Squished!: Why God Seemingly Destroys Our Fruit

By S.L. Estes

Crash! Sunday’s attendance was chaos. Anger, shock, curiosity, and despair rocked our group. What happened?

This was the beginning of a year and a half of my home church searching for a new pastor. In desperation, I began reading the Bible, looking for truth, hope, and faithfulness. This book comes from my journal as I wrote down things I learned afresh from the Bible. In the end, I realized God was asking me whether I was walking by faith or by sight. In those eighteen months, I discovered walking by faith is more satisfying than walking by sight.

Are you experiencing a church split or any difficulties? Is God squashing you painfully through a press right now?

Read this book to find out how God took what I thought was fruit-bearing service to Him and squashed me through a press, making me something more useful for Him, just by getting me reading His Bible.

My fresh new look into God’s Word was an eye-opener!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449799878

S.L. Estes

Susan Estes is married to Ivan Estes, a retired dairy farmer, and they live on his family farm in Palmyra, Maine. She accepted Christ’s free salvation in 1987. Her ministries include teaching Sunday School, hosting an in home Bible Study, and Guest Speaker. /p> Among her hobbies are horseback riding, camping, kayaking, and hiking. Susan is an awarded artist and teaches painting. Her writing career includes former journalist and columnist, blogger, short stories and flash-fiction, several which are included in Storm, A Wherever It Pleases Anthology. For 16 years, she co-led a writing discussion group where writers are encouraged to develop their work into the best publishable materiel they can accomplish.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 Susan Estes.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1-[phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Email excerpt used by written permission from Pastor David R. Kelly.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-9987-8 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/9/2013

Contents

Introduction

I.   Sudden Pressure

II.   The Bible, a book like no other

III.   Under Pressure

IV.   Steeplechases

V.   Poured Out

VI.   From Dregs to Pure

VII.   Squeezed for Immediate Use

VIII.   Look to the Future

IX.   Old Things Become New

X.   Restoration

XI.   Hard Questions

XII.   Challenge Your Faith!

XIII.   My Faith Statement

About the Author

You can find all the solid truths about God by reading the Bible for yourself.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10:17

Introduction

No one should attempt to describe Jesus apart from what is already in the Scriptures but can only write and describe what Jesus has done in the past, or what He is doing in and through lives today. It is essential in describing Jesus, His attributes, omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence, to adhere to how the Bible describes Him, being careful not to add or take away from the Scriptures.

Staying within the limits of these criteria, I’m not a Biblical scholar, nor claim any special learning because of what I’ve written. My conclusions do not exhaust or end even a fraction of the knowledge available to anyone who asks God to teach him or her from His word.

21597.jpg

When disasters happen in and to a body of believers, the general congregation sometimes is those who suffer without comfort when their church comes apart.

So what does the ordinary Christian do when their church body splits? Or when any uncontrollable situation suddenly takes over and removes what they thought to be solid ground?

A Bible scholar may have written better insights than what I’ve written. A good Bible commentary probably states it better also. I will be the first to say I am not a Bible expert but what I wrote anyone can understand. It could be what I wrote can help anyone with its simplicity. Any Christian should be able to accomplish basic journaling when they read the Bible. God wants us to know His word and He is the ultimate Teacher.

These are insights into what I saw and experienced as God ‘squished’ my home church and me through a season of pressure.

Why did God seem to destroy good fruit?

21606.jpg

I.   Sudden Pressure

21545.jpg

Lesson learned?

Remember Lot’s wife (Luke 17:32).

Yes, let us remember. Look forward to the coming of the Lord, not the passing of the material.

21549.jpg

My pastor and I exchanged emails discussing the topic from

his sermon series in Amos. His Sunday talk was from chapter 6 and the following is an excerpt from our letters about his then up-coming sermon from chapters 7 and 8. These are our last exchange before the telephone call.

Dear Sue,

Thanks for the encouragement. It was a rather difficult, yet pretty amazing passage. I think I’ll tackle chapters 7-8 for this coming Sunday since they have a common theme. (Can you figure it out?)

Have a great day.

Thanks,

Dave

21612.jpg

Hi Dave,

I took up your challenge to find the theme in Ch. 7 & 8.

Key?: ch 7:8 and ch 8:2. …I will not pass by them any more. And the closure is ch 8:11 & 12, when He stops speaking to them. (not sending any more prophetic word). They refused to talk to Him, so He refuses to talk to them.

How’d I do?

I like the place in Amos ch 7 where Amos is told by the king to shut up and go away. I think his response is quite humorous. He says, I am not a prophet and I had no intention of being one but God said to come here and tell you this, so here I am. And this is what God says. Great example of trust and obedience. Quite the opposite of Jonah.

Thanks Dave.

In Christ: Sue

21618.jpg

Dear Sue,

This is good; this is really good.

…the key has everything to do with speaking… or not speaking.

Please clarify who