How Not to Lead

This is snarky, tongue-fully-in-cheek, but unfortunately rather commonly accurate. This does not apply only to the business world, but I have observed these dysfunctional traits in many non-profit environments as well.

• Talk bad about whichever team member is not present so you can make yourself look better to whomever you are talking with.
• Talk to your other leaders and not with. Run them over with your power and superior intelligence.
• Tell people why you are better than everyone else.
• Pout and be domineering. Stare and glare so all will be aware of your power, passion and authority.
• Don’t respond to e-mails or return phone calls.
• Do your best to keep communication to a minimum.
• Show up late to everything because you are so important and busy. And just for fun, sometimes… cancel important meetings without notifying anyone.
• Always explain why you are right and make excuses when caught in not following through as you said you would.
• Do the opposite of this: Steve Jobs famously said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Since you ignore this, create detailed job descriptions that waste people’s talents and skills while you force them to fit into your broken mismatched puzzle. Stifle them. Turn them into your team of “yes, men” automatons.
• Do not show appreciation for jobs well done.
• Focus on a few trees and never look at the whole forest: micro manage, put out campfires while ignoring forest fires [tyranny of the urgent; ignore the truly important].
• Only giver performance reviews annually so people have no idea how they are doing and cannot correct issues or perform better [continue this archaic process because that’s how it’s always been done].
• Don’t learn new ways to lead and motivate.
• Rule like a king over your silo fiefdom. Rule from the rear with a whip. Demand more always. Never celebrate even massive growth, success, profitability. More!
• “Do as I say, not as…”
• Don’t teach people how to learn from their mistakes, just point out their flaws to the rest of the team so all will be afraid to fail; and therefore, not really attempt anything great.
• And, as soon as they fail, never let them move beyond that. Brand them a failure and do not give them another chance.
• Confuse time at the office with productivity. Demand ridiculous and unnecessarily long hours in the building. “Are you the job?”
• Do the opposite of this to: 

• Expect everyone to do everything you say without actually assigning anyone the task.

Follow these methods if you want to damage your team. They are not subordinates to be slaves. In case you missed the point: Don't lead like this! In most cases, do the opposite. If you see yourself in any of these: Stop it! Get therapy. Get help. Allow kind-hearted people to speak into your life. Be open to growing, changing and learning to think differently. We are all in process, so let's make progress.

   

What Does Tree of Life Ministry Look Like?

 

Let’s expand on the prior blog and hone in on how to live and serve from the tree of life. Our goal will be to learn to love all people with the love that God has given to those who believe in and follow Jesus. The people of God’s Kingdom need to become free to love and pour life into everyone in their lives; especially, those who consider us their enemy or just act like it. We need to be like Jesus in how He lived, taught, prayed, served and loved. We need to be free from shame, guilt and condemnation. God has and will continue pouring His love into us, He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit as the guarantee that we are His. That is our catalyst to kill doubt, worry and fear so we love one another and shine the light of Jesus. That will expose the darkness. We do not need to stand firm in judgment and condemnation. Loving the world like Jesus did (John 3:16-18) is the best medicine for a sin sick world that does not yet know and adore Him. Let’s get rid of our old flawed ways of doing church and outreach ministry and then move into being a much needed tree of life people.

First, we start with some further explanation of why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is not a good ministry guide. There is good. There is evil. There is knowledge. There is truth which means there are also falsehoods and lies. There is darkness but there is also light. There is terror and wonder; fear and awe. There are many opposing forces in this wisdom literature that describes creation in Genesis chapters 1-3. Where then do we land? Which side are we on? How are we to live? How do we discern truth and error? What determines the methods for guiding our thoughts and judgements? Surely, we are all making millions of judgements throughout our lives and hundreds daily. What foundation leads and guides us to make these decisions? And how can we know we are doing well with our choices? Are we choosing wisely? Do our choices lead to The Good?

As a follower of Jesus I will be addressing this from the perspective of a believer in Him, in His life, death, burial, resurrection and all His teachings that we have before us in the Bible. Most Christians want to be faithful to the Bible and teach it accurately. Are we reading it from the tree of life perspective or a rule oriented one? I hope my previous post revealed how easy it is for us to fall into the tree of the knowledge of good and evil methods which DO NOT lead to life.

