Tag Archives: fruit

1 BY THE WAY…MESSENGERS AND MESSAGE

Christian Life, ,

Philippians is done. In the interim, while I wait for the next series to take shape, there are some random thoughts that have captured my attention as we have meandered through Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Following Paul’s unwitting disclosure of his own life and character in his writings, I have gleaned some valuable insights into this life of faith and obedience to which we have also been called.

Did you know that everyone is s messenger? 

There can be absolutely no doubt that we belong to Jesus. We are bound to Him by faith. He has received us. We are forever His and joined to Him for now, in this life, and in the life to come. Whatever we face and experience in this life, Jesus has accepted full responsibility for every detail of who we are, what we need, and why we are here. We are unconditionally loved and treasured, far beyond what we can fully understand or appreciate. 

This close and unbreakable union with Jesus has some spinoffs for us. One that I am recognising with increasing understanding is that we are His messengers and His message. 

 What do I mean? 

Whether we like it or not, whether we are aware of it or not, in every circumstance or situation we face, we are unwittingly saying something to those around us. Yes, we testify to Jesus by our words but…what we don’t say…or what we say by implication…often says much more than our words convey. 

I am realising that I am a walking message about the one in whom I believe. This means that my union by faith in Jesus has moment-by-moment evidence in the nitty-gritty of my life…whether my faith in Jesus translates into a character being transformed or whether my witness is only cosmetic. 

Jesus spoke some sobering words to those who pretended to follow Him. 

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭46‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This question has no answer except in the conscience of those who want to get what they can get from Jesus without the intimacy and fruit of true union with Him. 

Jesus spoke of fruit that identifies the nature of the tree. 

“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, I ask myself as I journey through each day, “What message am I passing on to the people I meet? Does the way I conduct my life…what I say and how I say it, what I do when I’m alone or in company, meet someone I consider beneath or above me…speak of Jesus or of myself…I, me, and mine? 

Being a witness to Jesus is so much more than preaching to an unbeliever. Being a witness means being both a messenger and the message…every moment of every hour of every day…being aware that Jesus and I are one. 

THE GREAT DECEPTION

Bible Study, ,

Genesis 3:1, 4-5 NLT‬
[1] “The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
[2] “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. [3] “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
[4] “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. [5] “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

What was this all about? In a subtle way, Satan, masquerading as “light”, introduced to the first human pair the greatest deception ever perpetrated on humankind.

The devil’s ambition was to replace God as the sovereign of the universe. He tried this ploy before the beginning of time but God very smartly put him in his place.

‭Isaiah 14:12-14 NLT‬
[12] “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. [13] For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. [14] I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ “

Who is this ‘shining star, son of the morning’?

According to Scripture, God created an order of spirit beings whom He called ‘gods’, sometimes ‘sons of God’ or ‘princes’, to whom He assigned the nations over which to govern in partnership with Him.

‭Deuteronomy 32:8 NLT‬
[8] “When the Most High assigned lands to the nations, when he divided up the human race, he established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in his heavenly court.”

This is an amazing insight into God’s heavenly parliament. Each of His ‘cabinet minsters’ in His ‘heavenly court’ was given a nation to govern under His authority. Daniel’s prayer, in Daniel 10, refers to a being called ‘the Prince of Persi’ who fought against Michael, one of God’s chief angels. This ‘prince’ must have been Persia’s ruler.

A high-ranking member of God’s angelic divine counsel, eventually called ‘Satan’, meaning ‘adversary’, led a rebellion against God and was cast out of heaven, taking with him those angelic beings who sided with him.

‭Ezekiel 28:12-17 NLT‬
[12] “Son of man, sing this funeral song for the king of Tyre. Give him this message from the Sovereign Lord: “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. [13] You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone— red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald— all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. [14] I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. [15] “You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. [16] Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned. So I banished you in disgrace from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire. [17] Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.”

Was this ‘king of Tyre’, possibly the angel assigned to rule over Tyre, the one who led the rebellion?

God has pronounced His judgment on the heavenly rebels, assigning them to eternal death, as He did the human race, because of their rebellion.

‭Psalms 82:1-2, 6-7 NLT‬
[1] God presides over heaven’s court; he pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings: [2] “How long will you hand down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked?…
[6] I say, ‘You are gods; you are all children of the Most High. [7] But you will die like mere mortals and fall like every other ruler.’ ”

God created a man and a woman in His image, to begin to populate the earth with the human race. He decreed that they would manage His planet with and for Him, and eventually take over the function of the rebellious heavenly beings in God’s divine counsel.

‭Daniel 7:27 NLT‬
[27] “Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be given to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will last forever, and all rulers will serve and obey him.”

‭Genesis 1:26-28 NLT‬
[26] “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” [27] So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. [28] Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

He gave mankind authority to manage the physical creation, excluding the nations which were under the rule of the gods, princes, sons of God…His heavenly council,

The plan was working well until….

this Satan, now functioning on the planet God prepared for His human family, disguised as a serpent, and determined to undermine God’s authority and position over creation, approached His human representative on earth, Adam, through his wife, Eve, with a subtly disguised deception….

