Fruit Inspection

Steel-toe boot warning.

“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious . . .” (Galatians 5:19).
If you claim to be a Christian, but you indulge in porn, I question your claim. If you profess to be a Christian, but profanity spews out of your mouth, I’m going to doubt you. If you tell me you’re a Christian, but you’re unfaithful to your spouse (either in act or desire), I find it hard to believe you. If you can sing the old hymns or the latest Christian songs, but you lie and deceive, your songs also lie. If you are sexually immoral, your choices defy your profession. If you go to church on Sunday morning and are yelling at everyone in your house by Sunday evening, I wonder why you bother to go to church at all. If money is your passion and you step on others to climb the ladder, your actions – not your claims – tell the truth about you.

If you claim to be a Christian and you are kind and patient with your elderly, grouchy neighbor, I will tend to believe you. If you say you are a Christian and you turn away from temptation, I’m more apt to agree. If you go to church on Sunday morning and are still full of joy on Thursday, if moral goodness marks your life, if you’re gentle when speaking to your children, if you bring peace instead of strife wherever you go, if you are loving and faithful to your spouse – I will trust you and I will trust what you say about this Jesus you claim to follow. Paul said our actions reveal our true nature. We either confirm or refute our testimony by how we live.

I am not judging anyone – But Jesus did say, “By their fruit, you will recognize them” (Matt 7:16). I’m just inspecting fruit. And yes, I see some bad apples in my own life. So what do I do about them? Do I determine to act better? Grit my teeth and be nicer?  No, this is not about behavior modification, this is about your heart. Jesus also said, “The good man [or woman] brings good things out of the good stored up in him”( Matt 12:35). A good heart – a heart that is set on Christ – is full of good fruit. A bad heart – a heart that is set on the world, self, or pleasure – is full of rotten fruit.

Paul said that “those who live like this [the first paragraph] will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:21).  In other words, there won’t be any rotten fruit in heaven. Check your fruit, Beloved. What is true about your life? What is true about your heart? 

Hebrews: It’s in the Fruit

When my son was about Joy’s age he drove all over our backyard with his kid-sized toy car, brightly colored and “foot-powered.” It was his favorite plaything.  If it had an odometer, I am sure he would have logged a thousand miles in it. My brother enjoyed watching my son ride around in his little car.  But what he loved the most was to call out, “Troy, get out of your car like Mommy does!”  And Troy would shove the car door open, jump out and SLAM the door as he walked away.  My brother would be in hysterics, and my face would be red. I didn’t mean to give him that kind of example, but the pint-sized proof was right there.

The writer of Hebrews said, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the Word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” ((Heb 13:7). It brings to mind Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount when he warned against false prophets: “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matt 7:18, 16). By their fruit, you will know if this is someone to imitate or someone you need to guard against.

In Christendom, for every Billy Graham, there is a Josh Harris. Graham was one of the greatest evangelists in the modern era and led thousands to Christ through his crusades across the globe. Harris was a pastor and best-selling author who had a thriving ministry until he walked away from it all in 2019 and denounced His faith in Jesus. What does each man’s fruit say about his roots – and his heart?

My son proved a valid point for me and every minister and leader and teacher at every level in the church. We are not just supposed to be an example – we are an example, whether we intend to be or not. For the good or the bad. I want my life, my words, my actions, my goals, my investments, even my thoughts, and especially my unguarded reactions to be a godly example for others – especially my granddaughter – to imitate.

There are two points I want to make: First, Paul said “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). I need to guard my life and imitate Christ so that those who imitate me are following Him.  Second, check the fruit of those to whom you are looking as godly examples. Is it healthy or are you seeing spots of rot? Beloved, be wise. Be discerning. And above all, be like Jesus.

Deeper Roots or Deeper Rots

When I post my daily devotionals on the web, I add an introductory statement that always invites readers to my blog, “Deeper Roots.” But if I’m typing fast – as I tend to do – “Deeper Roots” often becomes “Deeper Rots” (and sometimes “Deeper Toots,” but I’m not going there). When I did that the other day I realized that those two words – Rots and Roots – described the spiritual condition of humanity.

Those who do not know the Lord Jesus have rotten spirits and are marked by all sorts of evil – evil that goes down deep and affects the heart and the mind and spills over onto the lips and the eyes and the feet and the hands. Rotten spirits produce rotten fruit: “sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery: idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like.” Paul noted that “those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:19-21). I realize that this is not warm and fuzzy, but it is the truth from the Word of God. And we have to confront the darkness inside us before we recognize our need for Light.

But those who have taken hold of the Light, who belong to and live for the Lord Jesus have different spirits – spirits that “take root below and bear fruit above” (2 Kings 19:30). Fruit like “love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). Their roots are set deeply in the Word and Spirit of God. They are “like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither” (Psalm 1:3). Their roots draw water from the never-ending stream of God’s love. These are the sons and daughters of God who will inherit the Kingdom. And just as we saw with those who have rotten spirits, the condition of the heart affects every part of who we are– how we think, how we feel, what we say, what we look at, where we go, and what we do.

So which is it for you? Deeper Roots or deeper rots? Lush fruit or rotten fruit? The Kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness? Jesus or the world? The choice you make today determines it all. Choose well, Beloved.

Deeper Roots

“Nana, I watered your flowers!” Joy burst into my study the other day and dragged me by the hand to the porch to take a look. “See! Didn’t I do a good job!?” I smiled down at her eager face and gave her a big hug. “Yes, you did! Thank you, sweet girl!” I said, noticing that the leaves glistened with moisture but the soil was barely damp. Her idea of “watering my flowers” was to sprinkle water across the tops of the plants. When she proudly ran off to play, I turned on the hose and gave the plants the good, long drink they needed to survive and flourish. I returned to my study with a fresh cup of coffee and my Bible. I checked the reading plan and turned to Psalm 119:9-16 to read. I started to close my Bible and get on with the chores that nagged me when I sensed a “Stop!” in my spirit. “Read it again. Slower.” So I sat back down and re-read the passage. I realized that the Psalmist wasn’t doing a quick reading of the Scriptures, He was soaking it in. Like my granddaughter’s idea of watering my plants, I was sprinkling God’s Word over the surface of my heart, but I wasn’t spending enough time in it to do my soul much good. When I looked further into Psalm 119 I found verse after verse after verse about the power of the Bible for those who will give it more than a quick read.

I’ve quit trying to read the Bible through in a year, I’m more focused on reading it. thoroughly. I decided to slow it down and take smaller, deeper bites that I can chew on all day. Peter called believers to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). Growing in knowledge takes time, but it pays off with deep roots. Deep roots bear fruit (2 Kings 19:30, paraphrased). Jesus said that we were chosen and appointed “to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last” (John 15:16). That requires time in the soul-nurturing Word of God. Beloved, it’s time to put away the watering can and pull out the soaker hose. Go deep in the Word of God and let God’s Words go deep in you.

Hebrews: This May Make You Mad

According to Scripture, my job as a Bible teacher is to make you mad. My brothers will tell you I’ve been practicing for this my whole life. The writer of Hebrews said, “Let us spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (10:24). The word “spur” means “to incite, irritate, or provoke” and it comes from a root word that suggests a sharp disagreement. “But wait a minute,” you say, “I thought we were supposed to always get along and be at peace with one another.”  We are. But sometimes peace requires confrontation. The church suffers greatly because we are not willing to confront uncomfortable issues. Like what a Christian should look like. The writer pointed to two specific things: Love and good deeds. 

Jesus said that love would be the distinguishing mark of His followers (John 13:35) and you may recall that the only directive Jesus gave was when He commanded us to love one another (John 15:17). John went a step further (on someone’s toes) and said if you don’t love believers in Christ, that’s a good indication that you are not in Christ (1 John 2:9-11). Love is non-negotiable for the Christian.

We are also called to do good deeds. Paul said that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). But James said that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Who’s right here? Both. Salvation comes by faith in the grace of God and is evidenced by good works. No, you don’t have to go to Calcutta and join Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity to prove that you are a Christian. Simple acts of love, kindness, gentleness, and compassion are good fruit in the believer’s life. Hate, harshness, rudeness, and indifference are evidence that one is not a Christ-follower. If there’s no good fruit there is no root in Christ.

Love and good deeds are the identifying marks of the Christian. If neither is present, then Christ is not present. If that makes you mad then take it up with God – He’s the one who said it first, not me. Also you might need to re-examine your relationship with Him.

The writer of wisdom said, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov 27:17). Sharpening iron involves rubbing it with an abrasive stone to grind the edge. Sometimes we need kind words and other times we need a gritty whetstone. I’m called to give you both. I love you too much to not tell you the whole truth, even if it makes you mad.

Make Every Minute Count

Facebook is a ministry tool for me, but it is also a huge time-waster. Every day I promise myself I will post my devotional and the Scripture for the day and get off. I swear I won’t jump back in every time I see a notification. But I have yet to pull that off. It’s too easy to get caught up in the pictures of your kiddos and your funny memes and the next thing you know I’ve blown thirty minutes I’ll never get back. That’s why I’ve adapted Moses’ words in Psalm 90:12 and posted them on my wall above my desk: “Teach [me] to number [my minutes], that I may gain a heart of wisdom.”

In his original statement, Moses was asking the Lord to show him how to weigh the time He had been allotted in this life, to recognize its value, and invest it wisely and carefully. I doubt he would have spent much time on social media or surfing the web, playing video games, or watching television.  Moses regarded time as a means to wisdom. And I don’t know about you, but I sure need some wisdom. Interestingly, some translations say “that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” Now that should make us sit up and pay attention. We will present to God the fruit of our time. Will I honor His gift of time by presenting to Him wise decisions, obedience and faithful service, and a deeper understanding of His Word? That all depends on how I invest in today.

My minutes are pretty stretched every day between work, graduate school, writing, studying, and teaching, and being a full-on Nana (the very best investment of my time).  Every once in a while I have to mop the floors too. I really don’t have time to waste on mindless drivel. But I still do. God has been impressing me with the thought of eternity. Everything in this life should be weighed in the balance of eternity. Every word, every action, every decision has eternal value. That is where the fruit of all the minutes goes. You and I need to learn to number our days and our minutes and invest them in the things that will last forever. Like people and truth and compassion and the gospel. When we stand before the Lord will we have good fruit or lots of memes to show for the time He’s given us? Beloved, how will you make your minutes count?

Hebrews: Where the Rain Falls

For the past several weeks we’ve looked deeply at what many scholars consider some of the most challenging verses in the entire Bible: Hebrews 6:4-6. But the author of Hebrews is not letting go of the theme yet, and so, neither will we. In 6:7-8 he makes what is the crucial point to understanding what he has laid out. “Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.  But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed.  In the end, it will be burned.”

Again, this passage should be laid beside Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seeds. Just as the sower tosses the seeds out to let them fall where they may, the rain falls over the whole field and all the land soaks it up – good, productive soil and poor, rocky, thorny soil. All receive the rain – that is the gospel of Christ and the grace and mercy of God – but the fruit – bountiful crops or thorns and thistles – is the evidence of the condition of the soil.   Jesus said, “By their fruit, you will recognize them. 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” (Matt 7:16, 17-18). People who do not produce good fruit despite receiving God’s blessings demonstrate the poor condition of their hearts. Those who do produce good fruit give clear evidence that they are receiving God’s blessings with a good and sincere heart.

Those who persevere with Christ to the end prove two things: their hearts are good and the Lord is faithful to keep His own (John 10:28-29). Those who abandon Christ also prove two things: their hearts were always wicked and Jesus has no place for them (Matt 25:12). And I remind you that the Lord also said that both would sit together in the same pews until the end when the angels will sort them all out (Matt 13:24-30). While Jesus told us never to judge the condition of another person’s heart, He did strongly advise us to become fruit inspectors.

I suspect the writer of Hebrews included this information so that the true believers would not become discouraged by the falling away of the false believers. He also wanted them to know that he had seen good fruit in them – fruit that would endure and would be productive for the kingdom. “Even though we speak like this, dear friend, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation” (v.9).

I’ll leave you with one simple question Beloved: What does the fruit of your life say about the condition of your heart?

The God Who Knows You

My sweet mother-in-law always cooked a birthday dinner for me with all my favorite foods: white peas, creamed corn, sliced tomatoes, and chicken and dumplings. She also made me a coconut cake for my birthday. It was a labor of love. There was just one problem. I didn’t like coconut. What was I to do? Well, I ate it and thanked her, and told her how good it was. So she made it every year. And I ate it every year.

My late brother ordered a gift box of fruit for me every Christmas. Lots of apples, oranges, mangoes, peaches, and grapes. There was just one problem. I am allergic to fruit. But I never told him because he loved doing it and my husband enjoyed the bounty.

While my mother-in-law and brother were family, they didn’t know everything about me. And I didn’t want to spoil their happiness in doing something nice for me just to get what I preferred.  They loved me and that was enough. Besides, after a few years, it’s awkward to say, “Oh, by the way, I don’t like coconut.”

But there is One who knows me well. He knows what I like and what I can’t tolerate. David said, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me” (Psalm 139:1). He knows every move and every thought (yikes!). He knows what I’m going to say before I say it. He is “familiar with all my ways” (v. 3). He even knows when I am feeling confident or am in the dark pit of despair (v. 8). He knows me because He created me and put all those likes and dislikes in me. He fashioned me to be allergic to fruit (but thankfully not chocolate!), to love to write and teach, and to give my heart to a little blond girl with a Joyful smile.

And not only does He know all this about me, He thinks about me with deep affection. David said, “How precious towards me are Your thoughts, O God! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand” (v. 17, 18). He thinks I am precious! And He thinks the same of you, Beloved. He knows you by name (Isaiah 43:1), and He knows you by heart. He will never forget a single detail about you. Not even what kind of cake you don’t like.

What Is a Christian?

How do others know you’re a follower of Christ? Is it your “Daughter of the King” T-shirt? Maybe it’s the fish on your car or posting Jesus memes on social media. Perhaps it’s how you rail against sins you would never commit. Do these things say you are a Christian? No more than sitting in a garage says you are a car. There are three things that Jesus identified as marking His followers.

Love – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Twice: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” ((John 15:12). And again: “This is my command: Love each other” (15:17). Three times Jesus said, “Love one another.” And this is the only time in all four gospels that Jesus called His words a “command.”

Fruit – “This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:8). Fruit is the evidence of what something or someone is. A peach tree bears peaches. A banana tree bears bananas. A Christian bears the fruit of the Spirit: love (there it is again), Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Persecution – “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:18-19). If you belong to Christ, you have a target painted on your back.

The church wants to say it is all about doing and saying the right things. The world says it is approving all kinds of sin for the sake of “love.” But Jesus said the mark of a Christian is love for the Body of Christ, producing fruit, and being hated by the world. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a little uneasy right now. Beloved, what is it about you that tells the world you belong to Jesus?

The Joy of the Lord

Photo: my precious Joy – photo by her mommy, Ashley Andrews

You may have noticed when I write the word Joy, I always capitalize it as a nod to my granddaughter Joy. She has brought so much Joy to my life. No, my Joy is not in her, but God has used her to open my crusty heart to receive the Joy of the Lord.  I’ve never been a bubbly, happy-happy person. My best friend always gave me coffee mugs, kitchen towels, and wall hangings with “JOY” plastered on them. She said she was going to force Joy on me “whether I liked it or not.” Don’t tell her I said this, but I did like it. When they told us what our granddaughter’s name was going to be, I called my bestie and we both laughed. But even as much as we love her, the past two years haven’t always been grins and giggles. There have been some hard days, but my Joy has remained. Not because of my granddaughter, but because my Joy is rooted in the Lord.

She’s not the first baby to inspire Joy. When Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, went to visit her much-older cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John, the older woman declared, “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for Joy” (Luke 1:44). How could a baby in the womb recognize the Lord? Because “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 41). That’s the secret to Joy. Joy is not an emotion, it is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). In the Scriptures, fruit is the outward evidence of what is going on inside. We recognize a peach tree by its soft, golden-pink fruit which is produced in the tree. People will recognize the presence of God’s Spirit in us by the fruit: “love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control” (vv. 22-23).  When we “live by the spirit” (v. 16) and are “led by the Spirit” (v. 18) and “keep in step with the Spirit” (v. 25) we will exhibit all the fruit of the Spirit.  

Beloved, are you low on fruit? Maybe you need to nurture your soul with more of the Holy Spirit. How? Feed on the Word. Drink in praise. Prune off the dead branches of sin. And let the Son shine on you. That where you’ll find the Joy of the Lord.