Here is what I have seen in the churches in the USA. It is the standard method for most people and churches to minister, guide and teach from a tree of the knowledge of good and evil perspective. Have you ever met a person who was transformed by being nagged, shamed, guilted, controlled or manipulated? Does that method cause people to joyfully become the best they can be? Law followers produce law followers. Where is the Spirit and transformation of the soul in this? A relationship with the rules leads to unrest as one attempts to hold fast to all the regulations. How much good and peace is found in the headlines of Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc.? Watch the weather report on the news and listen to how the other hosts complain; no matter what the report is! The weather happening now was desired two days ago but now that it is happening it is bad; almost evil. How much joy is there in all this complaining about everything? Have you noticed that most opinion writings are all about the negative? We are doing that here too. Once finished explaining all these negatives and why they do not transform lives we will move in the opposite direction. Hang in there. I love and respect you.

The blog link below was some early development of the concepts discussed above and in the previous post.

http://scottcolemanwrites.blogspot.com/2014/12/people-judge-god-loves.html

Is the church of Jesus doing things much different than the media in its condemnation of those with whom it disagrees? Will all the mudslinging in politics and religion bring about good in the other side? The making and braking of moral laws will be endless until hearts are changed. Fighting over desired rights will not win friends or save souls.

What is accomplished by focusing on good and evil? Well, we find the evil and wrongs everyone does. We all become prosecutors pointing out all the wicked that people do. We become highly skilled at finding the wrong. Our broken human nature is magnificent at discovering the bad in others. A sad irony is that what we yell about the loudest in others is often a major flaw we despise in ourselves but don’t work on since it is simpler to just point it out in others as bad. No wonder trust in others and faith in God are so difficult! We are sooooo busy catching others in their sin against us, that we come to the false conclusion that God too must be flawed and unworthy of trust. Ouch! Is there any doubt left in your soul that living from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil only leads to frustration and despair?

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”― Elbert Hubbard [a self-proclaimed anarchist; which is also what he considered Jesus]

“A church that’s totally focused on the old nature only sees sin, faults, and wrong behaviors in people. All it can produce is a negative mindset that can only produce a negative outcome. It deals with problems, it doesn’t deal with solutions. It creates a religious spirit that makes God in its image so that it can release anger and judgment. It also withholds all the things that God actually wants to release and wants to be for people.” (from Brilliant Leadership by Graham Cooke)

There are many churches that believe their intentions are good while their practice is sin management; merely behavioral control over the people through peer pressure, membership contracts or domineering leadership. This chokes the life out of believers and explains why many people are “done” with the church but not with Jesus. I was not brought to life by pastors and elders. For over 25 years I was part of the evangelical community that practiced focusing on the Bible as the word of God while being inhibited in communicating with the living Word [Logos] of God, Jesus. Church statistics about people leaving the church are devastating yet most leaders blame it on the maturity level of the people who left; which of course, is a judgement from the first tree. I have yet to see or hear a pastor take any blame for their part in why people flee their leadership. Why is it never their fault? That is just like Adam and Eve in the garden when confronted. My spiritual growth was squelched, stifled, even strangled out of me by successful numerically growing church pastors who believed in their methods and good intentions.

Is the American church bringing life to our nation? Is the culture changing for the positive by our methods? Are people who do not know Jesus wanting to know Him because of how the church behaves? Isn’t it interesting that any pastor not using the above methods is seen as an ear tickler who doesn’t preach the whole gospel? What if Joel Osteen is more correct in his ministry method than they are? How many people don’t have an internal sense of falling short, being imperfect or being riddled with self-condemnation? Is anybody out there depressed? Why is it that someone with a lot of joy is seen as the out-of-touch lunatic? Shouldn’t that rather be the norm for followers of Jesus, the joy giver?

Please now go with me as we switch trees. Our natural, fallen and broken inclination is to stay with the tree we have been discussing above. That wore me out just writing about all that negative junk. Aren’t you sick of it too?

