Marketing the Produce (Fruit)

Our Heavenly Father is the Master Marketer. He "packages" Himself in a wrapper of fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Fruit Markets, in other words fruit sells God to a world hungry for truth, for hope, and for life. Fruit is something we know. We are familiar with these amazing words. God is so much bigger, but He meets us in the language, words, and qualities of our longing so that we might know Him.

Fruit is the external result of an internal relationship. Fruit is the dressing that beckons others to know the God we represent. As a result of our growing relationship with God, we can introduce others to Him.

Fruit looks good! When we get to know fruit-filled people, we discover that fruit tastes so good. Like bright oranges standing out against the green leaves of a tree, the fruit of the Spirit announces to a starving world, "Here is food, Here is Life". Come and find a way out of exhaustion and discouragement. Come and Meet God!

Strive to be a Christ Follower.

Spiritual Fruit

Fruit is the result of growth. It's the evidence that a plant or a vine or a tree has been rooted and established, fed and nurtured, watered and staked, and pruned to the point of reproducing. Spiritual fruit is what results in our lives when we root ourselves in a relationship with God. When we live a life connected like this with God, He grows His nature in who we are, and fruit results: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

A life lived in connection with God is a life lived in a healthy direction, a life that makes a difference for tomorrow.

The fruits of the Spirit are those God-like qualities that make us look like Him. They are His nature exhibited in our personalities. When we plant ourselves in a relationship with Jesus, day in and day out, the result of that relationship is the fruit of His charateristics in us.

God's character grows in you as you plant yourself in Him. Make the decision to plant yourself in God.

Strive to be a Christ Follower.

Removing the Peeling

The Fruits of The Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness. Self Control. Galatians 5:22-23

Growing a fruit-filled life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control seems beyond our grasp. Why? Because we think that growing such fruit is about being nice, and we think it is all up to us to produce these fruits. Neither is true.

It's not about being nice. The truth is that the fruit of the Spirit is about being like Jesus. Jesus was always demonstrated the qualities of the Fruits. But these qualities did not always wear the peeling of "nice" in His interactions with people. His Love was acted out in telling a prostitute to stop sinning, and in ordering religious leaders to quit making faith harder than God intended it to be. His kindness led Him to touch an outcast leper during a time when such an action was strictly prohibited. His peace put him to sleep in a boat with his disciples in the middle of a storm out at sea. Such moments do not define "niceness", but they are definitely fruit-filled.
The Fruit of the Spirit grows when WE let God do His job. When WE let Him live these qualities in us and through us, as we are growing in OUR relationship with Him.

Removing the peeling from the fruit is to be honest. Naked fruit is about getting past the peeling of "nice" Christianity and getting down to the honest, simple truth. What is the honest simple truth? Being like Jesus.

God makes it simple. We make it hard. We want to grow a life that matters, and God wants to grow such a life in us. That is fruit minus the peeling. Naked Fruit. Taste it is good.

Strive to be a Christ Follower.

Email Ettiquette

I recently received an email regarding the AZ dessert and attached were photos of what was suppose to be this Majestic place, and instead it showed litter and scattered clothing and said it was due to the Mexicans. The email further criticized and insulted the Mexican President, and Our own President Obama. It was sent to me by a woman who claims to be a devout Christian. That was very frightening in addition to being insulting. She sent that to me knowing that I am a supporter of President Obama, and that I am against the linching happening in AZ. But even without that knowledge, I question how someone who claims to be a follower of Christ the most perfect example of Love could ever forward such nonsense and trash to anyone. The answer: Racism. She is a Racist. Christ would never support such negative unloving behavior. Such Bigotry.

How do we know something is not okay to forward? If the content is offensive to anyone that you know. In other words if you CAN'T send the email to everyone in your address book, then it is inappropriate. We CHOOSE not to include certain ones in information that we forward, but it is a choice, not that we can't we simply choose not to. There is a difference.

My sincerity of heart moved me to pray for this woman. I also deleted and blocked her, as I do not have to subject myself to such bold faced Racism.

Strive to live your best life in Christ.

Wholesome TV

When I was growing up, I was only allowed to watch certain programs on TV, which I still love to watch today. My favorite show of all time is I Love Lucy. But Lucy is not what I want to discuss today. I want to discuss Wholesome shows that have been labled unrealistic, because of their wholesomeness. I think that this kind of language which came back then and which still comes from the media today, is actually a way to cause family breakdown.

I am speaking of shows like the Brady Bunch, The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, and even the Cosby Show. Instead of praising such shows, and encouraging aspiring to such high morals, we were told that such lifestyles were ficticious at best. Why is it so impossible to relate to Claire Huxtable yet we were totally expected to relate to Florida Evans, keeping us in a poverty mindset. Why was it so far fetched to believe that a blended family (the Brady Bunch) could actually get along? That in middle class america people did not have those experiences? They made sure that low income children who watched those shows knew they could never have such a life or love or a family, by constantly reporting that such lives were pure fiction.

I always wanted a close knit family like the Waltons and I do experience that very thing when I am with my family in Mississippi. Having such a thing is possible if we only keep it simple: Trust God's Word, God's word outlines for us Family.

Be the Example.

Let's Continue

The foundation of communication is trust. In His sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Simply let your Yes be Yes, and your No, No. Anything beyond this comes from the evil one" Matt. 5:37. Jesus tells us that we must say what we mean and mean what we say. We cannot have high quality communication, without high-level trust. If we cannot trust what the other person is saying, eloquent words are meaningless. So, whether we are working at establishing a relationship or rebuilding channels of communication, it has to begin with TRUST.

Jesus established for us that trust is based on two words; Yes and No. How we choose to use these words becomes the factory where trust is assembled.

Question to Ponder: Is the way in which I am using my words eroding trust or building it?

Communication

Who hasn't fallen into the communication twilight zone? That Lifetime movie? You're having a conversation with someone, be it your mate, friend, co-worker, etc. Communication seems to be at an all time high until "the wrong word" slips out of someone's mouth. All of a sudden, the conversation starts to heat up like a nuclear reactor headed for a meltdown. Seemingly powerless to stop it, we find ourselves arguing or ever worse, not talking at all.

Communication is not easy. Yet communication is so important to relationships, it is what fuels them. Lack of communication has kept some relationships in a stagnant position for years. It takes good communication to keep a relationship moving forward for a lifetime. People try to make communication sound so simple, so easy, but when we break it down, communication is not a science; it is an art. It is not black and white. It is not always logical, and you certainly cannot reduce successful communication to a simple equation. Communication is an art, filled with fine lines and shades of meaning.

The second part of this series, I will cover just what Jesus, the only perfect communicator has to say on this subject. Stay posted.

Strive for Perfection Every Day. Seek God First, and Prosper.