"...consider the most common things, questions, doubts, apples, ..."

Consider the most common things, questions, doubts, apples, ...

Triggers of doubt, intellectual, emotional, trauma, temptation triggers 

you won’t stay there
doubt to faith or to unbelief

It’s good to question, not a lack of faith, often strengthens your beliefs.

No guilt when we have questions, question pastoral teachings, or doctrine 

- our view may change.

Teachable, can mean a small box, where any question is out of that very small box.

Live with unanswered questions. Enjoy learning.

We may not have answers to all questions.

Others we live with need to know it is ok to question.

We have to have the faith of a child.

“Let the little children come to Me; do not get in their way.

 For the kingdom of heaven belongs to children like these.” 

Matt 19:14 VOICE

“Let the little children come to Me. Never hinder them!

 Don’t you realize—the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like children? 

You can depend on this: if you don’t receive the Kingdom as a child would,

 you won’t enter it at all.”

 Luke18:17 VOICE

What were the little children asking Jesus when he said,

 "Let them come to me"

Multitudes of questions surely!

Perhaps, why is the sky blue?

Did you always obey your mom? 

Why were some parents healed?

Did you go to school?

Why are you so kind to everyone that is shunned by our town-like the tax collector, the prostitute or the foreigner?

“And as You knelt in the garden was I on Your mind?
 

What was the joy set before You? Was my heart Your prize?” *


Even when we consider the most common things,

we could have endless observations or questions so much more will we have questions of God and the ways of God. **

"Doubt is not a Christian problem, it is a human problem.

I can't even understand the "depths of the apple trees and apple varieties,

and am "I overwhelmed that I can't come to all conclusions that I want concerning God." If i would walk away from Christianity, I would just have another set of questions that would become doubts.

The struggle is with our "finitude, mortality limitations and weaknesses. No worldview is going to give me certainty or knowledge of everything"

"What do we do with our doubt and what is the purpose of my life?"

"Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God! 

I cherish each and every one of them!

How grand in scope! How many in number!

If I could count each one of them,

 they would be more than all the grains of sand on earth.

Their number is inconceivable!

  Even when I wake up, I am still near to You.

 Psalm 139:17-18 VOICE

Consider apple trees, for instance, in your yard or apples varieties at the market!

Smell the difference among.

How many varieties are possible?

How long does it take a tree to mature?

Are all the seeds the same?

How much water does it take to grow a tree?

And do a variety of trees have different color leaves?

How does an apple become sweet, tart, good for baking, good for eating?

Can the apple be used for apple sauce, pie, juice, butter?

What months do they ripen? Do they need refrigerated?

Which ones get brown when sliced? ***

                             

 

 

   *Lamb elevation worship


** Faith like a child - Church Hurt, Doubt and Addiction with Bobby    Conway 

-Thoughts and some quotes from this conversation

***Apple Varieties

"...“if I could write my dream in a cloud..."

“If I could write my dream in a cloud, what would I write
I would be a singer,
and what would I sing,
maybe Audra Day”
‘We gonna walk it out
And move mountains
All we need, all we need is hope
And for that we have each other
And for that we have each other
And we will rise
We will rise…
I'll rise up
Rise like the day
I'll rise up
In spite of the ache
I will rise a thousand times again’.(1)


1) Rise Up
-Audra Day
https://youtu.be/kNKu1uNBVkU

Excerpt - “What would I write this Fourth of July”,
Glimpse poetry, by Joe Holuta

https://glimpsepoetry.blogspot.com/2022/07/what-would-i-write-this-fourth-of-july.html

“… October maple…”

October Maple

The maple vibrant with orange, yellow , green and red colors, backdrop of October sky

Tree limbs reaching, 

Leaves of amber, crimson, auburn, lurid and scarlet to the bluest sky 

The day, so bright, the day he was born , gratitude so glad

God gives great pleasure this autumn birthday

Fallen leaves , a bright-colored resting place to lay and rest your head

A son, a brother, a friend, 

Memories surpass the imagination 

Pictures together, a collage, a photomontage that could fill a room

Back then no idea of the lively times ahead 

Nor the trimming and struggle for light in this life as crowded trees reach and grow and shade together 

Fleeting years and the October maple grows, cycle of life,

Seasons of maples, sugaring sap in the spring , winged seeds, leaves sprout then end with colorful rain

Tree limbs grow higher, shade and shelter 

Some limbs grow old, brittle and fall,

Shaded from the sun by taller trees beside,

Hope in the enduring ,

Remaining ones vibrant and reaching taller still

The air is filled with celebration and

the aroma of fresh baked apple and pumpkin pies, 

Ears filled with sound of laughter of young ones climbing the tree that generations climbed , 

Dreaming in the treetop, swaying

sails in the cool October breeze, 

Sailing to destinations unknown

“A to Z, Beginning to End, season boundaries, 

All the in between , lives bracketed”*

“Seasons will change, colors will fade

But I know that You remain”**

October Maple, 

Glimpse poetry by Joe Holuta

*Thought from Discipleship on the Edge, Darrell Johnson , Chapter  ‘Keeping Faith Under Pressure.

** You Remain (feat. Meredith Mauldin and Elyssa Smith) // Live - UPPERROOM

https://youtu.be/lFQU6NOgaCw

 

“…we were together…”

"we were together.
i forget the rest.” Walt Whitman

 "we were together.

i forget the rest."

-Walt Whitman

"...for the Joy..."

For The Joy

All my anxious thoughts -present, behind, and ahead

Mountain high to Valley Green

Wind and strife seek to define

Oh, but for the Joy set before,

Oh, for the joy set before Him he endured the cross

Amazing grace a distant sound 

often I forget the solid ground

Amazing mercies new each day

Seem covered by the clouds, dismay

Oh, but for the joy set before

Oh, for the joy set before he endured the cross

Daffodils and tulips new

Blossoms fall and green renewed

April snow may cover the seed

But flowers pierce the ground beneath

Oh, the joy set before

Oh, the joy set before him he endured the cross

When all seemed lost

Scattered hearts three days long

Early before the sun had risen

stone rolled away

in the garden His voice heard

his breath gave life

Disbelief’s hand to his pierced side

Later seen by many,

together, speaking, eating

Oh for the joy set before him

He endured the cross

Hope alive today, Victory sure

Death’s sting gone

Life forevermore

(For The Joy, Glimpse poetry, by Joe Holuta)