Fresh squeezed Orange Juice anyone??? Part 1 of 3

First of all, I'd like to talk for a few seconds with you about where we are in my journey and possibly where some of you might be too! Allow me this little detour?? I suppose you might feel better about it if I reassure you that we are not buying tickets to Tarshish..just to a bit of discussion!
Ever heard the phrase, "you've got them eating out of your hand"??? Well, I have a question for you!! Ever been eating out of Satan's hand, that is to say listening to anything the world promises, and didn't really get it when God spoke these words,

"My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink" (John 6:55, NIV)??? Well, at this point in my journey, at the end of my freshman year, I was no longer letting the devil or this world influence me...!!! ( well, for the time being)...!! Disclaimer: if any of you should know anything about the Christian walk, it is the fact that a daily walk requires minute by minute reliance and surrender to God's perfect will.  Ok, back to the journey of Jennifer, Jonah's little sister!! Yes, my cup was lifted up and He was filling it..!! Most certainly, I was fixing my eyes on Jesus and setting my heart and mind on things above ( Colossians 3: 1-4)!!!  His perfection was increasing and my pain was decreasing!! My heart was full and overflowing with His mercies..!!  Praise His Holy name..!! Honestly, His word sustained me and His grace was most sufficient for me during that time, as His word can be for all of us if we will let Him lead. As I was about to switch my major to Philosophy of Theology, although there is more on that in part 2, my homework was soon going to be an even greater feast on God's words...!! His Word was about to truly be my daily bread...!! Bread..?? Fruit?? Hungry anyone?? Good..! For those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled!! Matthew 5 ( I'd cite the exact source for you, but Matthew 5 really should be read in its entirety, right?)
Question!! Are you satisfied with your fruit??? Your bread??? Did you invite Jesus into your heart to be a part of your life and then found out that your fruit has been a little short lived?? Or perhaps you have found that your bread molded over a bit?? In fact, has some of your juice turned a little sour??? Guess what..?? It's possible that your call and your commitment to the Lord has not been through the fire...!! We are going to read in a few blogs from now how Jonah's call had not been through the fire! Friends, the difference between looking like an orange and being an orange lay in the fact that God for some of us is a part of our life, looking like an orange! In contrast, God for others is one's whole life, being an orange! How can one be sure which one is true?? Answer: Watch the results of your fruit when the heat is hot! When life gets tough, do you melt too soon, or do you bloom?? 
Principle, when the fruit juices of God's plan in your life turn sour, it's time to go through the fire!! 
Ever heard the phrase, "when you walk like a duck and talk like a duck then you must be a duck???" Well, even if you try to kill that duck, fry that duck, eat that duck or just pluck that poor little duck's feathers, it's still a duck right?? So, if you are looking for fruit in your life that shows evidence of true transformation, then look for fruit that stays fruit even if it's way too hot outside. Indeed, a new creation means a new you that stays put no matter what happens. To explain, sometimes we really think we are bearing fruit, when all the time, those little blossoms got freeze dried with the first winter frost, you know? So, feeling frosty?? Perhaps it's time to die to self, surrender to Jesus and enable those ears to hear His voice! His voice is calling you to come home into the safety of His arms, His Plan and His love. Therefore, sometimes we look like an orange and we feel like an orange, but when life squeezes us really hard...are we going to taste like orange juice...??  No, sometimes we will taste like lemons; perhaps we will taste like something more sour?? When all things are revealed...are you the orange you thought you were??? In truth, when life squeezed me tightly, I had found out that I was not the committed Christian orange that I thought...!! Nope, I wasn't an orange through and through...was I? Are you?? Orange you glad that through surrender, you too can be the orange God intended?? What would happen to you if the big squeeze was put on you??? How would you taste?? Friends, our strength must come from the Lord, and our truth, our light, our everything must be from Him, and from nothing else...Amen?? When we go through the fire, we are to come out refined...we are to rely soley upon the Savior, who alone is capable of our survival and victory in this life.
Principle: Before the Spirit of God puts us through the fire and makes fresh squeezed orange juice out of us, we must first be surrendered to the maker of the orange tree!!

C. Spurgeon says it best,

Where to find fruit

‘From me is thy fruit found.’ Hosea 14:8

Suggested Further Reading: John 15:1–8

If I could bear fruit without my God, I would loathe the accursed thing, for it would be the fruit of pride—the fruit of an arrogant setting up of myself in independence of the Creator. No; the Lord deliver us from all faith, all hope, all love which do not spring from himself! May we have none of our own-manufactured graces about us. May we have nothing but that which is minted in heaven, and is therefore made of the pure metal. May we have no grace, pray no prayer, do no works, serve God in nothing except as we depend upon his strength and receive his Spirit. Any experience which comes short of a knowledge that we must get all from God, is a deceiving experience. But if you have been brought to find everything in him, beloved, this is a mark of a child of God. Cultivate a spirit of deep humiliation before the Most High; seek to know more your nothingness, and to prove more the omnipotence of the eternal God. There are two books I have tried to read, but I have not got through the first page yet. The first is the book of my own ignorance, and emptiness, and nothingness—what a great book is that! It will take us all our lives to read it, and I question whether Methuselah ever got to the last page. There is another book I must read, or else the first volume will drive me mad—it is the book of God’s all-sufficiency. I have not got through the first word of that, much less the first page, but reading the two together, I would spend all my days. This is heaven’s own literature, the wisdom which comes from above. Less than nothing I can boast, and yet ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’ ‘Having nothing yet possessing all things.’

