255 – He Must Prune Me

January 24, 1987

By God’s wonderful and bountiful grace, I was 1 ½ hours in prayer from 5-6:30am.

This seems crystal clear:

John 15:2 Every branch that does not bear fruit He takes away – anger, selfishness, egocentricity – and every branch that bears fruit He prunes it that it may bear more fruit,

I see that my ministry with children (in public school) bore fruit—but all of these succeeding years have been a pruning process to get me out of me and into Him so that MORE fruit can come to His glory and honor and use.

Although today he prunes my twigs with pain,

Yet doth his blood nourish and warm my root:

Tomorrow I shall put forth buds again

and clothe myself with fruit. -Christina Rosetti

93- Just For Me

93- Just for Me

December 13, 1982

Annie Johnson Flint’s poem Just for Thee is the work of the Spirit. Surrendered and sincere.

From it I wrote the contrasting Just for Me!

Just for Me

I want peace, I want power,

I want joy, I want light,

I want truth, I want knowledge,

I want courage for this fight!

I want strength to do Thee service—

I want friends to lift me up

I want drink when I am thirsty,

I want junk food in my cup

I don’t want to yield to any,

Lord, I want to be on top.

Can I have beauty so they will praise me?

May I have treasures till I pop?

May I have loveliness and honor?

May I have more glory than the rest?

Give me wisdom and discernment,

I want to be the very best!

Fill me full of all these things, Lord

Lacking nothing, complete in me,

Let me lead and others follow,

By Thy grace, Lord, let it be.

~georgann

Wow! I guess I knew my flesh pretty well back in 1982, and it is all still there inside me. But when any of it surfaces, I look away as quickly as I can and turn to Jesus. And He keeps saving me from myself.

79- Perspective!

August 2, 1982 Feeling a bit discouraged by the day’s circumstances. But Jesus said to me what He said to Martha: Did I not say to you, Georgann, if you believe, you will see the glory of God? John 11:40

Thinking about the way our lives have gone, the reasons He has had us walk by faith and not by sight…it has been for discipline and humbling, says the Lord. He is testing us to see if we will keep our eyes on Him and stay with Him, and follow His leading, or if we will bolt when we feel the crunch and life gets too dicey.

**The children of Israel and the Presence of the Lord as they moved toward the promised land.**

Deuteronomy 8:1-5

All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son…v 17 Otherwise you may say in your heart, “My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.”

August 4

Hebrews 10:1-18 paraphrased: Following the law cannot make people perfect, but we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He has put His laws upon our hearts, and He remembers our sins and our lawless deeds no more.

I wrote my thoughts about this:

Only Jesus,

Jesus only,

satisfies God’s requisites.

Once for all He did what I could never do.

So—

trust Jesus,

do all in His Name, power, love.

God sees Jesus in Me

and loves me.

Jesus is perfect, holy,

Lord, love.

55- A Poem I Penned

55- A Poem I penned…

Feb 5 1981 Isaiah 53:3 despised, forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

My precious One: The gap is there

My friends look

But we do not SEE

Eye to eye.

We do not SEE

the same Jesus Christ.

My Lord: The car is old,

the clothes givn,

The jewelry –

no gold chains.

Father Almighty: This, too, must I give?

My place of distinction

in the ranks of the followers.

But it was nearly

left behind already.

Savior, Lord, Christ: That LOVE, -YOU-

would be

Only between my friends and me.

That I could accept

all loss

For the crown that awaits.

Not bitter be,

Not pitying and proud.

Isaiah 53:5 Thank You for taking the piercing for my rebellion against God.

6 Like sheep we are astray, going our own way (rather than God’s way)

It’s a way You have decided…

The way each should go

Therefore to judge and compare

Is foolish.

No one is better than

No one is less than

If You have decided…

Let LOVE be our bond.