Severely Pruned: God's Art of Pruning

By Larry L. Ricketts

Have you suffered great loss, or maybe even lost it all?

The author has. He endeavors to answer the big question, "Why?"

The author shares his story of losing it all. He shares how the Lord brought him back into a state of happiness and fulfillment. There is a huge difference between pruning, destruction, correction, and reaping what

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Dec 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781685560454

Book preview

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Severely

Pruned

God’s Art

of Pruning

Larry L. Ricketts

Severely Pruned: God’s Art of Pruning

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2021 by Larry L. Ricketts

All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92780.

Trilogy Christian Publishing/TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

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For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-68556-044-7

E-ISBN: 978-1-68556-045-4

Dedication

To all of God’s children who have suffered great loss.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank the Lord Jesus for saving me from a path of possible unknown destruction. He has delivered me from death on numerous occasions, which can only be attributed to His purposes and plans. I want to thank my wife, Ellen, for encouraging me to keep the faith to continue writing. Thanks to the many wonderful people who have encouraged me to stay the course. Thanks, also, to the folks who have stood against me on numerous occasions. It has taken everything I’ve been through to see what I see today. Thanks to Newburgh Theological Seminary for reinstating me after a series of unforeseen trials. Thanks to the KJV of the Bible. It is this translation that will be used throughout this writing. Thanks to TBN and Trilogy for taking an interest in this work.

Preface

In this present day of extreme loss for many families, it is my desire, and I believe the Lord’s will, to tell my story of going from losing everything to one of happiness and new life. The Bible has a lot to say about how the Lord uses the art of pruning to bring His purposes and will to pass in the lives of His children. Often when trials and tribulations hit close to home, the enemy will use these events to strike Christianity with guilt, discouragement, fear, and hopelessness. It is my desire to bring encouragement to the suffering and renewed hope to the downtrodden. It is my prayer to raise the level of relationship between the Lord and His redeemed. Growth and multiplied fruit are the desired result of pruning our lives.

I will be referring to my deceased wife, Denise. I want to thank my new wife, Ellen, for encouraging this project. Ellen has given her full support in writing this book and has been a major part of my decision to do this. The Lord Jesus is the center of both our lives and will be the center of this story. I have been a workaholic all my life, from selling berries, running a paper route, and working on the farms as a youth. I then traveled forty-eight states as an over-the-road truck driver and worked twenty-plus years in Indiana and Illinois coal mines as a heavy equipment operator. I have been a working pastor since 1980. I am well acquainted with hard work. I love to garden and watch things grow. It is from the farming, gardening, reading books, and personal experience that I have learned the art of pruning. This art is something that can be learned from our literal earthly lives and applied to our spiritual lives as well.

Introduction

Pruning is an art used to trim fruit trees and berries to help them reach their fullest yields. There are two main styles of pruning: severe and trimming. The trimming style is used to thin the branches and remove dead and dying branches from the trees or berries. The severe style removes just about everything except a few main branches. The severe style allows the tree to basically start over. This also gives the roots a chance to grow in strength and mass.

Tame blackberries are my favorite to grow. One very important thing is that blackberries do not prune the same way apple trees do. This goes for every type of tree, bush, flower, or berry. The same thing goes for human beings. We are all different. We, as people, get into trouble when we try to prune other people. That’s the Lord’s job. He must prune each one of us differently. No two people are identical, which requires selective pruning by the Lord.

The first subject of my story is raising blackberries. From this, one needs to know a little about how blackberries grow and how to prune them. Many believe there is no way to prune berries. That is not true. You can trim them for greater yields, and you can severely prune them. Severely pruning them means to cut the vines off at the ground, leaving only stubs and roots. Blackberry vines only yield in the second year. Each year they will grow new shoots for the next year’s growth. The vines that produced this year will die. Those need to be removed. My story will begin with the blackberries and the message they were trying to tell me.

I need to make this clear, however, that I am not in any way inferring or proposing that what I am sharing is to be made into a principle of new doctrine. The Bible is complete. It needs no new doctrines. I am merely witnessing what I have observed the Lord doing in my life. In doing so, it is my prayer that someone may grow closer to the Lord with a better understanding of the often-asked question, Why?

Part One:

Pruning Without Your Control

Blackberries Pruned

For years I had one of the nicest blackberry patches around. I let several friends come out and pick for themselves while still having enough for my freezer. The basic art for pruning the blackberries is best accomplished in the spring when the leaves start to bud. The juices are flowing then and quick to respond to the pruning. Pruning is easy once you get the hang of it. There are only two basic things you need to do on blackberries. First, cut the tops off the main stalks, and second, trim the side branches back to six to eight inches. My berries were in an old calf stall that had been torn down, so the fertilizer was already there. The vines were eight to twelve feet tall. I would cut the main stalks down to six feet, leaving just enough reach that I didn’t need a ladder at harvest. The parts I cut off increased the harvest in size and volume.

Denise and I were together for a total of about thirty-three and a half years before the Lord took her home. That fact is important to this story. I gave my all to the Lord in the fall of 1977, and we were married in 1983. We both had a son, each from previous marriages before Jesus came into our lives. We lived in the country on one and three-quarters acres where I grew apples, cherries, walnuts, pecans, pears, persimmons, and several kinds of berries. While I may not be able to consider myself an expert in gardening, I know enough to understand what this story is