Goodness

Leave a reply

Romans 7:14-25

When the rich young ruler in Luke 18 called Jesus “Good,” Jesus asked him why he addressed Him like that. Was the young man acknowledging Jesus was God? There is no goodness apart from God.

This world is corrupt – not because God isn’t a good God – but because our hearts are desperately evil. Those who question the goodness of God ought first to look in the mirror, then look at the cross. While we were still sinners Jesus died to save us. It doesn’t get much more gooder than that!

Look at this amazing creation. The warmth of the sun, the air we breathe, love and laughter, hearts that beat, and the ability to enjoy it all. It all points to a good God.

God’s good Spirit in us produces attitudes and actions that are good. I love how Paul explains it because I relate. No matter how hard I try to be good, I end up failing. I desire to do better, but the harder I try, the harder I fall. If I can be as honest as Paul is in these verses, I will admit that there really isn’t a whole lot of good in me.

So who can save me from this body of death, this pitiful excuse for goodness?

Jesus! When I accept His grace and submit to His will, He is free to live His goodness through me. What an awesome privilege. May God’s goodness, not a poor imitation of my own doing, be seen in me today.

More Kindness

Leave a reply

Ephesians 2:1-10

Jesus’ kindness was bold. He physically touched a leper. No one ever did that, ever. He touched an unclean man who believed Jesus could heal him.

Jesus’ kindness was fearless. He expressed kindness every day, even on the Sabbath. He wasn’t afraid of the condemnation of the powers that be in that society. His kindness was expressed very publicly, and very consistently.

Jesus’ kindness was indiscriminate. He healed diseases and forgave sins of those who came to Him believing. And, hanging on the cross, He forgave the very ones who nailed Him there.

If the spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, lives in me, I, too, will express kindness boldly, fearlessly, and indiscriminately. I will think kindly, speak kindly, show kindness in my actions toward family, friends, neighbors, and strangers.

It’s not that I will try harder to be kind, or work on having an attitude of kindness. It’s that I will surrender to God and let His kindness flow through me…

so that He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (vs 7)

Kindness, like all aspects of The Fruit of the Spirit, will reveal Jesus to the people around you. Those are the very people Jesus died to save, and your kindness toward them might be the thing that breaks through their resistance.

Is the evidence of Christ in you seen as kindness?

Kindness

2 Replies

Mark 6:30-44

The itinerate preacher was spent. Jesus and his disciples had clocked a lot of travel miles, and He had preached a lot of sermons to many crowds. And let’s not forget his cousin had just been executed. I imagine Jesus really needed to be alone to rest, recharge, and even mourn.

He invited his disciples to go with Him to a remote place. So they got in a boat and set sail for a much needed get-away. What did they see when they came ashore? Thousands of people clamoring for His attention! Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes. How would you have reacted?

You parents probably have an idea what that’s like. Your precious babies don’t consider what kind of day you’ve had. When you walk through the door they only know, “Daddy’s home!” They don’t understand the weight of trying to feed a family on a budget when the washer breaks down and the car insurance is due. It’s still “Read me another story, Mommy.” “Fix this.” “Find this.” “I’m hungry.” “She hit me.” “I want…” “I don’t want…”

Calgon, take me away! (Google it, young ones)

Here’s where Jesus’ kindness is on display. He looked at those people and had compassion on them. Instead of demanding, “Me time,” he taught them. He set aside His needs, didn’t scold or complain. He didn’t even just smile and pat them on the head. He taught them until late in the day.

Then He did the most talked about miracle in Scripture… He fed 5,000 men plus women and children with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish. They ate until they were satisfied. (Didn’t say Jesus needed to feed Himself before He could feed them. Just sayin’)

Jesus served them despite a bone-tired, mentally exhausted, emotionally drained reality. His compassion was expressed in kindness because that’s who He is.

That’s the kindness aspect of the Spirit’s Fruit. It’s Jesus in us who acts and reacts out of kindness, who considers others before self, who just does the right and good thing out of a right and good heart. It’s being kind. Thinking kind. Reacting kind. Doing kind. Because kindness lives in us who know Jesus as our Savior.

Patience

Leave a reply

Luke 9; Hebrews 12

Jonathan Landry Cruse, in his book entitled, The Character of Christ; The Fruit of the Spirit in the Life of our Savior (Versa Press; 2014) suggests this aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit comes in two parts: forbearance and long-suffering. Here are my thoughts.

