Thinning 2025….

 Thinning 2025…

It is time to thin peaches again at my house, my little trees…I think every flower was pollinated, thanks to warm days and the gift of bees…and a providing God…

So I take a little bucket out for a while each day and thin the peaches…

I have to say this is emotionally hard for me to do…every one of those baby peaches has such potential…they could be tasty fruit when ripened…but, with so many, they break the branches or whole limbs and eventually kill the tree…not good…so I have to pare them down to produce the best fruit…

God gives the growth…

Yesterday, God brought to mind Gideon with all of his army…and how God pared it down to 300 men from thirty-two thousand….and those with minimal war supplies… 

God fought for them…God gave the victory…

 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. 

The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” 

So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 

So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 

Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. 

The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others….

Judg.7.1-8a

And then, I thought of our Gardener…God…how he prunes, provides…care for each one us…I wonder if it pains him to prune us to bear more fruit…even though he knows the outcome is so much better…He make things good…

 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. 

No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. 

Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 

This is my command: Love each other.

John.15.1-17

 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Heb.12.11

Thank YOU…

God help me…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_pgGgHVxPg