Ever been Stoned?

Well that's a loaded question!;)

I don't know what you were thinking but I meant, stoned with actual stones....

Ok so not many of us have been pummeled by a group of people with rocks in there hands, but how many of us have had words hurled at us, with the very real intent to cause damage. I'm not talking about constructive critisim, I'm talking words, statments, and attitudes that seriously kill our desire to live in an area...

Now I say this, by no means being innocent - infact I would go as far to say that none of us are innocent when it comes to hurling stones that kill something in someone...I think that's why the bible says that 'course jesting' is sin (that would be sarcasm in my book). It's almost always a backhanded slap in the face and a denegration of those beliefs or ideas someone else may have)

This is not to say that all our words need to be coated with sugar and spice and everything nice - sometimes whe share our heart, and it isn't always in agreement with others...that's not wrong and doing it in love can be tricky - But can be done. Certainly, speaking to someone we love, or have a responsibility towards about things that the Lord would not be pleased with, is a necessary thing that we are not to shy away from or avoid, but lovingly share. We need to remember too, that when we share those things, if the other person does not want to change or refuses to see truth, they will no doubt get offended regardless of how lovingly you may have expressed those truths...

Reading through Acts is an amazing journey. When Paul was stoned in the city of Lystra (Acts 14:19) it was for proclaiming to them the truth of Christ and hindering them from making the error of worship them as gods, giving them alot of notoriaty and fame... they corrected the people and they were stoned for it...Amazingly this did not kill Paul - after they all left sure that he was dead, he got up and walked BACK INTO THAT CITY....even though they left that city the next day and traveled further on their journey, on their return trip to home base, they went back to Lystra to encouraged the people that did come to believe in the message he had preached....

Are we that willing to put ourselves in harms way? Are we that devoted to the ones we love to make ourselves vulnerable even after we've been attacked with words and attitudes that could break down our resolve to share the love of Christ and the truth of His Message with others about life, death and eternity?

Usually after attacks I become reserved, unwilling to put my self in harms way again, I pull back not saying much to those people, whether friends, relatives, loved ones, church people...Yet I look at Paul and in 2 Cor 11:23-27 he talks about how much he went through to bring forth the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in his uncompromised and determined love for the people who were strangers to God's Love - imprisonments, beatings, near death, five times received 39 lashes, 3 times beaten with rods, stoned once, shipwrecked 3 times, dangers from sea, rivers, robbers, jews, gentiles, cities, country, false believers, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, lacked food, clothing....

WOW! I have sooooooo not endured to that degree....I crack and fall prey to self pity and discouragements at the smallest things sometimes....

Even after that journey was over - he determined to go back to those very towns on his second journey to revisit, encourage and further evangelize those people....He was not going to be hindered by their hurling stones....He loved them and Christ too much to let that stop him!

I pray that as I grow, I am more willing to trust God with the end result of truth of the gospel and be willing to take the hits that may come with it....not that they won't hurt, but that they cannot kill the things that GOD has ordained!

Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com

The River that Flows thru ADAM, must be stopped!

Recently I have been studying various rivers in the scriptures...and two fascinate me...
The first is the river that flows from the Sanctuary in Ezekiels vision which is the same river that is mentioned in the Book of Revelation...The River of Life.

This river flows fromthe very sanctuary of God, the Source of Life. As it flows, everything the river touches has life...there are even trees on the banks of the river whose leaves provide healing to the nations. It is a wonderful River! Ezekiel was called to enter that river by an angel of theLord. He entered slowly and progressively, until it was even too much for him and at once he was returned to the banks that were familiar and safe for him in his sinful state.

Then there is the Jordon River, broad, muddy, turbulent with several twists and turns. It is a boundary river that separates and cuts a person off from the promised land provided by God for his people and from foreigners or the rebellious. This river is equated with death, as it was there John the Immerser (orBaptist) was calling people to repent and be changed, dying to their old selfish lives...

An interesting event happened in Joshua 3:16 when the Children of Israel crossed that river under the direction of God through Joshua. The waters were stopped and they walked across the river bed as if ondry ground. What's fascinating about this is that the waters were stopped up or heaped up more than 20 miles north of them at the City of ADAM. That area is a narrow deep gorge with very unstable walls thathave in the past collapsed damming up the river at that point. (as peran arabian historian in 1265 AD).

This river leads to the Dead Sea, which cannot sustain any life as it's salt content is far too high... This river, flowing from ADAM leads to death.

The Children of Israel were directed by Joshua,who is a type and shadow of Jesus Christ (their name is the same inHebrew), as they were led by the Ark of the Covenant which was the presence of God Himself, to cross over and receive the promises of God.

God interupted the flow of the waters from ADAM. By His power, His Spirit and His Authority, they were able to gain accessto the Promises of God that they had previously been cut off from. They took a radically different approach to getting into Caanan land,and those that were there recognized and trembled at the difference.