But God desires relationship with us. He does not desire us to merely be rule followers. That is not why He created us. Did you know that in the glorious depiction of heaven at the end of the Bible there is no tree of the knowledge of good and evil? We will not need it there. We have God to explain things rightly. In Revelation 22:1-2 there is a river of the water of life flowing from the throne [singular] of God and the Lamb [Jesus] and on both sides of it are a tree of life producing 12 kinds of fruit and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of nations. Let’s live out of the power and glory of that! All kinds of fruit that brings life and even the leaves bring healing. How different is that from the other tree that led to sin, judgement and death? I am just learning what it means to live and minster from this tree of life.

Because I now know I have been transformed, the old man is crucified, dead and buried; therefore, I am not controlled by sin. Ian Clayton says, “I don’t sin because I must not. I don’t sin because I don’t want to.” I am a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5). Freedom from sin management allows freedom to live a life of love where sin no longer entangles. Temptation can still be shot at us as arrows from the enemy but they can be easily deflected by looking unto the Lover of our soul Who sets us free. The river of the water of life flows from the throne forever. Let’s go there and drink from it and eat from the fruit of the tree of life. Let’s now wrestle with what that means and looks like.

Immorality

Jesus’ name means “YHWH saves.” He is the “I Am” Who spoke to Moses. He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). He is the creator and sustainer of all life and creation. He is God Who became a human in order to pay the price for Adam and Eve’s choice to break the one and only rule given in the garden. God loves us so much that He gave us the choice to reject Him. He paved the way toward reconciliation by His own death on a tree. He died because we were already dead. We all are spiritual zombies apart from Him serving our own selfish desires and wrong definitions of good and evil. Jesus’ death is good for us; thus, Good Friday. He died when we were at our worst (Romans 5:8-10) to set us free and prove how much He loves and values us. That love is amazing and astonishing. He gives us His human life to pay for our spiritually and morally dead existences. Why would He do that? Why would He pour out His life to pay the just penalty we deserved in order to bestow us with lavish, prodigal grace?

“Grace does not overlook sin.  It empowers righteousness.” Bill Johnson

What is the goal of tree of life ministry all about? How about LIFE!? How about LOVE?! Jesus is The LIFE. God is LOVE. How are we to treat and think about people so that we pour life and love into them?

Is God big and powerful and gracious enough to save the likes of: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Caitlyn Jenner, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, Barack Obama, any Kardashian, Oprah, any Bush, Muslims, Masons, Mormons, any murderer, any actor, any rock or metal bands, anybody in ISIS, your ex-pastor, your ex-spouse, the person who sexually used or abused you, your disobedient child, your boss, your ex-boss, the person who cheated you, the IRS, the person who got your promotion, the kid that beat up your kid, me, you? The answer is, “Yes.” And, He has given us the Holy Spirit which empowers us to love them. Jesus wants to spend time with all of them pouring love and life into them. That is what He did on earth. That is what He wants us to do with the Holy Spirit empowering us. Does that bring up some angst or holy excitement?

Because we are free from sin, death, wrath and punishment; then, we are free to give away the same grace we have received. We are free to love. We need not point out all the wrongs people are doing. We are to pour out all the love we have received. Instead of killing them with a truth of their sin. We are giving them life via love. We are not the judgers. They already stand judged before God and in prison to their flesh. We do not condone or approve of sin. We are to be like Jesus and set the captives free through love which yields life. After people receive life, then it will make sense to them to address their behaviors and thoughts. We can then teach them to hear from God so He can deal with their stuff. We still are to love them in spite of it.

Jesus rebuked the religious elite of Israel for missing the entire point of the Law. Jesus loved the sinners. He healed the broken. He ate with the people despised by the religious leaders. He hung out with them [sorry for the bad pun. Is that where that phrase came from?]. He called as His apostles religious failures who were not qualified to be rabbis. They were mostly fishermen, a wild zealot and an IRS agent! They were trained and qualified by Jesus through their failures and empowered by His love. They did not step down from ministry every time they screwed up so they could earn back the right to serve. Jesus broke the religious rules of the day. AND, He was the Law giver in the first place!! Wake up Pharisees and Sadducees. He healed on the Sabbath. He chose friends over ritual. He gave life and love rather than religion and a good reputation. When we lead like this people will be transformed by love and thus fulfill the qualifications of deacons and elders via the life that is poured into them.