When God revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 34 He gave a description of Himself:

The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

I see a God whose mercy and grace, steadfast love and faithfulness, produces perfect patience toward us, the forbearance part of patience.

Sometimes we may wonder, “How long, Lord, are you going to put up with this corrupt, sin-filled world before you come back and end it all?” I hear God say, “Be patient. People are still being saved from their sins. I can wait.”

Jesus demonstrated forbearance in a little Samaritan town where He was not welcome. His disciples were angry and wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy those evil people right then and there. Scripture tells us Jesus scolded his disciples for that attitude, I think in part, for their impatience toward sinners.

God doesn’t want anyone to die without Him. He can wait until the last soul is saved before He comes back and this life is over. I am happy for that last redeemed soul. It could have been me.

The other half of the Spirit’s patience is long-suffering, according to Cruse. I wonder if we really believe the best is yet to come? Do we consider our problems in this life light and momentary compared to what is ahead? Are we able to face the hardest of our circumstances with confidence and even joy, knowing God is working all things out for our good as we wait patiently for Heaven? Can we suffer long, trusting God for every detail?

The more you know of Jesus, the more you see how long-suffering He was. He waited patiently until the Father said it was time for the cross. He endured the awful pain and humiliation of the cross with patience so that our sin debt could be paid. Not only was Jesus patient with people who followed Him, He was patient with the people who tormented Him. And He was patient during the most unimaginable pain, the most awful circumstances we can imagine. He endured for the joy set before Him, the joy of that day when you repented of your sin and accepted His grace.

Jesus is our example of patience. He lived one day at a time until the right time. He trusted the Father, obeyed the Father, He patiently put up with the foolishness of people, and the evil in people because He knew something better was ahead.

We’ve all heard it said, “Lord I need patience… NOW!!!). Well, friend, if Jesus is your Savior, the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart, He IS your patience. And the expression of His patience through you in those difficult circumstances and around those difficult people is evidence of the Fruit of the Spirit in you.

Don’t say you don’t have patience. If you have Jesus, patience dwells in you!

PEACE

Leave a reply

Ephesians 6:10-20

Peace is not necessarily a calm feeling, although that feeling can be evidence of peace. Peace isn’t necessarily absence of conflict, either. In fact, the Holy Spirit often reveals Himself in the midst of conflict. Jesus demonstrated that while He slept in the boat during a severe storm.

The aspect called peace in the Fruit of the Spirit is actually harmony between God and a repentant sinner saved by grace. It’s the restored relationship we lost in the Garden when sin entered the world for the first time.

As God’s adopted child, I can rest in Him, His protection, and provision. I don’t need to worry about today or eternity. I have peace with God, peace in my soul because Jesus died on the cross to purchase my redemption, fixing my broken relationship with the Father.

But this peace is why we put on the armor of God every day, too. We prepare to fight the principalities of evil that would keep us from furthering the gospel of peace. Satan sure doesn’t want any more people with a restored relationship with God. So there is a battle we are called to fight.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” We think that means keeping peace between siblings or warring countries. The peace Jesus was concerned with was peace between God and man, disciple-making. It’s the sharing of the gospel that brings peace when a person accepts the grace of God for salvation.

The Fruit of the Spirit brings peace to our souls, is the peace we have concerning what happens today and in eternity, and it’s the peace that reaches out to the lost so that they can know this blessed peace as well.

Joy

Leave a reply

Luke 10:1-24

The second aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit is joy. Did Jesus express this characteristic? I guess I haven’t spent a lot of time considering whether or not Jesus was a joyful person… until today.

Jesus was serious. He was stern. He was loving. But was He happy?

Head slap! Of course He was!

I never got into watching “The Chosen” but from what I see they portray Jesus as someone who laughed, who enjoyed life, who joked with His friends. A joyful man. I’m thinking that’s probably accurate. People were drawn to Jesus. I don’t think that would have been the case if He was an old stick-in-the-mud.

Jesus used parables to teach important truth, and one of those truths was the fact that God is joyful. Think of the parables of the lost treasure, the parable of the talents, the prodigal son. God is filled with joy when a lost soul is found.

Think of the Beattitudes in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Joy is the blessing God gives to the mournful, the humble, the merciful, etc. A Christian has reason to be the most joyful person in the room!

If I want to express the character of God in my life, there is no room for a gloom and doom attitude. There is no excuse for seeing a glass half empty, or looking for the other shoe to drop. My sins are forgiven. I am loved by the Creator God, I am blessed beyond imagination, and I will live in paradise forever. I have the power of Holy God in me, and I am given the joy of the Lord to fill me and flow through me, no matter the circumstances.

