spiritual fruits?

“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)

I always have a hard time with this passage, but it is one that can be used by many who say Christianity is wrong to prove their point…

You see Jesus says here that you can tell a tree by its fruit, and that any good tree will bear good fruit and any bad tree will not bear good fruit. So if you are not bearing fruit you need to be cut down and thrown into the fire. For we can know a tree by its fruit. And they will know we are Christians by our love…

But are we good at showing love?

We love things as humans when we get something from them or they are just like us. But if they push us to rethink our understanding or to move beyond our comfort zone, then it is not right and should not be tolerated.

All of us can love those who are like us and are nice to us and who love us. Jesus said that, even the tax collectors do that. But we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard, not because we are better, but because we are His hands and feet. We are the barometer by which the world measures Christianity. We can not be good sometimes and bad others, and expect people to see God for who He is. We need to be loving all as God first loved us. Not judging people, but loving them.

It is not our job to separate the wheat and the weeds, but to love and serve where we are. So do not be a wolf in sheeps clothing, and do not judge others, but show them your spiritual fruit, and follow Jesus. Loving the world as He first loved you!

not yet…

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, NRSV)

How many of us has this happened to? We go out and plant a garden, and there among the good seed we planted, up comes this other stuff!

I mean come on I didn’t plant that stuff. Why are those other plants growing where I sowed my good seed?

And here we would go out and pull the weeds. We want to get rid of the other plants so the seed we planted will get the nutrients, and grow and produce the fruit for which we planted it.

But what is a weed? And how did it get there…

Wally Armbruster in Noodles Du Jour raises this question: “Is a weed a flower that’s the victim of prejudice? (Does God think more of a rose than he does of crab grass?) Are you sure?”

Does God think more of a rose than a thistle?

Why does the master in the parable not have his servants (slaves) pull the weeds? Because in doing so some of the wheat would be pulled up as well, and rather than risk the harvest, you let the weeds grow…

And maybe the weeds are good plants that need more time to mature…

And if we take this to the next level, which are we? Are we wheat or are we weeds?

Yes. The answer is yes! We are both wheat and weeds. As we are both sinner and saint! And if we take out the weeds, we may just be removing us.

You see it is not our job to separate the good from the bad, we are to let it go and be who God has planted us to be, and let the angels sort it out in the end.

So not yet, it’s not time to separate, just be who God has made you to be and go on spreading His love.

prospers

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1, ESV)

This psalm is wonderful because it tells us that the tree that feeds off of the life that God gives it will prosper!

Planted by streams of water and feeding off of that it will give fruit in it’s season and be what God created it to be.

This is just like the man who meditates on the law of God day and night. I preached on the text last week and my youngest daughter asked what it meant to meditate.

Meditate means to focus on, to have that be the center of your life. How many of us have God’s law as the center of our lives?

If we do this, we will prosper but if we don’t then we will perish.

So watch were you get your council from, and who you are delighting in. Delight in the Lord and have Him to be the center of your life, and you will be like a tree that prospers!

drink in

Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will do this, if God permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over. (Hebrews 6:1-8, NRSV)

We can not relay the foundation once it has been laid… And we have this foundation. Now we must drink in the falling rain to grow in maturity…

You see just like the ground drinks in the rain water and the nutrients feed to it, and then it produces a crop useful for those who tend it that is how we must be.

We must drink in the water that Jesus gives, that leads to never thirsting again. We must take in the nutrients of a life lived in the light of God and soaking in the nutrients of His body all around us.

Mature in your christian life and move on from the baby food! God needs you to produce for the kingdom!

laid naked

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. (Hebrews 4:12-13, NRSV)

How many of you have ever had that dream where you are in front of your high school or work or whatever and you realize that you are naked?

We are embarrassed because everyone sees all of us.

And that is exactly how God sees us all the time.

God’s word is sharper than a two edged sword and pierces until it divides should from spirit and joints from marrow. He sees us as we are and we can not hide any part of us from Him. He sees us everywhere we go of every moment of every day.

And the best part to this scariness is He still loves us knowing all He does about us!

The Ministry Machine

Thom Schultz's avatarHoly Soup

In the midst of another hyper-busy day, the rueful Christian leader paused, looked across his desk, and said, “I no longer feel I’m running this organization. It’s running me.”

For many, ministry has become a machine. A big, complex machine that requires constant feeding and maintenance. What began as a tool and a structure to accomplish greater good has become, itself, the focus. Rather than a means to an end, the means has become the end.

This is part of what’s causing the drift of the American church, which has become big, complicated, bureaucratic, expensive and professionalized. Our new documentary film on the state of the church, “When God Left Building,” illustrates this phenomenon. Take a look at this brief clip with Rick Warren and a former megachurch staff member:

Tony Steward, the second man in the clip, said the American church is currently in its own “Industrial Age.” And…

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dead will hear and live

Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life. “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:24-29, NRSV)

The Walking Dead is and will be a reality…

Not as zombies though, sorry if that is what you were expecting.

We are all walking dead if we are walking with out Jesus, and in that we will spend eternity in a resurrection of condemnation.

Jesus tells us here that the dead will hear the voice of Jesus and through that they will live, and all of those who rest in death will hear and will rise to their resurrection, be that to life, or condemnation.

So get ready for the rising of the dead, but not the zombie apocalypse!

how does that happen?

He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” (Mark 4;26-32, NRSV)

Have you ever wondered how that little seed planted in the soil forms into the vegetable you eat?

I mean sure there is the nutrients in the soil that work with the water and the sun to make the plant grow and produce the fruit of the seed, yet that doesn’t explain how it happens…

Farmers plant seeds, and then rest. They sleep and let nature take its course. Sure they do their work, and water and fertilize, but there are things they just have to trust and know they don’t know about the process.

That is how the kingdom of God is, as if someone scattered seed and then it just sprouted! That is you the seed scatterer and it sprouts with out your help!

You just spread the seed of the kingdom by living a kingdom life in this world that needs the influx of God, and by being who God created you to be, you are spreading the seed of the kingdom and allowing God to work in and through this place and this time!

So keep spreading His love and mercy by being His hands and feet in this world!

Parent to child

If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and live securely in your land. And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land. You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you. You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new. I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. But if you will not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments, and you break my covenant, I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you; consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper. Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit. (leviticus 26:3-20, NRSV)

You can almost hear the parental voice coming out here…

If you follow the rules then all will be good, but if you don’t it will not be good for you…

I was raised in a home that was that way. You feared the spanking for not following the rules. You feared the punishment that would come if you stepped out of line, sothe house line was walked…

And yes this is God speaking to us through His word. But much like most of us as parents want our children to fear us, we also want that fear to not be the dominate fealing they have for us.

Fear is a good motivator, but love more often than not gets us much further. So God is speaking to you, just like you would or will or could speak to your child, as one that wants their offspring to live within the guidelines they have set for their lives, know that if they can do that their lives will be good.

So do not fear God, but follow where He is leading knowing it will be better for all of us in the long run!