How are we doing? Jesus healed people from demonic oppression and diseases. I would rather pursue being part of doing that than call out people’s imperfections. We are not to do the Holy Spirit’s work of convicting. Are we to do more than just talk? Is there power that undergirds our words and action? If we feed the homeless and clothe the poor, do we do that out of love or pity? What motivates us? Are we loving those who desire to be our enemies? Do we think well of them because we disallow ourselves to think of them as an enemy? Flesh and blood are not the enemy as Paul states in Ephesians 6. If God’s kindness leads to repentance (Romans 2:4), then isn’t that the method we should choose? Let’s do the greater works that Jesus said we would (John 14:12). Surely that is more than preaching and holding classes.

Larry Randolph, "Jesus never gave his disciples authority over people. He only gave them authority over things that hurt people." That is an amazing thought! Church leaders sure don’t act that way. They exercise authority over people all the time, and sometimes doing the “lording over” that Jesus told them not to. “I am the pastor. I have the vision from God. Do what I say.” That disallows God to speak through others and puts a ridiculous amount of pressure on that pastor. You can read about my thoughts on this in the below link:

http://scottcolemanwrites.blogspot.com/2015/12/how-to-be-healthy-church-or-not.html

Are we being gentle? Do we live out the fruit [singular] of the Spirit? The list in Galatians 5 has nine items which make up the one fruit. That’s the stuff of life the Holy Spirit produces. We need to participate with Him in growing that life in people. What are those 12 types of fruit on the tree of life in Revelation 22? The tree of life gives food and healing. We are to nourish. We are to make people whole so they can become holy. We do this through pouring honor, respect, grace and love into them. This yields life and freedom. We are to call out the good that people struggle to see in themselves. They already know their dirt and muck so we don’t address or focus on that. We are to unearth the gold and jewels. We build them up so they reflect the light of God. We teach them they are new in Christ, that the old is dead and gone so they stop focusing on sin and begin focusing on fruit. This brings transformation.

Do the work of ministry that yields the fruit of righteousness. We are seated with Christ. We have all we need for godliness. The old ways have passed away. Jesus saves, heals and loves. His kindness and forgiveness opens the prison doors so we live as His beloved children longing to set others free too. Our life of joy, peace and rest will shine light into a dark world. When our relationship with God becomes desirable to others, they will then thirst for this water of life and the food from the tree of life along with the healing from its leaves. Oh, so many metaphors for the love and goodness of God! We must be free and transformed before others will believe us and want it for themselves.

What do we need to do believe, think and do differently so the lost will desire to be saved? How do we need to be the church differently so believers will be excited to love and serve? How do we free people to become all that God sees in them and desires them to be? Offer life. Be love.

      I love and respect you.
      

Which Tree are We Ministering From?

     

Both fear and love are four letter words. Which one are we serving others from? Perhaps this is why so many people are “done” with the church. Are we ministering/serving people from the wrong motives and methods.

This blog was birthed by listening to a sermon from Shawn Bolz that I stumbled upon on Kris Valloton’s podcast page. Complicated, I know. But God led me there because He does crazy cool stuff like that… all the t-i-m-e. I had never heard of Shawn Bolz but I figured I would give him a listen and see what happened. It turns out that it has rocked my world in a good way. God has a gracious habit of doing that. And there are plenty of “Duh” moments where I ask why I did not see that in the text before. God is amazing, gentle and gracious. We are His kids whom He is parenting patiently.

I strongly urge you to listen to Shawn Bolz. You can listen to the related message here:

http://krisvallotton.com/shawn-bolz-open-heavens-2015/

Shawn pointed out that there were two trees named in the Garden of Eden [Genesis 2:9]: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Notice that it was not “the tree of knowledge.” He used many examples to point out how the church in the USA spends so much time, energy and money ministering out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It seems like the main focus is to argue about right and wrong, good versus evil. He asked why we were not ministering out of the other tree. Why aren’t we serving people out of love by offering them life? Very little fruit comes out of arguing over what is good or evil. Many want no part of the church in the USA because they feel like they will just be judged and not cared for or loved. Or if they do something perceived to be “evil” then they will be cast out. Unfortunately, that is quite true from what I have observed being a follower of Jesus since 1985. It is amazing to me, and sad, how quick we [the church] are to separate ourselves from any we disagree with over any and every moral and doctrinal point of contention. That tree has made us very contentious and very not life giving.

