Tag Archives: thorns

Fruitful Or Unfruitful?

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FRUITFUL OR UNFRUITFUL?

Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good ground, hear the word, accept it and produce a crop – some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4: 18-20).

One kind of soil – no growth. Another kind of soil, little growth, no plant. Another kind of soil, no fruit. Only one kind of soil produces a crop and even then the measure of the harvest varies. Why?

All four kinds of people hear the word. The word falls on their ears. Some hear it and fail to respond – the pathway kind of people. Their hearts are hardened by their own thoughts and behaviour patterns and they have no intention of accepting change. The word has no impact on them at all. They carry on living as though they had never heard it.

Some hear it and respond joyfully but it doesn’t last. When the first hint of trouble or opposition comes, they back off and their faith and commitment dies. They are in it only for what they can get out of it. If God does not come to the party, if things don’t go the way they expected, they’re out of there, back to their old way of thinking and living. They tried it but it didn’t work because their expectations were not met.

The third kind of soil receives the seed eagerly but it is already occupied by other things. Jesus identified two already-growing plants which will not give way for the seed of the word; the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. These thought patterns are already entrenched and will not make way for the truth. Both ways of thinking cause a person’s mind to be split.

Worry takes two forms; “what if” and “if only”.

“What if” projects the mind into an unknown and uncertain future. Worry produces fear which obliterates faith. Faith is calling those things that are not as though they were. Fear is calling those things that have not happened as though they had. Worry so overtakes the mind that it is impossible to think rationally until the worrier makes a deliberate choice not to worry and replaces negative thoughts with the truth. Worry has no end because it has no answer.

‘If only” is just as pernicious because it overtakes the mind with regret. Just like worry, regret has no end. It churns over circumstances that belong to the past, cannot be relived and cannot be changed. Satan uses these two powerful ways of choking out the seed of God’s word so that it cannot take root in the heart.

Another powerful “weed” that takes over the mind is the desire for riches. If worry splits the mind so that I am “here” in my body but my mind is “there” where my anxiety or regret is, greed also splits the mind so that I am “now” in the present with my money and possessions but also “then” when I make more money in the future.

Both of these mind-sets leave no room for the word of God to take root in the mind, change the heart and produce the fruit of the truth in the life.

There is only one answer to these pre-occupied minds. It begins with the “want to”. If there is no desire for God, there will be no appetite for His word. Desire begins with a sense of need. We get hungry when we have not eaten for a while. How do we develop an appetite for God’s word? By reading it! Our taste and appetite for certain kinds of food is developed by what we eat. Children who live on junk food will have no appetite for meat and vegetables. If we want to live fruitful lives, we must change our diet.

Those who receive and act on God’s word begin to change. Their roots will go down into the soil of truth and soon the fruit will begin to grow. At first it will be green and immature but, given the continuing nourishment of the word, the fruit will eventually mature and be food for others.

What kind of fruit does the one bear who receives the seed into good soil? It is the fruit of character and behaviour that reflects the nature of the seed.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal. 5: 22-23).

How can we tell what a person thinks? Listen to the words that come out of the mouth and watch the fruit of the life. How do people respond to adversity? What comes out of their mouths when they are offended or concerned? What is inside will always come out. Squeeze a lemon and lemon juice will come out! Squeeze a person and what is inside will come out.

These are the kinds of people Jesus had to deal with. These are the kinds of people we encounter in our lives. What kind of soil are you?

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.

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Fruitfulness Is The Test

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FRUITFULNESS IS THE TEST

Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful for those for whom it is farmed, receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case – the things that have to do with salvation. God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help Him (Heb. 6: 7-10).

To the Hebrew people, intellectual assent to a doctrine was of no value if it did not issue in action. If one’s beliefs did not produce the fruit of faith. Faith was as barren as a piece of land that bore thorns and thistles instead of a crop that was valuable to the farmer. Rain falling on unproductive land was a waste and the land deserved the curse of God on it.

People who once trusted Jesus for salvation and then turned their back on Him, going back to their unrighteous ways, was as useless as a field of weeds. Like the weeds, they were destined for the fire.

What is the writer saying? A person who does not produce the fruit of salvation is like a piece of land that receives the blessing of God’s rain and then grows only thorns and thistles. What is the fruit of salvation? A life given to God to serve Him by loving and serving His people. Just as the fruit on a tree reveals the nature of the tree, so the fruit of a life reveals the nature of that life.

