praying

For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:9-14, NRSV)

I love this thought, that there is someone out there who is always praying for me.

This could be your job. Not to pray for me, but for our brothers and sisters.

We are told by Paul to be praying without ceasing, and we see how he prayed for others.

How can we do this?

Pray for others?

How about you carry a list with you and pray for those people throughout the day.

Or if you have a smart phone or tablet, make a list on that. Or better yet search the iTunes store or Play Store for an app, there is an app for that!

Make it your undertaking to pray, and then know that someone is probably also praying for you!

Fruit of the Spirit

fruit-of-the-spirit-are-you-son-rippenedLive by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:16-26, NRSV)

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

But wouldn’t that be fruits of the spirit?

I mean fruit is singular, or is it. I live on fruit, means I don’t eat anything but fruit, but does it mean I only eat apples? And then is that only one type of apple?

Don’t all of these things love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control kind of have to do with the one thing we are told to do by Jesus and the Hebrew Scriptures: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and love you neighbor as yourself.

Love.

If there is love there is joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All of these things could be attributes of love.

So is the fruit of the spirit  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, or is it Love, and all the rest are attributes of love?

Yes is the answer. If you are living a life filled with the Spirit you will care more for the other than you will for yourself, so there will be all 9 of these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So live filled with the Spirit, and care for the other.

Fear, anger, hate, suffering

path to the darksideThus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the LORD.
They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
Blessed are those who trust in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
(Jeremiah 17:5-8, NRSV)

A tree planted by water does not die, but sends it’s roots out to feed on the water from the stream…

Cursed those and dying trees are those who trust in themselves or others.

When we turn in on ourselves. That is when our hearts move away from God.

We can see in the quote from Yoda, that path to our demise and following the darkness is a slow spiraling one.

We look into our selves and fear the world around us.

That leads us to anger over the things we can not control.

Anger leads to hate, hating those things that will not bend to our whims.

And hate leads to suffering…

So don’t be Anakin, but follow the light, and plant yourself where you can abide in Jesus.

good tree

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:15-20, NRSV)

You will know a tree by its fruit.

And yes you can tell an apple tree because it will only produce apples. And a pear tree will only produce pears.

You won’t see oranges growing on a banana tree.

But are all of our actions good?

We as Lutherans believe we are both saint and sinner. We do both good and bad things.

So is it easy to tell the wolf in sheep’s clothing human?

Now it is true that you can tell a lot about a person from their actions. More how do you act the 167 hours you are not in worship? Do you act the same in the congregational building as you do outside of it?

Your nature shines through, and if you let Jesus in, He will help you produce good fruit.

fruit

may the holy spirit be with youNow John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:4-10, NRSV)

As I read this after the text from John 15 from yesterday. The connection between the 2 is bearing fruit and abiding in Jesus.

But as I read this I had to stop for a moment and think, was John the first rendition of a Wookie? Wearing camel’s hair, and a leather belt. Now he was wearing the belt around his waist, and Wookies wear them as sashes… So there is a similar look I am thinking. Or maybe John just looked like a fruit!

But here is the thing. People were not afraid of what he looked like. In fact I think the author of Matthew tells us this to paint the picture for us, that John was rooted in Jesus, and because of that no one noticed how different he was. They listened to his message and came to be baptized.

Even the religious leaders were checking him out. They must had heard about the powerful preaching going on, so they came too.

So be connected to Jesus and don’t worry about what the world thinks about you.

And may the Holy Spirit be with you always!

abide

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. (John 15:1-8, NRSV)

I read this passage again this year, and this time I was struck by the word abide…

“Abide in me as I abide in you.” Is how verse 4 starts. And in the Greek we have the word μενω 7 times in verses 4 – 7. (3 times in verse 4, once in 5 and 6 and 2 times in 7) It is used once in every verse. Yes you will tell me if you look at it, the word abide is in there 8 times. Yes in the English translations we have the word appears 8 times for it to make more sense. But actually this first part of verse 4 only has the word once. A better translation of “Abide in me as I abide in you.” is “Abide in me as I am in you.”

And that is the point here.

We are to abide in Jesus.

We are to stay in Jesus.

We are to trust in Jesus.

We are to depend on Jesus.

You see Jesus is telling His disciples that they are all intertwined and support each other, but they are only dependent on Him. The image of the vine is a beautiful one, and we can assume Jesus was walking with His disciples through a vineyard as He was telling them this.

You see a mature vine with branches is a wonderful living thing. The branches are all intertwined and they support each other, however the branches are not dependent on the other branches for survival, for that they need to vine. And the branches don’t decide who is not producing fruit and get cut away, or who need a snip here or there to help them produce more fruit, that is the gardener or the vine dresser.

And the thing we have to remember is even when we abide in the vine, we still get pruned. We still get cut back, because uncontrolled growth is not good and the vine dresser knows what is best for the branches.

So stay, remain, live in Christ as He is in you! And don’t worry about the other branches, just support them in their life in the vine, and rest in His grace.