I have seen the church do this to its own. Do we forgive those who mess up? I mean those who really mess up, not just petty little things that only upset church people? Those outside the church see how well we shoot our wounded. We've done so well in stomping on the famous who have fallen. How much grace have we given to Josh Duggar? What kind of reconciliation do we give to those who truly repent? Do we restore or keep them buried under the weight of the evil they have done...forever? Do we only have grace enough for those who exercise great sin management and appear to be good church people? That is a nasty picture of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil working its negative power over people.

So why aren’t we serving others from the tree of life? Shawn gave many examples of how to do this without condoning or agreeing with the lifestyle and morality of who he and his church were ministering to. It convicted me in many areas of not being loving toward those who do not yet know Jesus. It is absurd to think those apart from God will behave in a Christ honoring way and live a Holy Spirit controlled life. Why should the church expect them to behave as if they have the Holy Spirit in them?

1 Corinthians 8:1; But knowledge puffs up while love builds up [NIV]. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies [NASB].

Our [the church’s] knowledge of good and evil is going to be vastly different from people who have not yet received the new life given by God through the work of Jesus. Another problem is that it often does not seem like the church has received this transformative power either. When we are so busy looking for agreement or control over behavior and sin management that we do not pour life into each other; then no life should be expected. That would be an exception. Paul Manwaring writes, “You cannot train a man for freedom while he is in captivity.” I believe much of the church in the USA is still in captivity to moral performance through sin management and has not been set free by the life of love. I know I was for the first 28 years of my Christian life. That is sad. You can read about my transformation that came directly from an encounter with God and not from the church or its teachings or ministries:

            http://scottcolemanwrites.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-god-sees-me.html

Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil broke relationship with God and brought instant separation of communication and immediate spiritual death. Every human that has been born has been under this curse of separation from God which also creates a vast space between all humans. How it worked itself out initially between Adam and Eve was the blame game. It was everybody else’s fault. Everything that was wrong was caused by another. There was no personal accountability or responsibility. “You all messed this all up for me. It wasn’t my fault.” Oh, how little has changed.

It also led to everyone doing what was right in their own eyes. All the people who have ever lived on the earth had their own unique view of right and wrong; good versus evil. That makes communication and agreement difficult. Obviously! Just look around the planet. Read some tweets. Read the news. Look at Facebook. Watch something about politics. Watch a soap opera. No don’t! It can get depressing! Morality is in a mess and nearly everyone is an emotional wreck. No wonder much of the USA is on depression medications or other substances or bound up in addictions. We are not free. We are not alive.

So what can be done? How do we reverse the curse? Good questions. Glad you asked. You are so smart!

It’s already been done. We need to stop arguing over right and wrong. We need to look to the tree of life and learn how to bring life to others. How do we do that? How do we agree on what that even is?

God knew the choice to do the one and only negative command in the garden would be taken. He knew! You can do everything, E-V-E-R-Y-THING, except eat from this one tree. There may have been 1 million food trees available. There was one tree that gave ongoing life and relationship with God. The text doesn’t even tell us if they ever ate from that one! But there was only one thing that could be done to break relationship with God, and by listening to a sneaky, lying serpent [devil] they did that; together. Eve, then Adam ate from the tree that was the only thing they were told not to do because of the consequences. Wow! Don’t we all still see or do that today all over this planet?

Arguing over good and evil then led to laws being created. Israel preferred a rule book to a relationship with a powerful God Who they chose to be terrified of rather than draw near to. They sinned, so they got laws. They broke a small list, so they got more laws. They broke those and got more laws. Finally they got a pretty thorough list.

