God Plans on Fruit at our Wedding

We love flowers, but God wants fruit. After all, a dying world needs fruit. Flowers are necessary, but only the fruit gives LIFE. The flower of the vine is meant to last only a short time before it gives way to the fruit. Yet too often we praise the beauty of the flower, and treat the fruit as incidental. Jesus said that “every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2). God desires fruit which is a result of the branches being united with the Vine.

Unless the flower fades away, there will be no fruit. Fruit brings life. It is for the purpose of the fruit that a vine is planted. The flower is necessary, but incidental. God is the vine dresser, His Son is the vine. We are the branches. Too often we want to emphasize our flowers, our beauty. Most training of Pastors and workers is aimed at the “Flower”, the program, the organization, the promotion, the “soul of natural man”. The aim is to make us independent, confident, quick-witted, slick, organized, confident, self-assured, – beautiful to the eye of the beholder (visitors, congregation).

God is actively engaged as the Vinedresser of the bride of His Son. He has promised His Son a bride without spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Eph 5:27). As we will be a spiritual bride clothed in NEW Heavenly bodies, these spots and wrinkles are on our soul. Our Eternal Vinedresser must check and deal with these unfortunate growths and wrinkles. He is constantly cutting them off, performing “plastic surgery” on our soul and spirit-that which we will bring to the wedding.

God is actively engaging us on two fronts. First to bring us to the place where we are living by the life of His Son-the exchanged life, the abiding life, planted within us by the New Birth. Second, He is doing a direct work in our hearts to weaken the fund of our natural resources which led to Adam’s sin in the first place. For the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14)

Everyday true Christians are learning these two lessons-a rising up of the Life of Christ as our life, and a checking and handing over to death of that natural, soulish life.

In the process, the world may view us as weak, ignorant men who confess “I do not know – but He knows, and that is enough”. After all, it is all about His Fruit, not our flower. May God deliver us from today’s “Arrogance of the Soul!”

From the MudPreacher:Flowers Smell Great, are Less Filling, but Fruit Gives Life!

Is This a Delivery You Will Accept?

As followers of Christ we are to seek to see Jesus manifested in our flesh. This is what Paul says in 2 Cor 4:11: “For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus‘ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.“ After all, it is our visible displays that the world can see. They see peace in the midst of storms, joy in the face of disease or death, calm and peace in the face of frustrating circumstances. What controls the inner man always reveals itself in the outer man. This is why Jesus placed such emphasis on love for one another, especially the unlovely-the poor, the hungry, the naked. The Christian to be effective in this world or cynicism needs to make the invisible Christ known in our visible bodies. Paul says how we are to do this, by being constantly delivered unto death and then by the implied relying on Jesus alone for life.

A man delivered unto death has no power over his own life. He has no power to act on his own. Adam in the garden was to be dependent upon God and all that God gave him to have power over. Adam was to have no power over the fruit of two trees in the midst of the garden-the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the tree of Life. Adam was to depend totally upon God for life, and totally upon God for the knowledge and power to live this life. Adam was not to live independently of God. Adam was not to know about evil and good, and thereby have the power to act independently of God. God and the knowledge of Him was to be Adam’s life.

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they became possessed with an inherent power to act independently from God, a power that played into Satan’s hands. You lose that power when you come to new life in Jesus Christ. He is your new Lord. You are to live life now by the life of Jesus Christ, and draw everything for living from Him. (Gal 2:20).

We say we desire to give glory to God with our lives, yet by acting under our own power, we give glory to ourselves. We fool ourselves into thinking we are living in Christ when there is very little we do that does not require His power to act. We live, eat, work and play with Jesus carefully tucked in our backpack, or tattooed on our body. Occasionally we even consult our magic Jesus Prophet doll and ask Him “what would you do”? We do so little trembling in our lives. If we were being delivered unto death, we would be trembling. If we were facing our Creator God, we would be trembling. We do not know what it is to be “always delivered unto death”. And so the life of Jesus is not manifested to the dying world around us. They see a different Jesus, a powerless Jesus, a Homeboy Jesus.

Because we are acting under our own power, we live a self-assured, yet self-possessed Christian life. In such a life, Jesus Christ cannot be revealed. Too often we have decided, acted, and had power apart from Him. The Christ we manifest is too small because in ourselves we have grown too big.

Prayer: Lord, deliver me unto death. Deliver me into the life which depends totally upon Jesus Christ. I give you my heart, my soul, my body and my strength. My life is under your control. My life will be in your hands from this day forward.

Only Knowing Jesus Has the Power to Set You Free

“you will know the truth and the truth will set you free!”

So many times it seems the church is only about doctrine. This belief versus that belief. This interpretation versus that interpretation. Pastor search committees are often focused on what the applicant believes. New church attenders want to know what the pastor and the church believes.

Doctrine is not what changes lives. Too many Christians confuse doctrine with spirituality. We confuse doctrine with truth. Jesus said the “truth” or “aletheia” will set you free. The word means reality. Facts or doctrine only confirm the reality. The reality is what changes lives.The reality is what impacts our daily lives. The doctrine simply comes after the reality impacts our life.

Jesus said “You shall know the truth” and then said “I am the truth”. Doctrine and spirituality MUST flow from our Real Relationship with our Real Savior. If we do not know intimately our Savior, doctrine does not matter. Divine things only become real to us as Jesus is real to our everyday lives. Doctrine has no power to set us free from the power of sin and death. Only knowing the TRUTH-Jesus Christ will have that impact on our lives.

Do you know Him? Do you seek to follow His teachings. Read Matthew 5, 6 and 7 and see the truth of Jesus Life. The life He desires you to have is an EXTRAORDINARY life, one which frees us from anger, guilt, lust, bitterness, greed, fear and envy. No doctrine can do that. Only knowing the TRUTH-Jesus, can do that.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, reveal the Truth of Jesus Christ to my heart. Open up His Word to me that I might know Him as the Reality of my everyday life. Convict me of my resistance to His will, and build His righteousness in my life.

Is Jesus Just a Charm to You?

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

Is Christ living in you? If so, why can’t I see Him? Shouldn’t your life exhibit some evidence that Jesus is living within you?

It seems at times that Jesus is irrelevant to our real life. I believe that most Christians could go days without bringing His Name into their conversations, even with other Christians. Sure, we say things about God, how He should bless our food, our children, but as far as active involvement in our lives-No. We don’t actively seek Him like we actively seek food, entertainment, friendship. We actively seek out what movie to go see, what restaurant to eat at, what concert to go to, what television program to record or watch. What do we do each day to ACTIVELY SEEK after Jesus Christ. I am afraid that to many “Christians” Jesus is like an accessory, a charm they wear on their neck or on their wrist.

We need to start selling Jesus charms with the wearers date or year of salvation engraved on the back. To many, that is all that Jesus is. What does Jesus mean to you TODAY? What is He doing in your life TODAY? Jesus lives to give us LIFE, and that life is today, not some distant time in the future. Jesus was never meant to be a good luck charm. He is LORD. He is GOD.

Jesus lives within us and the life we now live is not our own, He is our LIFE today! In ALL your ways actively seek to make Jesus known. Charms are neat, but how has He impacted your LIFE today? Can others see Jesus in You?

Prayer: Father, thank you for the life I have through Jesus Christ. Enable Him to increase, and me to decrease. May He live through me, so that others can see that I am His.