It is one thing to be living according to the soul; our own ways, our own agendas, our own intentions, inventions and inclinations and acompletely different thing to live according to the Spirit of God.Doing things according to the soul are not always bad, evil or destructive. Some times they are neutral... but if a life is lived that way only, it is left to itself, and it WILL end up in the dead sea. Even if it was filled with 'good works', humanistic ventures and causes.

One is a river we are familiar with,that our humanistic senses can even recognize, and one is a river that is nearly imperceptible to this world unless seen through the eyes ofthe spirit, through a personal relationship with Jesus as our leader,the one whom we are submitted to... One is a river we can encounter easily, but it muddies our lives, it is turbulent and can so overwhelm us in its coursing that we can easlily end up in the sea of death, the lowest place possible in our world.

Yet, the River of life, as it flows through and in us, leads us by the very presenceof God through His Spirit and the direction of Jesus...It intersects our life, it cuts off the flow from ADAM, our sin nature, and dams that so that we can walk and live in the manner that God calls us to.

For this we need to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be praying, reading the scriptures, be in fellowship with other beleivers so that we can learn from them as well seeing the many different facets of God, not just the ones we are comfortable with or the ones we want. We need to submit our wills our agendas, our ways to the God who authored life and liberty through His spirit.

Ponder that.

Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com

Some of the AWESOME POWER of the CROSS!

1. The powerful earthquake that split the rocks, was a mere token of the spiritual ramifications with shockwaves rippling to the far reaches of the universe as:
a. Mankind could now be released from the bondage and shackles of their slavery to Sin.
b. They could be released from the authority of the law of sin and death over their lives.
c. Christ cancelled the written code, with all its regulations, that stood against us with a list of all our transgressions, He took it away nailing it to the cross granting peace with God.
d. Order and purpose for our lives was re-established.
e. A new and better covenant was established
2. The 30 foot high veil in the temple was torn from the top down by the hands of God as He displayed that:
a. We are granted entrance by Christ precious and pure blood into the very Holy of Holies to have fellowship with God the Father, and renewing the fellowship He intended from the Garden of Eden. The division between God and mankind was removed!
b. The religious systems and traditions of men was torn to shreds, done away with and no longer needed to engage Him as long as we come through the DOOR which alone is Jesus Christ and apply His blood to our lives.
c. Access was granted to whoever would believe on Jesus, whether Jew or gentile - the divisions among men were eliminated before God.
3. His blood changed the 'judgment seat' to the 'mercy seat' for us as:
a. Unmerited forgiveness of our sins was granted to us and our overwhelming debt was eliminated.
b. Righteousness and blamelessness was accounted to us if we believe.
c. The angel of death could no longer threaten us if we applied the blood of the Lamb to our heart.
d. We are granted Freedom from the wrath of God toward our person sin, because Jesus bore it for us.
e. Though our sins stained us, we are made white as snow
f. Justification and sanctification were made available to us sinners.
4. He disarmed the powers and principalities, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by His cross.
a. We were ransomed with a price so great and redeemed from the oppressing clutches of Satan?s grip.
b. Looking and believing on Him we are healed from the bite of the deadly serpent.
c. He retrieved the keys of Hell and death and destroyed the one who had the power of death, the devil. He destroyed the works of the devil publicly

This is some of the Power of the Cross!
It's Explosive Power!

I don't know that it's how you celebrate it that's important, but if you only walk away saddened, we are missing the much larger portion of what was accomplished.... We should walk away in hope, power and transformed by the POWER of the CROSS...Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com

Scars are Signs of Victory!!!!

When my son was young, he almost always drew characters with scars across their faces. Pirates, army men, secret agents, what ever he drew there was a scar somewhere. They amazed him, partly because in his imagination, they had been dealt a catastrophic blow in an accident or fight and they survived, stronger and more fortified inspite of it.

Everyone gets wounded at some point in time - physically, emotionally.

We all get scrapes and bruises, but after a week or small surface wounds are gone. We carry on forgetting they were ever there, no record of the insignificant injury, and it doesn't hinder us in any way from doing the same thing again.

Yet, deep wounds are different. They can take considerable time to heal and mend.

The wound itself is evident for some time, it is tender to the touch. We cringe and cry talking about it, we overcompensate for its damage in other areas, because it is still injured and it still hurts physically, emotionally or both.

But that's while it is still not fully healed...Scars on the other hand are evidence that a wound once so castrophic has been healed! It is a victory mark! A sign that the wound that may have so crippled us at one time was treated and dealt with appropriately, it was cared for properly and not neglected, suppressed or left to fester and get infected.

