By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Read Isaiah 61: verses 3, 2, 1, and 4
What one should now be seeing is what God has begun doing for them. One must realize He’s hoping to get each person just to speak to others concerning Himself, His Glory, and His Power. When having boasted of these to their own friends or acquaintances, of Him, His Glory and Power, one may begin to see Him as Someone Who can work, and will do so, in anyone’s life, even their own!
As a person boasts of God’s Glory and of His Power now residing within their own life, others told of His Goodness can and should begin to really see Him there. Not just seeing HIM as the GOD WITHIN, the person they know, and can fully trust, now knows Him. The fact that the person’s life has been changed is seen and is what truly can happen within their own self! Ask, Is that what a person can feel, see, and know now? Each person should now seek that answer…A person’s life can become the Boast of God, with him/her declaring how Good He is.
Trust God when nobody seems to have loved a person, God does. When anyone has seemed not to be redeemable, God redeemed us. When others have said one was of no account and were ready to throw them away, God said, “I’ve got a use for them, and they are going to bring Glory to the Kingdom of God.” Amen.
Explained Pastor Tim, “I now see when I go through things in my life, I realize they are just for the ‘Boast of God’! Amen. Because, in the end, I’m going to say, ‘God did this.’ ‘God brought me through. God brought me through, and I went on about my merry way. “
He added, “Has one ever seen an unloved tree? The kind that bends this way and that way and is just plain ugly, and nothing about them is going to be good except to be used as firewood? Aren’t we glad He didn’t call us to be one of those ugly things?
Joyce Kilmer wrote the poem, “I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree…” The trees of North Carolina, which belong to this only stand of virgin (uncut, un-harvested, unburnt trees) are now Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, near Robbinsville, NC.
Pastor added, “Now, I’ve seen some ugly trees and some beautiful ones. But the Lord has said, “I’ve called you to be Trees of Righteousness.” I also realized that if a tree is not protected and drought comes, it may not have survived, and today is now left still standing. They grew and grew stronger and when storms came, they survived and when the sun beat down on them, they survived, and when the rains fell, they survived.
He continued, “Trees of Righteousness are to be like these trees, and they are still to be producing fruit. They may be called out when they don’t produce more fruit. But, when they produce fruit, they become such beautiful trees that everybody notices. They are trees that stand out in a forest of trees that someone has cared about and loved them.
“I came by to tell people that all trees of righteousness are to work like these. Though winds blow and the rains fall, it might bend one over just a little. When it’s over, it always stands right back upwards. I know that some of you people have been through hell, and I came to tell people that it was just a pruning. Allow the sun to shine on you still. Allow Him to allow that one to come to a place where we all may bear much fruit. With so much ‘sun righteousness’ and after trees get bigger, is when the deer come along and just go around it. It grew and grew and when the storms came, it survived, when the sun beat down on it, it survived. When the drought came, it survived and today is still standing. Trees of Righteousness need to ‘throw their branches upwards and give the Lord a Praise that declares, ‘I made it through another one.’ I know it was supposed to take me out, but I’m still here. But there’s a God in Heaven Who has watched over us and kept us all and brought us to this place where we can stand. Lift your hands and give Glory to the Lord God. Amen.
