"fruit"

We went to the market, Bankherotan, again today at 4 AM. walking through the aisles, as I have said before is a shock to the senses. The people, sights, sounds, and especially smells, just hit you as soon as you step out of the truck, and remain until you leave. Walking through the fruit aisles is my favorite. The smells are better for one, and the exotic fruits are so varied in their color, smell, shape etc than anything we have in the states, its an experience just to look.

This brought me to think about the spiritual fruit mentioned in the Bible. Galatians lists the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. The New Testament mentions fruit alot, starting with John the Baptist speaking to the Pharisees in Matthew 3:7-10. Verse 10 says"even now the ax of God's judgement is poised, ready to sever your roots. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire. Matthew 7:15-20 and John 15:1-4 have similar messages.

Jesus and John don't beat around the bush in these passages. He says if we have no fruit we will be cut off and thrown into the fire. It seems clear to me He is talking about Hell.

It isn't easy to read these passages, but like I said, Jesus wasn't known for making following Him easy. If you claim to be a Christian, think about your life and determine if there is spiritual fruit. If we are truly children of God we WILL have fruit. We need to evaluate our lives to see if we are producing. Faith without works is dead. Read James 2: 14-20. Vs. 17 says So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn't show itself by good deeds is no faith at all-it is dead and useless. The rest of this passage and Mt 7:21-23 tell us that not all who call on the name of the Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, to some he will say, depart form me, I never knew you.

I must also clarify that we are not saved by works. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve Salvation. We are all sinners and are only saved through the grace of God by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But, if we are a "good tree", one of Gods children, we will have good fruit.

One of the reasons I am in the Philippines this summer is because after thinking and praying about these passages, I determined that this was where my life produced the most fruit. After taking a missions course this week I have been reminded that one of the reasons we as Christians are here is to fulfill Gods redemptive plan to the nations. We are to go and make disciples of all the nations. Too often we get the mindset of Jonah, who wanted the benefits of election, but none of the responsibilities. We have become to introspective and desire the blessings of God, but do not want to be a blessing to others.

We don't need to travel to the Philippines, or to anywhere for that matter to fulfill that responsibility. We need to be fulfilling it wherever we are. We need to boldly tell and show people our relationship with Jesus Christ, and His love, grace, sacrifice and mercy, not try to justify our faith through facts, or cliche sayings.

Go make some "fruit"