I recently bought a new journal. I go through them quickly as I write my thoughts every day about what God is teaching me in His word. This particular journal has a Bible verse at the bottom of each page, and I’m going to leave you with the verse at the bottom of the page on which I wrote my thoughts for this blog post.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. (Jeremiah 17:7)

Be blessed. Be joyful!

Love

Leave a reply

Mark 12:30-31

For the next few weeks I am going to be looking at the character of Jesus as revealed in the Fruit of the Spirit, and see how I can apply it to my own walk with God. (The Character of Christ, the Fruit of the Spirit in the Life of our Savior; Jonathan Landry Cruse; Versa Press, Inc., East Peoria, IL; 2001

Today I looked at the first aspect of that Fruit – love.

We know God is love. We know Jesus is God. Therefore, Jesus is love, and His Spirit in me is love. What does that look like? I looked up some of the things Jesus said about love.

He commands us to love. Not an option. We are first of all to love God. And not just to feel kindly toward Him, but to love Him with all our heart, our very soul, and our mind. Jesus is the example of that love; the “not-my-will-but-Thine-be done” kind of love; all in, nothing held back.

Here’s the thing – when we accept His salvation by faith in Jesus, God who IS love, inhabits us, transforms us so that loving Him isn’t just something we do – it’s who we are!

My heart beats His heart, my mind thinks His thoughts, my soul is connected to His and He loves through me. In fact, the second command Jesus gives is that we love one another, love our neighbor.

That command has become so distorted these days because we think it means tolerance, acceptance, live and let live. But Jesus tells us to love in the same way He loves, with agape love that says: “your eternal soul is more important than my comfort, or whether or not you like me. I will gladly endure any hardship if it means you will find the Savior.”

I don’t know about you, but I have my limits. I might be able to handle a rebuff now and then, but beyond that, I’m not so sure. Jesus knows that so He says, “Let me love through you. Here is the gift of my Spirit which is love. Let it flow and you will love with agape love.”

Plus, Jesus expects that love to extend to my enemies. Jesus tells me I am to love them, too. Really, Lord? But here’s what I learned today: He’s not talking about friendship or a warm fuzzy feeling for them. He’s talking about agape love which is that selfless love toward another’s eternal soul. Love them like Jesus loves them.

Jesus embodied love. When I am His through His shed blood, He pours out His love on me, fills me with His Spirit so that I can love Him back, and reveal His love by the way I allow His love to flow through me.

It’s a gift!

A Fruit Is Not A Vegetable

Leave a reply

Matthew 7:15-20

Prophets, teachers, preachers – are we to judge them? The answer, according to Jesus is, yes. Jesus gives us two criteria: their doctrine and their actions. If either is in question, you are looking at a false prophet.

I wonder if the same standard applies to all of us who wear the name of Jesus? Shouldn’t we all speak the truth and shouldn’t we all bear good fruit? Of course we should. The preachers and teachers might be held to a higher bar, but there is a similar bar for all of us.

Oswald Chambers in his book on the Sermon on the Mount says this: “You do not gather the vindictive mood from the Holy Spirit; you do not gather the passionately irritable mood from the patience of God; you do not gather the self-indulgent mood and the lust of the flesh in private life from the Spirit of God.” (p 90 of the updated 2016 version)

Can a person be negative, fault-finding, complaining, and have a biting tongue and be a Christian? Honestly, I don’t see how.

We are like fruit trees. We all bear some kind of fruit. The question is, is it good fruit or bad? Does it come from a heart connected to God’s, or a heart connected to the world? It can’t be both.

An apple or a grape is produced out in the open. A fruit is not a vegetable which grows underground and out of sight. Chambers tells us the world has a prefect right to watch the private lives of Christians to see if the fruit of our faith is genuinely good, or sadly rotten.

If I claim to be a Christian but live a life connected with the world – I am not a Christian. A good tree CANNOT produce bad fruit. Coarse language, dishonesty, negativity, meanness, self-centeredness cannot be the Fruit of the Spirit in us. If those things are present in our lives, the Holy Spirit is not.

We are to be a light to the world, a city on a hill for all to see. Like it or not, the world is watching you to see if your claim to Christ is real or not. They will rightly judge you by your fruit. May it be sweet, genuine, and as good as the Spirit in you.

No Worries?

