by David Brenneman
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Ephesians 5:1-17.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." Galatians 5:22-24.
It dawned on me this morning after reading in Ephesians the connection to what Paul wrote in Galatians. "Fruit of the Light" and "Fruit of the Spirit" being that connection.
As said in prior posts...the aim of this blog is to both point people to Jesus or to get people to return to Jesus.
The focus is on Jesus in any case.
What we choose to include in our lives as part of our lives has everything to do with what people see of Jesus IN our lives.
If all we ever talk about is our hobby then they aren't hearing or seeing anything to do with Jesus when we do not reference Jesus at all. If all we talk about are statistics and facts about sports and neglect to speak about what we know about our Savior then we aren't showing Jesus to anyone. If all we do is work and talk about work and not about how God used us that day then people still don't see Jesus.
While we're given a great many things that CAN occupy our time and CAN consume what resources we have we must choose the greater thing as Mary was told when Martha complained to Jesus.
Many of my prior likes of certain things in my life I got rid of out of my life because I knew (and sadly still do) know more about such things than I do or did know about my Savior who saved me. As the quote the other day said there is no Christ AND anything. We cannot be fully devoted to Jesus AND to a hobby or anything else. If a man is married to his Wife, then she comes first after Jesus. Then comes the children. Then comes the rest of the family and friends and the rest of the world.
Jesus should take first place in our lives over everything and everyone else. Those who wanted to follow Jesus as His Disciples had to make that choice when He walked this earth. They gave up everything to follow Jesus. Just look at the comments of Peter on that subject.
How much of your life have you inadvertantly given over to the world that doesn't belong there but does belong to Jesus?
The fruit of the Spirit, fruit of the Light is supposed to be present in the lives of all who are Believers.
This comes from a right relationship with Jesus. There's those who live in this world and have lived in this world who will lay claim to having done so much for Jesus, mimicing the fruit of the Spirit, who will get told to depart from Him for He never knew them.
So where's your relationship with Jesus? Where has it been, where is it heading? Where is it right now? What are you doing about making that relationship stronger? What have you put in place of Jesus as first in your life? Can you truly say that you seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness?
The good news is you have been granted the grace and mercy to make the changes that you can make in order to get into a right relationship with Jesus right here right now.
The question is: Will you pray that prayer? Will you start acknowledging whatever the Spirit is showing you isn't helping your relationship with Jesus?
Being busy is no excuse. Being restless is no excuse. Being anything is no excuse for not cultivating your relationship with the One who gave His life for you.
Think about it. Have you really honored Jesus in your life by living for the One who saved you?
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
(C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.
A corporation not for profit.
La Habra, CA All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment