Cycles Of Life

Luke 13:6-9 6 Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ’For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 "’Sir,’ the man replied, ’leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’"

As a seed falls to the ground, it starts a new life cycle. It must take root and sprout a new beginning. A beginning that will endure the years of a shortage of water and then too much water. It will be consumed by the sun and thrashed by the winds.

Life is not easy for human beings or for any other kind of life.

The passage of scripture in Luke helps us understand that the life cycle of life depends on the productivity of our life. If we produce, life goes on and if we don’t, we will be cut down and burned.

I have been intrigued lately about the cycles of things. What happens when there needs to be a cycle change.

Just like the washing machine in your home. For the machine to do its job properly, it must go through cycles.

The water fills the tank, the agitator starts to move, it spins, drains the water, fills with water again, the agitator starts again, and it spins again.

Then what happens? You empty the machine and the process starts over again.

That’s all well and good for the washing machine, but what about life, what about that seed that fell to the ground from the tree?

What about you and me when the cycle changes and we fall to the ground? The blessings have not fallen on us; the precious rain has refused to come our way. The hot sun has caused us to start to wither and we have not accomplished what we started out to do.

Our great plans have started to wither and die.

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Things in our life change and that causes us to rethink our direction. Our calling, our needs and our desires have come to a cycle change.

Numbers 17

Aaron’s Staff started out as a seed that fell from a tree many years earlier. It sprouted from the ground and endured the seasons of sun, rain, draught and cold. It grew into a productive Almond tree and then someone cut the tree down. Part of the tree ended up as part of their home and some of the branches were used to cook the meals.

But a certain branch was pulled from the pile of slag to serve a different purpose. It was to be Aaron’s walking stick.

At some time Aaron reached down and pulled the stick out of a pile of many other sticks and branches. He most likely scrapped the bark off and cleaned up the little sprouts that could be of some irritation to his hands.

He made a perfect staff to help stabilize him as he walked over the rough terrain that was in his life.

The staff at one time stood as a proud tree, was cut down and died. It could have just as easily been thrown into the fire because it had no other use, but Aaron chose to use it to help him walk the path that God had put him on.

A dead branch, a dried out stick, in the hands of a Godly man can do wonders.

God gave this dead, dried out stick, that was being used to help an old man walk, another cycle in its life.

He used a dead stick to produce once again a nation of believers to worship, follow and obey Him.

We can not use man’s reason or logic to understand God and His plans or His power.

Romans 5:19-21 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Man does not have the last word, God does. He can take a dried out stick and cause it to produce fruit. He can take a sinner and turn them into a child of God.

He can change what ever that is in our life that is causing you to feel like you are useless and unproductive and turn it into a staff with blossoms and fruit on it.