“Perhaps God didn’t mean what He said”!

And a counter offer,

“You can be like God, make your own rules, and live without Him!”

True, they could, but Satan didn’t tell them the small print. God said they would die if they disobeyed Him. Satan said they wouldn’t die. Instead they, like God, would have experiential knowledge of good and evil.

Here is the subtle deception. God made man LIKE HIMSELF with His life in them. Humans were able to know and have fellowship with Him and live in harmony with Him and His creation through His Spirit in them.

Satan offered them a likeness, not to God but, without saying so, to himself, apart from God, without God and all that He is, cut off from God, and trying to be God. The devil offered man a life that was completely independent of God, so-called ‘free’ from God’s authority and, so they thought, of accountability to Him.

This offer sounded attractive, so they fell for it. Of course, Satan didn’t tell them that they were now at his mercy, under his influence, and subject to the same consequences of disobedience to God as he was.

Simply because he said so, Satan could not cancel the death sentence.

‭Romans 6:23 NLT‬
[23] “For the wages of sin is death…”

Satan has control over the world system which is dominated by selfishness and greed. Everyone without God, dead to God and without His Spirit in them, lives under his influence. He keeps people in the dark by continuing to lie to them with his great deception,

“You don’t need God. You can be God,”…

just as he chose to do when he rebelled. Since he lost his bid to unseat God, he was determined to ruin God’s plan for the human race by claiming authority he did not have and luring them away from union with God.

‭2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT‬
[4] “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”

Independence, the great deception, still rules in the hearts of all people. Until, by God’s gracious intervention, His mercy extended to those who believe what He says, everyone is spiritually dead and under His eternal death sentence.

Only God can undo what Satan has done…ansd He did, through His own Son, Jesus.

Stated very simply…

‭John 3:16 NLT‬
[16] “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

PRAYING GOD’S WAY – 13

Prayer, ,

THE FRUIT OF SALVATION

‭Philippians 1:11 NLT‬
[11] “May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.”

Our prayers for one another should always have a goal. Yes, we want the Lord to work in our lives; yes we want Him to sort out our trials and struggles so that we move along in our desire to be holy and to do His will; yes, we want to be more like Jesus, even if we are surrounded by the evil influences of our messed-up world, but… for what purpose? Where is all this going?

Paul puts the full stop at the end of the sentence… “the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.”

Did you get that? Life is full of circles, but the most important of all… God’s glory is the centre, the hub, the focal point of all circles. It’s all about Him. The final meaning of every circle is about Him. Why? He wants us to know how great He is for two reasons, not to blow His own trumpet but…

1…. So that we will love and trust Him enough to enjoy Him and everything we know about Him, and…

2…So that others will catch glimpses of Him in us that will help them get to know and love Him too.

And this becomes the greatest circle in the circles of life. Paul urged his readers in more than one letter to “do everything you do for God’s glory,” even ordinary things like eating and drinking.

What did Paul mean? God’s glory refers to everything He is in His nature and attributes. We cannot reflect God’s attributes because we are not all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere, but we can show people what He is like in His nature by imitating the way He treats people. The best way for us to know what God is like is by looking at Jesus. He is the reflection of all God’s nature in a human person.

‭Hebrews 1:3 NLT‬
[3] “The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God…”

‭John 14:9 NLT‬
[9] “Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?”

When we treat people the way God treats us, with patience, kindness, and mercy, people around us begin to get an idea of what the real God is like, not the distorted ideas we have about Him.

Trouble is that we are easily influenced by others who have wrong ideas about God. Unless we learn the truth about Him from His Word, we won’t be able imagine a God anything like He really is.

When people who reject God is and create a god in their own image, they project that image onto the God of the Bible. It’s no wonder people hate God, are afraid of Him and run from Him!

If the essence of God’s nature is love and everything He does, even if we don’t understand His ways, flows from His love, then our lives, guided by the love of God, will help us to point others to Him. The Holy Spirit in us, as we follow His leading, will produce the spiritual fruit that shows something of God’s character to our fellow humans.

So, Paul prays, “Amen“ to God’s desire for us to be like Jesus, “Let it be so,” so that others will believe in Him too. That should be the real purpose of our lives.

A Fruitless Fig Tree

Bible Study, , , ,

A FRUITLESS FIG TREE

Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, He went to Bethany with the Twelve.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to find out if it had any fruit. When He reached it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then He said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And His disciples heard Him say it. (Mark 11:11-14)

Really Jesus! Why were you so peeved about a fig tree that had no fruit because it was out of season? Were you having a bad hair day? Did you have the sulks?

If He did have the sulks, it would have been the first time in His life. No, Jesus did not have the sulks. He cashed in on a golden opportunity to give His disciples another valuable lesson. But the story is still incomplete. This was much more than simply another example of His power over nature. Read on!

