365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 305

I started reading some sermons regarding the fruit of the spirit and came upon this one that explained what fruit is. The link to the full sermon is below:

Because, you see, these qualities are fruit. And you can’t make fruit, can you – well, there is doubtless an Apple factory somewhere, but that’s something different. You can’t go and watch a banana being made, or the peel being put on an orange. Fruit grows. It’s the farmers and the growers who produce fruit, not factories or mills. The farmer, or the market gardener, does a great deal to protect the fruit trees, and see that they aren’t eaten by pests, or get too dry, and that the trees have been pollinated so that the fruit can grow, but basically they have to be patient, and wait for the fruit to grow and ripen.

And so do we. We can’t manufacture love, or joy, or gentleness, or the other qualities Paul mentions. But we can help them grow.

How? Well, obviously first of all by really being God’s person, not just in Church on Sundays, but allowing what we do on Sundays to affect the rest of our week. Ideally we should try to take time to be with God, even if only for a few minutes, every day. John Wesley reminds us of the “means of grace” of prayer, both private and corporate, the Holy Scriptures and Holy Communion. He points out, in his famous sermon on “The means of grace” that these things aren’t powerful in and of themselves, but only insofar as they bring us towards God. We can pray until we’re blue in the face, Wesley says – well, words to that effect, anyway – but it’s not our prayer that changes things, it’s God working in and through our prayers. And, of course, Wesley reminds us, it’s not praying or whatever that makes us a Christian – it is God’s grace alone that can do that.

http://mrsredboots.blogspot.com/2010/06/fruit-of-spirit.html

Psalm 1: 1-3  Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 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, which yields its fruit in season and whose lead does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 292

Are there more to the fruits of the Spirit than what Galatians 5:22 tells us? Yes, there are other fruits that should be growing within us via the Holy Spirit. I came across the fruit of righteousness in Philippians 1:9-11. Righteousness is it’s basically being right with God but how do you be right with God? The only way is through your belief in Jesus as his son and your savior. Jesus washes away our sins, covers the sins up so that we can be holy just as he is. In this way, we can come before God and his holiness. Our sins don’t just go away. It is lifetime journey of working on making the righteous choice of not sinning. The journey needs to be filled with learning through devotions, bible studies and communion with other believers so that we can gain more knowledge and depth of insight to help us make those righteous choices. We will always have Jesus to cover our sins but in response, like any good relationship, there is a give and take from both sides. God gives and gives and gives and all he wants from us is our love and obedience to follow his will. 

Philippians 1:9-11 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

365 Days of Spirt-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 218

Time has gotten the better of me… I like my morning routine to have my blogging time with the Lord but I really had to do the dishes this morning and now my time has flown away. Despite not having time to get into this today, I am still contemplating and praying about the fruit within us. How about you?

Psalm 31:15 My times are in your hands.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 215 & 216

My daughter and I watched the movie The Great and Powerful Oz which ended up having a good message for all. Oz is plagued with confidence in himself. He doesn’t think he measures up enough to be with the woman he loves. He does dream of being great and that is what drives him. He chooses to forgo love for a dream of greatness. Fortunately, for him a tornado takes him from Kansas to the land of Oz. His journey in Oz will finally lead him to the truth that it isn’t about being great but about being good.

I am sure many people have this type of battle going on within them. The truth is when we accept Christ into our heart and the Holy Spirit dwells within us we have what we need to be good and to do good. Goodness is a fruit that is given to us by the Lord. This is fruit we can take and eat and let it nourish our souls. We were made in His image and he is a God full of goodness and mercy. We have the power within us to be good.  All things are possible with God.

Psalm 119:68 You are good, and what you do is good.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 162

I come from a family of women who are have a tendency to not listen well. We speak before thinking, react before processing and let anger take control. My mom, sister and I were on our annual spa trip together this last weekend. It is a good time but inevitably becomes a therapy session. Being the quieter one within this trio, I tend to just let them do the talking and will pipe in when there is a purpose behind it. I am not one to talk much about nothing. This time around I was having a very difficult time maintaining my patience and gentleness with them because of the negative stuff that seemed to be coming out more than anything else. My mom, being older and wiser, realized she may have to temper her mouth a little more so as not to set off my sister. I came to the point that I was thinking about not doing this anymore. I need a vacation from my vacation. It feels like walking on egg shells at times because anything you say can be held against you and may set off a volcano. I can’t be the therapist to my mother and sister and our relationships because I am too close to it all so I just have prayed and let them know I love them and hope that the Lord will guide them both in drawing nearer to the Lord so that they may bear the fruit the Holy Spirit can give.

James 1:19-21 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 87

I love this idea of putting on fruits of the spirit like clothes. It really is a reminder that these fruits are not something we just have within. We aren’t born with patience. Think of how a baby cries when it is hungry. The baby wants that milk NOW! We don’t  have kindness naturally. Think of the kids in the school yard calling each other names. We are just lumps of clay when we are born. God takes that lump of clay and molds it into a bowl and we ask the Holy Spirit to fill that bowl with fruit or to go with the clothes analogy, we put on our shirt of kindness, our pants of patience, our sweater of humility and so on; dressing in spiritual layers everyday no matter what the weather calls for. I am often hot at work as you know because the thermostat is up so high for the others near the windows who are cold but I have been putting on my spiritual layers of clothes and have been patient and kind regardless of my over-heated body. I am going to give names of the fruits to my clothes as I started above and think of those as I dress each morning.

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 365

It has been exactly one whole year I have been writing up my praises. This has been a tremendous blessing to me and I hope to you who have read them. I am thankful to God for the use of this blog to be able to praise Him for all he is, does and gives us. It just wouldn’t be the same writing it in a private journal. It has been an honor to share these praises with you this last year. So, what is up for the year to come? There are a few different options I have been thinking about but I keep coming back to this one so here it comes:  365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge.  The Holy Spirit is within us but we need to call on His power to work in us everyday. My favorite scripture is Galations 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  So, this coming year will be devoted to praying about these fruits, seeing these fruits in my life and striving to be Spirit-Filled everyday. I hope you will continue on this journey with me and will be Spirit-filled with all these fruits each day in the year to come.

Galations 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 64

'Rick' and 'Change' are two words that a lot of people would like to avoid. Why do it? Why change? Why get out of our comfort zone? Why not just keep our mouths shut? Why not just sit in our homes and do nothing? Because...
Because as a child of God, we are called to be fishers of men. My husband and I and hundreds of others sat and watched a sermon from a pastor at a church out in California. This sermon wasn't to his congregation. It was to a group of other pastors who have been gathering together for some time now trying to discern what God wants the church to do. Our church is breaking away as are lots and lots of others from the Presbyterian USA. It's a long process but the church has been forthcoming in honesty and communication about all that is taking place and what will be happening in the future. We got our first glimpse from this pastor's sermon on what this new, not sure what you call it, 'entity' for lack of the correct term. It is called ECO for short, Evangelical Covenant Order and it's main purpose is the growth of the body of Christ. The pastor was very inspiring and asked over and over again are we going to just sit and do nothing or are we going to make the change, take the risk and become a body of believers that will fight for the souls of everyone else before they go to hell. This sermon just gave me a great boost that my ministry will mean something and hopefully can help believers in their growth so we can all be bearing an abundance of fruit. 'Risk' and 'Change' are tough but nobody every said life was easy. That will come in heaven but you have to have the ticket to get through that door. Are there things in your life that you have not had the courage or inspiration to change? Are you avoiding taking that risk or making the change for whatever reason? Pray, pray and pray more to the God of the Universe and ask him to give you the courage, inspiration and desire to do anything He is calling you to do.
Matthew 7:17-20 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.