an average plant taking up space.
Christians are spiritual peach trees. We are either constantly growing and producing fruit or… we’re not. There’s not a whole lot of in between. Those who produce spiritual fruit have a strong foundation in Jesus Christ and rely on the Holy Spirit to guide and direct their lives. They devote time in worship, prayer and studying God’s word to continually grow stronger. Their roots are fully developed and continually taking in the vital spiritual food to achieve the purpose God has made them for. Yet there are many who lack the desire to grow themselves, so they lack the ability to produce fruit, just like a stunted peach tree. In the same way that these second generation peach trees fail to produce fruit, those who have grown up in church can take for granted what it means to be a true follower of Christ.
The other day we dug up most of these non-fruit producing peach trees. It wasn’t hard because there wasn’t much to the roots to dig up and they were only a couple feet tall, thin and weak. The hardest part was making the decision that it was better for the yard as a whole if they were removed. In a couple days I’ll throw them into the fire pit with the other dead branches that fall off the large mature trees…
John 15:4-6 (The Message)
4“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
5-8“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.
Endless Summer Missions 