Jesus has scars. They signify a great healing, a great victory, a great strength received in order to conquer. When we are wounded, God's desire is to eventually produce scars, scars that can be seen by others that show that there is life, hope, healing, strength and victory beyond the wounding. Christ's scars were used for that very purpose when Thomas didn't believe that Jesus had risen. He wanted to see the evidence. (John 20:27) Jesus charged him to put his hand in his side to feel, investigate and touch the scar. Why? because a scar though evidence of a previous wound, doesnot cause pain upon touching it, discussing it, revisiting it.

If we are willing to allow the Lord to heal us, to properly and thouroughly deal with our deep wounds, we gain strength. As we are healed, the evidence will be seen by others. It will be a strength that we have gained in learning how to make right decisions, healthy decisions, faithfilled decisions. Those strengths can then be shared with others and bring comfort to them by the same comfort we have received from the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 1:4)

It is from that place of wholeness, not illness that we want to be able to make choices, because they will be blessed by God.

Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com

Issue of Blood

Here was a woman that was considered unclean for 12 years, probably not permitted in the synagogue, not touched by her husband or family. Despised and in despair.

Yet she persisted past her peers, past those that were following Jesus and huddled around Him. She pushed through the crowd, she made her way paying no attention to those around her, with her sight set on Christ and her heart fixed on Him she pressed forward regardless of how or what they might think.

How often are we stopped by what others may think or say about a persistance to pursue Christ?

Have we ever stopped following him because of things around us that others have said or done that either directly or indirectly affected us?

perhaps they were the ones in the 'religous' circle and they said something that put us 'in our place' and we stopped pressing in because of it.

Don't let those statements, thougths, looks stop you from pressing in to Christ - She didn't!

She pressed in regardless, and even though she didn't have the full attention of those in the moment, even though she didn't fully grasp Jesus herself, even though she only was able to touch the fringes of His prayer shawl - SHE WAS MADE WHOLE! SHE WAS HEALED!

How awesome is that - even when we don't fully grasp what it is that God can do, what He has said, what He wants from us, even if all we get is a small glimmer of truth - We can be made whole, we can be healed!

Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com

Issue of Blood

Here was a woman that was considered unclean for 12 years, probably not permitted in the synagogue, not touched by her husband or family. Despised and in despair.

Yet she persisted past her peers, past those that were following Jesus and huddled around Him. She pushed through the crowd, she made her way paying no attention to those around her, with her sight set on Christ and her heart fixed on Him she pressed forward regardless of how or what they might think.

How often are we stopped by what others may think or say about a persistance to pursue Christ?

Have we ever stopped following him because of things around us that others have said or done that either directly or indirectly affected us?

perhaps they were the ones in the 'religous' circle and they said something that put us 'in our place' and we stopped pressing in because of it.

Don't let those statements, thougths, looks stop you from pressing in to Christ - She didn't!

She pressed in regardless, and even though she didn't have the full attention of those in the moment, even though she didn't fully grasp Jesus herself, even though she only was able to touch the fringes of His prayer shawl - SHE WAS MADE WHOLE! SHE WAS HEALED!

How awesome is that - even when we don't fully grasp what it is that God can do, what He has said, what He wants from us, even if all we get is a small glimmer of truth - We can be made whole, we can be healed!

Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com

Levels of Clarity

LEVELS OF Clarity and Strength [in order of importance]
Continually through the scriptures we see an order ofclarity within ones life. Each level isbased on the strength of the previous level’s strength.

Individual – A Double minded man is unstable in all His ways, Let not that man think he will receive anything from the Lord - Make your calling and election sure – Know who you are in Christ, Know who Christ has made you!!
Marital – Husbands love your wives as your self, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. The husband should cherish and nourish his wife the way he would his own flesh. Wives submit to your husbands as even unto the Lord
Family – Children obey your parents, Honor your father and mother. Fathers do not provoke your children to wrath. A leader should have his house in order for if he can not rule his own home how can he rule the church of God.
Church Local – Leaders need to lead by example not compulsion. They are for the edifying and building up of the body that the body may come to maturity. Those who are babies need to respect those that are elders because they are responsible for their souls. Proper structure must be in place for body to function well. There must be a skeleton for flesh to be placed upon. If there is a weak skeleton, God may withhold growth knowing the structure couldn’t support it and thereby spare it ending up more damaged by the excessive weight.
Church Abroad –Jesus told the Disciples to start in Jerusalem then Judea then all the world, smaller circles working outward in larger ones. Churches helped other churches in scriptures. They helped in prayer, financially, in food, and in growth. Can only reach out of ourselves to others if we truly have something within. We can’t pour out to others something we don’t have. If we can’t affect change locally, don’t try abroad!

You can not haveTRUE unity in any level if the previous levels are not unified.

Example: If a marriage is fallingapart, then the previous level of unity must be dealt with. Someone in the marriage, is not sure of whothey are. They are double minded. Healing of their foundations will benecessary for the repair of the marriage.

Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com