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig true you cursed has withered!’ Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. ‘Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’ (Mark 11:20-25).

There are two valuable lessons hidden in this story. Firstly, fig trees had symbolic meaning for a Jew. God often referred to Israel as a “fig tree”. Where was the fig tree first mentioned in the Bible? Way back in Genesis, it was the first tree mentioned by name in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve realised they were naked, they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. It was man’s first attempt to deal with his sin in his own way. Was this why God called Israel a fig tree? Israel’s greatest sin against God was their idolatry. They did not trust God for His solution for sin. They worshipped and served false gods and lived fruitless lives as a result.

In a wordless lesson to His disciples, Jesus demonstrated to them how useless it was to attempt to approach God their own way. Just as fig leaves could not cover the sin in their hearts, so their self-effort was useless to deal with sin. Would the disciples have got the message? Yes, if they understood the imagery. The fig tree was full of leaves but no fruit. God’s people were full of “good works”, but they were useless to deal with sin. The real fruit was repentance – returning to the way of the Lord and coming under His authority. Only Jesus’s sacrifice could bring them back into fellowship with Him.

The second lesson was far more visible to them. Jesus was not showing off by speaking death to the fig tree. He was showing them by a clear visual aid how powerful faith was. Faith is expressed in ad declaration. Why did the tree die? Jesus spoke to it. He declared His intention. The tree must die in order to teach His disciples a life lesson they would never forget.

Paul used this same principle when he wrote to the Roman church about experiencing the reality of salvation.

If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom. 10:9).

Did you notice the sequence? Declare and believe.

Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

This does not mean, of course, that you can get God to do anything you want by simply speaking it out. Faith’s foundation is not what we want but what God has promised. His promises are a declaration of His intent, but we must activate them through faith.

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God (2 Cor. 1:20).

We activate faith by our declaration – like turning on a light by flicking the switch.

Is Jesus tying these two ideas together? Our sin is covered, not by the “fig leaves” of self-righteousness, but by the forgiveness God offers us through Jesus. However, it must be received by the declaration of faith. From then on our walk with the Lord is a journey of faith, steadfastly speaking out God’s promises rather than our doubts and fears.

Let us not be like fruitless fig trees.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

The Fruit Of The Root

Bible Study, , , ,

THE FRUIT OF THE ROOT

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another.”  Galatians 5:22-25.

Thankfully there is a counterpart to the nasty evidences of our corrupt hearts. Since Jesus came to take away sin, so said the Apostle John, it is possible for us to live sin-free lives. That does not mean that we are perfect. Far from it; but it does mean that we are not locked into a sinful lifestyle because we are powerless to do otherwise.

With the Holy Spirit resident in us, He changes us, slowly but surely into the Image of Jesus. In contrast to the “acts of the flesh”, which focus on the symptoms of corrupt hearts, Paul lists the work of the Spirit in us as “fruit”. What is the difference?

Jesus used the imagery of the vine and the branches. What do the branches need to do to bear grapes? Nothing. They simple remain attached to the vine. Anything that causes the branch to become detached will kill it. It will have to be pruned off because it has become useless.

What do we need to do to become fruitful? Nothing except to remain in the vine. Jesus even tells us how to remain in Him.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask what you wish, and it will be done for you…As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in His love.” John 15:5, 7, 9.

Keeping His commandments is the key to remaining in Jesus. But, you may object, isn’t that exactly what Paul said we don’t have to do – to obey the law? Isn’t it the same thing? Not at all. There is a great deal of difference between keeping the law in order to become righteous and keeping Jesus’ commands because we are already righteous.

If we are trying to become righteous by obeying the law, we have failed before we even start. We cannot change the imperfect to the perfect by our own effort because we still have the problem of guilt for our past sin even if we could be perfect from now on. There is a debt to pay and we can do nothing to pay it. God cannot overlook sin because He is a just God. He must deal with transgression of the law.

On the other hand, if someone else pays our debt to God and we are justified and set free from sin’s penalty, we are now indebted to our benefactor. Out of gratitude to Him and love for Him, we do what He instructs us because that is how love is expressed. Love is not love if we go on living the old way. Real love values what Jesus values and hates what He hates. Real love identifies so closely with Jesus that we become one with Him in what He desires.

The law was intended to show us what God is like and to teach us how to be like Him. It didn’t work because all the law did was to provoke to action the rebellion in our sinful natures. Jesus got rid of the law as a requirement for righteousness by fulfilling it for us and then removing the root of sin in our hearts. He replaced it with His own nature – the nature of a son who lives in loving submission and obedience to to the Father, and restored His Spirit to us.

“Now,” said Paul, “you are free to love Him and to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading because you old nature has been put to death.” Your life in union with Jesus will produce the fruit of the root; love, joy, peace – the outflow of your restored relationship with God; patience, kindness, goodness – your attitude to other people; faithfulness, meekness and self-control – your attitude towards yourself.

What is your root? Is it Jesus or is the old selfish nature still in charge?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.