Psalms 22:11
We constantly hear about the need for us to improve our spiritual lives: to have a strong and true faith in God, to be giving God a wholehearted service, and to go to God on our knees in prayer each day.  I'm sure all of us know people who are diligent in doing these things and I'm also sure most people think that there is nothing wrong with spending most of our days, as much time as we can, doing this.  There is one thing wrong with that.

If we are spending all this time working on our own spiritual lives, how will we find time to help others with theirs?  Psalms 22:11 reads "Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help."  This is the cry of so many people who are in God's kingdom.  "Be not far from me.  Stay close by, I need your help.  For trouble is near.  I am being tempted, I'm struggling.  Help me."

It is important for us to make a continuous, daily effort to improve our spiritual lives, but we can not, we can not, forget to help others.  Yes, God is always close by, but sometimes we just need a family member or friend to just be there for us and reassure us.

There will be times when we are the ones in need, when we have been tempted, when we are struggling.  We will cry out: "Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help."  And someone will hear us, and they will come, and they will help.

Psalms 92:12-14
"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree they shall bring forth fruit in old age: they shall be fat and flourishing."

These verses have helped me to realize why the Lord's people are a peculiar people.  I used to wish that this trait was not so necessary.  I know we were peculiar because we were different, and I often felt that maybe we could help people more if we were not so different from them.  I do not feel that way anymore!

You may wonder how the palm tree fits into this picture.  Well, it is a peculiar tree. It is vastly different from all other trees, and this difference makes it more useful than any other tree.  God has made His people different like the palm tree because He wants us to be useful too, in filling this vital place He has given us in the world.

The first peculiar mark in the palm tree is in the way it grows.  It grows from the heart out.  Ira lifeline is in the heart.  Its outward dimensions is determined by its inward growth.  Is this not also true with the Lord's people?  All other trees grow by adding a new sap ring around the bark each year; their growth is made by what it adds  to the to the outside.  This makes them a prey to surrounding conditions.  A fire will kill the tree.  It is more or less at the mercy of the surrounding elements.  How wonderful to know that no surrounding conditions can harm us because we are like the palm tree and as we often sing: "NO FOES CAN REACH THAT SECRET PLACE WHERE HIDES MY SOUL SAFE IN HIS CARE."  We can go through the fiery trials, or we can face the cutting remarks from the world; they may hurt, but they cannot harm us because our life is 'hid with Christ in God'.  Our lifeline is preserved on the inside.

Another peculiar mark of the palm tree is that it has a taproot that extends down to water.   I some of the desert species this depends on that hidden contact with the water.  It enables it to grow where no other trees can grow.  It need not be concerned about surrounding conditions, but it does need to be concerned about this daily unseen contact with the water which God supplies. This also teaches us a lesson, and the need of daily drawing our source of help from the Living Waters in our secret life before God.  The palm puts out its branches from the top.  Each year the lower branches die off and the new branches come out from the top.  In other words, each year it becomes more separate from the earth beneath and closer to the God above.

This is also a protection and a lesson.  One would not overlook the fact either, that the palm tree grows upright in spite of weights and burdens.  In the  eastern countries when the tree grows so tall, its fruit is out of reach,  they often tie weights on that will keep the tops bent over within reach of those  who need it.  But after the weights are removed at the end of harvest, the  tree will spring upright again.....and it is after that experience that it makes its greatest growth.  This helps us to understand why we sometimes find our lives burdened by things over which we have no control.  Experiences at times that causes us to bend low.  It may be a battle we are facing;  it may be a time of sickness or sorrow; it may be a time when it seems everything is  against us... and at such times we often ask,  "Why does God let this happen to me?"  Sometime we fail to realize that this is the work of God bringing the fruit of our lives within the reach of others.  It may be their only hope.  I suppose  the little Israelite maid was bowed down with grief when she was taken captive by the Syrians.  What have I done to deserve this?  Little did she realize at the time that God was using her young life to bring salvation to Naaman and others of those Syriens, II Kings 5:1-15.  Little did Joseph realize when he was sold into Egypt and when everything seemed to be against him down there, that this was the means by which God was using him later on to fee his brethren.  Our wonderful assurance is that these experiences will not injure us.  God will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able.  1 Corinthians 10:12, and when those experiences re past, and the weights are removed we will find occasions to rise higher than ever, and will be able to rejoice in the wisdom  of God who plans all things to work together for our good,  Romans 8; 28.Last but not least, another peculiar mark of the palm tree is that it never passes the stage of usefulness.  Most fruit trees reach their peak after a few years, and from then on they produce less fruit each year.  Not so with the palm.  Its average age is between 95 & 100 years, and the last year of its life is producing more fruit and better fruit than it ever did before.  How nice to know this is also true with the righteous.  We need not fear the time coming when we will be of no more use in the Family of God.  We may grow frail in body, we may not be able to do many of the natural things were once able to do.  But we can still produce the "fruit of the spirit", Galatians 5:22-23, and after all that is the  fruit that makes our life useful.  The fiber of the palm leaf is used to make rope and floor mats.  A sharp thorn, about 2 inches long grows on the end of this leaf, and this has supplied the Arab women with needles since the days of Abraham.  The sap of the tree is made into both honey and wine.  The meat of the dates is used for food and the pits of the dates are ground up for camel fodder or meal.  Every bit of the tree is useful.  After it is dead, the trunk is cut down and because of its tough texture, it is very valuable as a building timber especially as sills and piling to support the building.  May God help us all to become like the palm tree.  May we value the privileges He has given us of  being a peculiarly different people, realizing that this makes for more usefulness.  And above all, may this teach us to live in such a way that even after we are dead.... the testimony we leave behind will be a support to others who are building after us.

Howard Mooney  1997

I Corinthians 10:12
In ND we have been studying Luke.  We are now into the early ministry of Jesus.  One thing that has impressed me that I was never so aware of before is that there were those who were healed and saved by Jesus, but they were not the ones who felt secure in what they held on to (scribes and Pharisees) but those who felt needy and sinful and poor and wanted what Jesus could give them.  Though we want to hold fast to what we have attained in Christ, we can NEVER stop feeling needy and sinful and poor, or we will no longer receive from God.

Eva Myers

II Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with open face beholding as in
a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

I may not have interpreted this verse correctly, but this is what I got out of it (with help from another version):

All of us--all of God's children--are like a mirror.  We reflect an image of the glory of the Lord, and we change into the image of the Lord, if we have the Spirit of the Lord in us.

Our lives reflect an image.  An image of what is in our heart.  If we have love in our heart, our lives reflect that.  If we have hate in our heart, our lives reflect that.  If we have the Spirit of the Lord in our hearts, our lives will reflect an image of the Lord.  People can look into our lives and after a while, they will begin to see a reflection of what is in our heart.

Our lives "are changed into the same image" as what is in our heart.  If we have the Spirit of the Lord in our heart, we will begin to change, we will be more and more like the Lord.  If we have the devil in our heart, we will change to be like the devil.  This is something easily noticed by people around us.  The way we talk, the way we act, the way we live our lives.  That changes according to what is in our heart.

So, we not only reflect an image of what is in our heart, but also change to be more like what is in our heart.