The writer has warned his readers that it is dangerous to go back to the old way because it would lead them to sterility and death. On the other hand, however, the fruit that they bore showed him that they had not abandoned their faith. They were showing their love to God by supporting and helping God’s people. This was surely the evidence that they were still rooted in Jesus and had not gone back in the old life of selfish pursuits.

‘Keep going,’ he urged them. ‘Don’t give up on your faith. God will not forget the way you have lovingly served Him by your kindness to His people. This is the fruit of your faith in Jesus, showing that you have His nature in you.’

We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realised. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised (Heb. 6: 11-12).

These readers has made a good start, indicating by their fruitful lives, that they were on the way of the Lord. ‘But,’ said the writer, ‘it’s not only about a good start. It’s about a good finish.’ The secret of the way of the Lord is to keep going until you reach your destination. When they turned from their own way and returned to the Lord, they began a journey that would take them to God. He had promised them an inheritance as His sons and daughters – His very own nature which He had given to Adam before he fell into sin. Trouble and persecution should never cause them to want to go back, as the Israelites had done.

God’s salvation plan was to restore His nature in man so that His human family would once again enjoy oneness with Him. The journey back to Him demands both faith and patience because we have an enemy without and an enemy within. How do we overcome so that we can be replicas of Jesus, God’s Son who is the model of perfect sonship?

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises so that, through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Peter 1: 3-4).

God has promised us His power to overcome our enemies, the devil who deceives us and our old nature that pulls us towards selfishness and greed. He enables us to submit to Him as our Lord. As we yield our lives to Him, His Spirit gives us the power to say no to ourselves and yes to God.

How do we know that we are being transformed into the image of Jesus? Not that we have an elaborated superstructure of right doctrines but that we are kind to those in need. When we are rooted into Jesus, His life in us through our union with Him will produce the fruit of right living to His glory.

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.

 

Fruit Or Fruitless

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FRUIT OR FRUITLESS

“As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and travelled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was trampled down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop. ‘Are you listening to this? Really listening?'” Luke 8:4-8 (The Message).

How many sermons have been preached on this story!

As the crowds joined Jesus, He was aware that all of them represented one or even more of the soil types of which His story spoke. No doubt the scribes and Pharisees were among those whose hearts were so hard that the seed of God’s Word would remain exposed on the surface until the birds came and snatched it away.

What makes hearts so hard that the seed will never take root? Disobedience creates calluses in people’s hearts. God speaks and, because the time is not convenient, or because His instruction seems foolish or cuts across our own wishes or intentions, we do nothing. The next time His speaks, we hear but do nothing again. Eventually we no longer hear Him because our hearts have become deaf to His voice.

Sin dulls our sensitivity to His word. Self-will and the notion that we know better or that we are convinced we are right, like the Pharisees were, shuts us off from the influence of God’s Word until it no longer penetrates our minds and we dismiss it with contempt.

Gravelly soil represents the shallow person who is so caught up with the glitz and glamour of the world and the all the interests and entertainment that it can offer that the delicate roots of the Word of God find no place to anchor themselves. There’s hardness under the surface that resists the truth and the small plant of faith eventually withers and dies.

Ground that is full of weeds is like the person who has a divided heart. Jesus identified the weeds as “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches.” These are interesting concepts. To worry implies that you are split — you are here but your mind is there. You may be in church but your mind is somewhere else, churning over a situation or problem you cannot solve. You are unable to give your attention fully to God’s Word at that moment.

The deceitfulness of riches is equally distracting and you are equally split in your mind. Instead of being content with what you have now, you are continually living in the future — scheming and planning how you can get more money then. “Weeds” rob you of contentment and distract you from living in the present and in the place where you are here and now. Consequently God’s Word is gradually pushed out of your mind as you grapple with your worries and your ambitions.

The person who recognises the value of what God says and applies it diligently to his life, not allowing sin, pride or self-will to prevent its entry into his heart or the glamour, greed or worries of the present life to choke its growth, will receive the Word. apply it and show the fruit of its influence in the way he lives.

There is a little of each type of soil in each of our lives, depending on our attitude to the issues the Word addresses. We may resist what God has to say about any sin we are entertaining; we may be shallow or superficial in our attitude towards something God requires of us that touches our pride or our purses; we may have worries or ambitions that we are not prepared to relinquish to Him, and in those areas we will shut out the Word and become unfruitful.

The fruitfulness of the seed depends entirely on quality of the soil that receives it.

When God looks for fruit in your life, what will He find?