New York Winter

I love winter, especially here in New York. You never know what a day might bring: it could be snowing, or icy, or fifty degrees, or zero degrees...

But in a normal winter cycle, a walk through the park will reveal a stark, bare picture of plant life. All the trees have lost their leaves and, to the untrained eye, they look dead... but look again.

Do you see it? There's life.

Oh, maybe you won't see it with your eyes until March or April or May, when the trees begin to bud again. But I think you've been through enough cycles to know, by faith, that spring will reveal the life that has existed all through the winter.

As Pastor Benji shared on Sunday, the kingdom of heaven is a living kingdom.

Do you see it?

Oh. Maybe you don't see it because you're too overwhelmed by life's circumstances- maybe your prayer didn't get answered the way you wanted it to. Maybe the triumph of evil has jaded you and you are no longer willing to wait on God. Maybe the duplicity of carnal Christians has convinced you that this God thing is a sham.

May I give you a word of encouragement? See life from heaven's perspective. See springtime in the kingdom: not with your physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith. God's kingdom is real and alive and flourishing, even though it might look dead to the world.

Yes, I can smile in the dead of winter... SOON, soon life will burst forth and everyone will see. And there will be no doubt that it is a work of God, for His glory.