I have heard many non-believers say that God is all about rules and silly old out-of-date commands. Have any of these people ever been to a law library? Do any of them know how thick the IRS code is? How about the new health care regulations which no one even read before approving? Men make more laws everyday than God has in the entire existence of humanity! The USGA Rules of Golf book has more laws than the entire Bible does. Look up the NFL and NCAA Football rule books to see all their specifications and unique rules. It’s the same sport! Check out some of your laws for your city, county state and compare with the federal guidelines. You think God was rule happy? Humans are nuts! We are completely law crazy. Look up some court cases and legal decisions. There are more laws about allowable advertising signs in my city and county than there are laws in the Bible. Come on, man!

That is not life. That is not freedom. That does not bring freedom and it is certainly not love. Let’s argue who is right. Let’s fight over who is good. We sure do a lot of that.

Can we move to the tree of life now? God put both trees in the center of the garden. One for our life to continue us in ongoing relationship and eternal bliss. The other was a test to see if we would seek to determine our own truth about good and evil by rejecting God. Currently on earth we have about 7 billion versions of good and evil. God only has one, His. He alone is the Creator. He created everything. He made the stars, planets, plants and animals. Then He artistically formed humans. He formed man out of the dust, breathed life into his lungs. Then He fashioned woman from a piece of the man and gave her to him as a soulmate, a helper, a companion, a lover, a friend. God desired that humans relate to one another in community like He does within Himself: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His creation is good. His creation of humans was great! Since there are no great adjectives in Hebrew it was literally “good, good.”

God made us for relationship with Him. We are living beings made with the choice to love Him, or not. When you understand how good, good life and love from God are, it changes you. Jesus came to restore the broken relationship. Jesus, God the Son [not born or made but eternal], became a human to pay the price for our broken relationship with God. There was no payment from humanity that would work. So God allowed us to kill His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sin and God placed on Him all the wrath that we deserved. All of God’s punishment for sin and wrath against it was poured out on Jesus when He became sin for us [2 Corinthians 5:21]. By the death of Jesus all sin can be washed away. When Jesus rose from the dead after paying the full penalty for sin, He proved He had complete power over death and sin and He offers His life to us. It is a gift for us to receive. We cannot earn it.

Jesus is good news. God is love. Romans 5:8-10 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” Yes! We are saved from sin, death and hell by Jesus paying the price for all of us. We need to receive Him as the complete payment, turn to God for this life-giving transformation and turn away from our old corrupt version of the knowledge of good and evil and follow God. Jesus then can become our life as we die to our old self and He teaches us Who He is and shows us what is right and wrong. Then we can obtain freedom and life.

Jesus died on a tree. That is the only way we can have life. There is no other sacrifice for sin. All other religions have sets of rules for how to get and maintain a relationship with the divine or many deities or even earth and every other whatever-after humans believe in. Every one of those is about do’s and don’ts that we must live out. It puts all the onus on us. But the problem is that those are all man made rules and ways. Only Christianity says that you humans cannot do it. I, God, love you so much that I will become human to pay the due penalty caused by the separation so that humans could be reconciled to the One and only God. The Creator made us and made the way for us to come back to Him. That is love. That is life.

His way is completely different from all the ones we have come up with. His definition of good and evil is totally different than all the 7 billion plus versions that we have devised. He alone is life. He alone is good. He alone is love. He alone gets to define good, evil, right, wrong, truth, justice, mercy, grace, etc. He is a little more complex and amazing than we are. Yet, we are complex and amazing too. But He made everything. He is making a new star every second! He gives them all names [Psalm 147:4]. We just throw acronyms and numbers on them because there are too many of them for us to think about. But He sustains their nuclear fusion reactions. He is everywhere. He holds everything together.

And, this same God holds out to us the offer of life and love. He knows what is best for us. He knows what we need better than we do. He knows our true need is for Him. That need is far greater than our need to be right in an argument or to prove someone has done something evil. He knows every human needs relationship with Him. That will transform us. That will meet our real needs and heal our soul wounds. It can even break through addiction, brokenness, confusion, depression, some cool ‘e’ word, frailty and all the way to a ‘z’ word in our sin that once separated us from Him. But He has made the way for us to return to the home we never knew we needed.

The cross is our new tree of life. Let’s go home. Let’s go to Life. Come with me as we go with Jesus and receive His life. He is good.