For meditation: Apparent fruit produced by our own efforts independently of God is no better than a mirage; it will vanish upon inspection on the Last Day (1 Corinthians 3:12–15 ). Fruit which is derived from Christ and acknowledged to be produced in us by him will abide in abundance to God’s glory (John 15:5,8,16). Joseph did not forget the source of his fruitfulness (Genesis 41:52).

Sermon no. 557
28 February (1864)

Therefore, I ask you one question?? Have you had enough??? Have you tried and tried to be an orange and now it's time to rely, rely, and rely soley on the Master potter, who plants and makes the orange tree?? Friends, just let His holy fire burn!  For a fact, only what hurts will be destroyed and what's left behind will be beautiful...!! Are you ready to submit to the maker of the Orange tree...?? Are you ready to go through the fire that doesn't burn you, but rather it just burns the sin off??

Please enjoy this song by Anthem Lights before reading the first part of my call to missions,

Therefore, let us go on to maturity...not being tossed around like the wind, or tousled by every wave..!! Let us not smell the food or hear about the food..!! No, let us rather consider our Lord's flesh as real food and eat and partake in Him...!!

As I prepared to write a paper for my Freshman English class, I'll never forget struggling to find the right topic..!!  In reality, I knew that I had chosen to turn to God and now I was truly seeking His plans, and His thoughts and His truth in His Holy word, the Bible.  However, as I began to write about what makes people pursue the careers that they pursue, my English assignment, I selected various research careers, such as linguistics and other fields! O.k. I admitt it, I had settled on this topic, because I was supposed to find a career that I wanted to pursue and I was supposed to make the paper personal..!! Well, I had no idea what I was going to do with my "new" life in Christ, so I wrote about a career that I found interesting and that was the end of that story.  Well, two days later,  24 hours of research later, 15  diet cokes later, 12 cups of coffee later and a whole lot of popcorn later, Jennifer had completed a beautiful paper, full of perfect concrete details, all the best commentary and lots of flare!! Yes, 25 pages of my final paper danced before my eyes, full of perfect fine tuning and completely void of all grammatical errors...!! Confession time!! NO I DID NOT SAVE MY WORK...!! COMPUTERS WERE A LITTLE NEW TO ME, OK?  As you can imagine, when I pressed revert to original, the computer went back to the original paper! You know what I mean don't you?  The copy that in fact had only a few quotes and a few rough ideas was the copy before me!!! Yeah, that's what happens when you save your paper at the beginning and then forget to continue to save as you go! That moment changed my life forever!! Kind of actually reminds me of how me need to daily stay in Step with the Spirit!! Tragically, the paper was lost, and the books had already been turned in...AHHHHHHH!!!!  What was I going to do??? To use a quote from the minor prophet Jonah, "Lord, it is better for me to die than to live...!" (Jonah  4:3, NIV) Just kidding...!! Just keeping those good, little "Jonah" quotes alive and well on this blog...!! O.k. back to the tale!! Back to the nightmare!! Frantically, I ran around the Library trying to find the books I had returned and trying not to fill the whole PLNU library with my tears of panic and frustration!! Tears blurring my eyes, I began to search the computer for my books when one of the books under the "S" titles had an author that stopped me dead in my tracks!! Wilbert E. Little!! What??? My Grandfather??? Grandpa Little had written a book??? The title was, Scalpel Please!  In short, the true story about how a surgeon left everything behind to go to Africa and serve for the Church of the Nazarene as a volunteer Surgeon in Swaziland, was written about my Grandfather and written by my Grandfather!!  Stunned and surprised and mystified all at the same time, I ran to the phone and called my mom and dad....!! "Heah guys..??" I asked in dismay.  "Did you know that Grandpa wrote a book...??? I'm staring at the title in the PLNU library right now!!" "Well, Yes we did", the two of them replied like it was no big thing. "Mom",  I squealed with delight, "it's available and I'm going to check it out...!" Mom asked me how my paper was going and I just said it's a long story...!!  Quickly, I hung up the phone and located Grandpa's book...! As I began reading it, the reality of my paper's due date came back and suddenly an idea came to me about how I was going to finish my final paper!! Why not look up a bunch of titles about the career and calling of the foreign missionary..?? After all, there are more than likely, many books on the topic!! Therefore, I went to work. As I began to search for other titles about missionary work to see what else might be good material for my new paper, Through Gates of Splendor popped up along with The Life of Fairy Chism! As I began to read a few lines of the story of Fairy's call to the mission field, I about blew a gasket!!! There was my Great Grandfather's name!! The Rev. J.T. Little had prayed with Fairy at an altar to help her give it all in full surrender in order to follow a call God was giving her to Nazarene missions. Ahhhhh!!! Now, I would have called my parents back again to act shocked, but it was well after 1am! I'm going to stop there and leave us with a Scripture, and a question~

Psalm 37:4-6

New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Take delight in the LORD,
   and he will give you the desires of your heart. ⁵ Commit your way to the LORD;
   trust in him and he will do this:
⁶ He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
   your vindication like the noonday sun.

Question? When was the last time you heard God's call on your life? When was the last time you committed your way to the Lord?? When was the last time you trusted Him to be the one to give you the desires of your heart; He's the only one that knows them! God bless you all, and I hope you keep reading to find out how God filled my heart with its truest desires in Part 2! Even still, in part 3 we will have a chance to dance in the rain!!