I love 3 day weekends. It is such a bonus!! My Valentines was wonderful, Vince came to church with me, he also got me flowers and cards, family together. And today a bonus day off. I am hopefully going to get all my taxes stuff together. This is always a big chore for me. You know my afterschool sports program... well, it is like owning my own business. I get alot of tax breaks but have to claim all the money... In other words alot of numbers and finding of reciepts today...I am thankful I am getting started in February usually it is March or heaven forbid April.. I will keep you posted...
Roman Chapter 11:
Paul is still trying to convince the Israelite's about Jesus. Paul is using the law and what the prophets said from the old testament. They do not want to get it.
6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
this next part if straight from The Message. What kind of a branch are you??
16-18Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there's bound to be some holy fruit. Some of the tree's branches were pruned and you wild olive shoots were grafted in. Yet the fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root gives you no cause to crow over the pruned branches. Remember, you aren't feeding the root; the root is feeding you.
19-20It's certainly possible to say, "Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!" Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you're on the tree is because your graft "took" when you believed, and because you're connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don't get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green.
21-22If God didn't think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn't give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don't presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, you're out of there.
23-24And don't get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don't persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. Why, if he could graft you—branches cut from a tree out in the wild—into an orchard tree, he certainly isn't going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you're in the tree, and hope for the best for the others.
This is alittle longer today and let me tell you I lost focus many times. Now I am glad I made it back to it. I love this with the branches it reminds me of several things, families, churches, work places, relationships etc. what comes to your mind when you read these words about "branches"??
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