Leave a reply

Matthew 6:25-34

“Faith is our personal confidence in a being whose character we know, but whose ways we cannot trace by common sense.” (Oswald Chambers; Studies on the Sermon on the Mount; Oswald Chambers Publishers; updated 2016; p 59)

Chambers says common sense is mathematical. Faith works on illogical lines. We want to believe that if something happens, there is a result we can predict. If it rains, flowers will grow. If I get married, I will be happy. If I am good, good things will happen to me. But we all know life is messier than that.

This past weekend, several of us had a girls’ weekend in Gatlinburg, Tennessee to attend the Gaither Family Fest. While we were there, one of the ladies received word her brother had had a stroke and they were rushing him to a hospital in Jacksonville, about 60 miles away from his home. Our friend was stuck hundreds of miles away, unable to be with him and their family at such a critical moment.

We all know her brother. Rick is a good man, a deacon at our church, a willing servant of God, and a lover of Jesus. How do we make sense of his trouble at this time? That’s where faith comes in.

First let me say, as I think about this portion of Scripture, not one of the seven of us in that mountain cabin ever asked how something like this could happen to such a good guy. No one said, “He doesn’t deserve this.” I don’t think any of us questioned why this was happening. But all of us went to God in faith, trusting God for the outcome. Knowing the character of God, we can rest in His love of and care for Rick’s physical body. He’s the same God who cares for the flowers and the birds, and Rick is more dear to God than any flower or bird.

God has already done the best thing for Rick when He took care of his sin problem by dying on the cross. Rick is God’s precious child through his faith in the saving work of Jesus. We can trust God for Rick’s eternity. Certainly we can trust God for Rick’s present.

Jesus tells us not to worry. So what does it say when someone claims they can’t help but worry? Do they not have faith in God’s power and promises? If Jesus tells us to do something, and we say we can’t do that thing, is that disobedience?

Jesus doesn’t tell us not to be concerned. He doesn’t tell us not to seek medical help, or to erase Rick’s situation from our minds, and pretend it’s not happening. What Jesus is saying is not to waste time wringing our hands or pacing the floor, imagining worst case scenarios, and being paralyzed by fear. We are praying for Rick with open hands, trusting that the God whose character we know and love, is working even this out for Rick’s good and God’s glory.

Paul expressed this kind of faith in Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Rick’s need right now is physical healing. As people who love him, we are praying that his physical body will be healed so we can enjoy this ornery guy for a long time yet. But we hold on lightly, understanding this life is not the end.

Chambers asks this important question for all of us: Are we going to be true to the revelation that God is good? Are we going to be true to His honor, whatever may happen in the actual domain?” (p 60)

My prayer is yes.

PS: I had just hit the “publish” button when I got a text from Rick’s sister saying that after the doctor looked at the test results and spoke with Rick to find an improvement in his speech, they cancelled surgery! God answers prayer, dear ones. I know not every situation has the same results. But God is good and works for the good on behalf of his children. Rick’s not out of the woods, and we will continue to pray, but I just wanted to share the good news with you. May God be praised!

No Other Motive

Leave a reply

Matthew 6:1-4

I don’t think passing an offering plate or taking a march offering goes against what Jesus is teaching in these verses. It’s not the means of giving, or even if someone sees you giving. In fact, I personally think our children are being deprived of a tangible example of the importance of giving. I digress.

As always, Jesus is speaking to our hearts. Our motives. I’ve always thought I understood that in regard to this portion of the Sermon on the Mount. But Oswald Chambers suggests I didn’t understand at all. (Studies on the Sermon on the Mount; Oswald Chambers Publishing; updated 2016).

Chambers sees Jesus telling us to “have no other motive in giving than to please God.” (Page 30) That, he says, includes being motivated to give by “they need help,” or “they deserve it,” or “it will do them good.”

No other motive.

So now I’m asking myself if I give to my church because they need to pay the bills. Do I give to missions so we’ll meet our goal? Do I take a meal because someone had surgery? Do I write my check each month thinking about my obligation to tithe, or the line-item on my tax form for charitable giving?

No other motive.

Jesus is telling us that wanting to please him ought to be our motive to the point that it’s second nature, our right hand won’t be aware of our left hand because our focus is on God.

That’s not limited to financial giving, either. I’m asking myself today if I give of my time, talents, and money with the singular goal of bringing a smile to God’s face. If others are blessed by what I do, do I consider that a bi-product of my desire to please God with my giving? Or do I consider the people who are blessed as my reason to give?

Will the decisions I make today, the words I say, the attitudes I have, and the love I express be motivated by my desire to please God, and nothing less?

That’s my prayer.