we have an organic union with our evergreen, fresh, and forever new God!

The genuine believers in Christ do not live for themselves, trying their best to better themselves to become good people to be appreciated by others.

Rather, the genuine believers produce satisfying fruit and cheering drink for others to be happy and to enjoy the Lord. There’s an overflow of the divine life which they daily enjoy and which just comes out of them, and this life feeds others and quenches their thirst, making them happy.

We all need to have such a vital living, an overcoming life, in which we take God as our source, we trust in Him, we are being overshadowed by the sufficient grace enjoyed by us (2 Cor. 12:9), we are full of life to produce satisfying food and we are blossoming to produce cheering drink for others to be happy (see Hosea 14:7).

Our God is fresh, living, evergreen, and always new!

All throughout the book of Hosea we can see how God loves His people and wants them to return to Him, and He takes the lead to return to them even though they have been unfaithful to Him.

When Ephraim declares in Hosea 14:8, “What have I yet to do with idols?” God is so happy and He looks to His people in love, revealing Himself as the green fir tree! Hallelujah, our God is like a green fir tree, which is always green, ever fresh!

Our God is living, fresh, evergreen, never changing, and always new!

Throughout the Bible we can see that Christ is likened to a tree: in Gen. 2:9 we see the tree of life, in John 15:1 He is the true vine, in Song of Songs 2:3 He is the apple tree. Also, Christ is the shoot of the tree, the sprout, the root, and eventually the fruit on the tree.

Christ is the fruit of Mary’s womb (Luke 1:42), the fruit of the earth (Isa. 4:2), the fruit of the tree of life (Rev. 22:2), and the fruit of the loins (Acts 2:30).

Christ is the root of the tree, the tree itself, the shoot of the tree, the branch of the tree, and the fruit produced by the tree. Christ is God as the ever living, ever fresh, ever green, ever new one!

Our God is always new, and He is the source of newness and freshness. God is eternal, without beginning or end, and He is LIFE – the eternal life. Our God is ever-existing, ever-unchanging, ever-new, and ever fresh.

He never grows old or becomes worn, but He is forever the same – fresh, new, and living. Based on Him being ever-unchanging and ever-unfailing toward us, His people, we enjoy His fresh goings forth every morning!

His compassions are new and fresh every morning, and we trust in Him that every morning there’s something of Christ coming to us! Hallelujah for our fresh, new, living, ever green God!

An organic union with the evergreen fresh God

God is like a green fir tree, and our fruit is found in Him (Hosea 14:8). Our fruit is not in and of ourselves – it is of Him and in Him. This denotes an organic union with our evergreen and new God!

God is this evergreen tree, existing since forever and until eternity, and we are branches in Him! We bear fruit out of Him and in Him, and our fruit is found in Him. This is “more than an organic union; it is the oneness of two in one life, in one nature, and in one living” (life-study of Hosea, page. 62).

Through our regeneration we were grafted into the evergreen, new, fresh, living God, and now we bear fruit by abiding in Him continually. He is new and fresh, and He makes us also new and fresh, living, and evergreen!

What do we have to do with idols? Nothing! We need to return to our God who has already returned to us, and we will be refreshed, renewed, and restored.

Every morning we have the opportunity to be renewed and refreshed – we don’t receive “an injection of steroids” once and for all, but we daily, organically, and cyclically, are being built up and constructed with the element of God.

We are being daily renewed and restored, regenerated in the sense of a perpetual, continual, seasonal, daily renewal (see Titus 3:5 and footnote on regeneration).

In this way, we share one life and one living with the Lord by virtue of our being grafted in Him and having our being, our living, and our fruit in Him. This is what He desires, to be fully one with His people in an organic way!

Oh, Lord, You are unchanging – You never have grown old! Through countless ages You are ever fresh, and Your newness is being unfolded daily! You are ever green, forever new, and Your freshness is as the dew! Lord, we have nothing to do with idols – we return to You to be refreshed and renewed by You daily! We treasure being in this organic union with our evergreen God!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from, life-study of Hosea (pages. 61-62), and, Truth Lessons (Level Three, vol. 2, lesson 37, by Witness Lee), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of the Minor Prophets, week 2 (entitled, The Restoration of Israel — Transformation in Life by God’s Love).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Our Father, as the evergreen, / Thou art forever new; / Thou art the ever living Lord, / Thy freshness as the dew.
  # We’re renewed and revived by the Lord day by day; / He is grace upon grace and refreshing as dew.
  # “Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!” / Morning by morning new mercies I see;
• Picture source: green fir tree.