Enjoy!

Grape growing is the largest food-based industry in the world. Grapes are one of my favorite fruits. They are tasty and versatile. You can eat them fresh, or preserve them for later. It's hard to decide which way I like to eat them best, but I do know life is sweeter with them in it!

Why am I talking about grapes? Well, this is a blog mostly about faith, partly about food. People need food for physical nourishment, and most definitely as creatures who are made to worship God, we also need spiritual truth to feed on so that we develop into mature believers. Growing grapes- the ones still on the vine- are used in the Bible to convey a message about the abundant life found in "abiding" in Jesus, the one true vine. He is our source of life, and in this life, he gives us joy. So much that we can't contain it! John 15:11 is an account of Jesus describing our life with him, "I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!" Some translations use different words to describe this joy- complete, full, overflow[ing], fulfilled, perfect. At any rate, joy is what we have when we recognize God's favor.(1)

This morning I read an account of a woman who was injured as a result of a shooting spree in a Colorado theater. The bullet went through her brain, yet she is still very much alive! This is a good example of what it looks like to have joy, especially in the midst of trying circumstances. Read more about it here.

In the last post, which was concerning love, I mentioned the satisfying nature of scripture. All the promises it contains get released into our lives by believing that what He says is true. So we consume God's word, taking it in as our lifeline. Then we are full, knowing that all of our needs have been met. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would come to us and show us how to live in abundance. He promised that our joy would be complete, the joy that is his. C. S. Lewis wrote that God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

Isaiah 51 tells of the deep anguish and sorrows that are soon to be replaced with the joy that only the Lord can provide. He will deliver them. He will comfort them and provide and they will sing songs of thanksgiving out of their gladness. He will bring mercy and his justice will follow. He calls himself the Lord of Heaven's Armies. The Sovereign LORD, your God and Defender. Who wouldn't be filled with joy at another fighting the difficult battles on our behalf?

“Stay with me, and I am in you. Just as the branch cannot yield fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither do you unless you stay with me.” John 15:4 (AramaicNT)

In the article above, and in the passage of Isaiah 51, we see that a grateful heart gives way to joy. I'm sure you've noticed that when there is a lack of gratitude, appearances turn sour. Grace has left. Satisfaction is unattainable. Joy is nowhere to be found. So, to me it seems that the base of joy is thankfulness. And eventually we have so much thankfulness it just comes pouring out of us. There is no place inside to store it. It must come out, or I don't know what will happen. Maybe it will sour? 

Paul reminds the people of Thessalonica that he is inconceivably grateful to God, because of the joy they have brought to him.(2) Oh, that the people of God would be to the human-world what grapes are to the food-world!

Father, your grace is enough to get us through any and all circumstances. It is my prayer that your people would prove your greatness in expressing the joy we have in you. We are complete in you, oh God. There are a myriad of ways we can take delight in you. May our praises be an honest reflection of our deepest affection, and in tune with your Holy Spirit. Our lives sometimes seem to be heavy and pressing like grapes being trampled in the wine press, and yet you are our strength. Thank you that you give us new mercies everyday and that each trouble we have brings us closer to you. May our joy be a sweet sound, and a pleasing aroma, as it flows, spilling and splashing our friends and family with the stain of your glory.

(1) http://concordances.org/greek/5479.htm

(2) 1 Thessalonians 3:9


The next in the Fruit of the Spirit Series is peace. Be still and know...!

A Taste of the Fruits of the Spirit: Eat Up Some Love, America!

Imagine being a prisoner in a dark cell. A law was broken. You have no freedom because the walls were built to keep you in...contained, shackled, shut-up, oppressed, unseen, unheard. Let's say you are fed three meals daily; a stale, tasteless, unsatisfying meal of bread you are given begrimed water to drink. You tell yourself it's just rust from the pipes. How long have you been in this place? It's hard to say. You don't even really know why you're locked up. You just are. It's always been this way. You want fresh food, maybe some variety. You need pure water. You want your freedom. Where do you go to find it?

The whole of Paul's letter to the Galatians centers on their freedom from the law of Moses because of Christ's death and resurrection. We celebrate freedom in America from the tyrannical rule of a monarch who misused his authority. While we still have liberty here to pursue happiness, let's think about what that freedom entails. 2 Corinthians 3:17  says, "the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." We can tell where the Spirit of the Lord is by what we witness. What does this believer say? What does this believer do? Does what they say and what they do align with each other? What is this evidence of the Spirit? Galatians 5:22-23 says that you will see this evidence: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

As Followers of the Way, we have freedom from the penalty of sin. Like the freedom we have as Americans, it came at a great price. Unlike many soldiers and seamen who have died to protect our land and rights, there was only One who took on the punishment of sin for the entire world. In recent years there have been true stories of customers driving up to the pick-up window at various fast food restaurants prepared to pay the cost of their meal to be pleasantly surprised that it had already been paid in full. Who does such a thing? Imagine that kind of delight. Someone you've never met paying for something you've ordered. We are free in our country to tell people without fear of punishment that someone has paid the price for us, and what we do in exchange is believe that there has been a reckoning of our account and keep from racking up a new bill. Yet strangely enough, there is still fear.

The truth is, when you are "in Christ," you are a new creation. There is something inherently different about those who are "born again." Paul gives us a Sam's Club style sample of a Spirit-led life. Think of sample tables spread with all kinds of little paper cups filled with tiny morsels of every kind of "fruit" of the Spirit. You know how something new doesn't seem all that appealing until you take a taste. It's kind of like that. Sometimes we don't understand what it means to possess good fruit. Sometimes we think it doesn't matter what kind of fruit we leave in the bowl for the world to see because no one has the right to judge us, and we shouldn't judge others.

According to Paul's letter to the Galatians, love falls first on the list of proof that God is in you. The kind of love the apostle Paul describes is a special love that speaks of preferring to live in Christ and choosing His choices.(1) This love, agape (in Greek, ἀγαπάω) is foundational in Christian relationships.  Agape love is the kind God has for us, and he wants us to have for each other. He wants us to be willing to make sacrifices for the benefit of others to enjoy eternity together. It's basically putting your own life, comfort, desires second to benefit someone else. If we don't have this love for one another, then we have nothing else to give because it doesn't matter. Agape is not simply an emotion. Love is active, powerful, and transcendent. Love comes from God- it is his character.

Looking at love throughout Scripture, I see a strangely satisfying, savory, and sweet strategy for life:

• GENESIS 22:2, "He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”  STRANGE
• EXODUS 15:13, “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed;
           In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation."  SATISFYING
• JOSHUA 22:5,  “Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” SAVORY
• PSALM 23:6, Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
           And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. SWEET
• PROVERBS 10:12,  "Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions." STRANGELY SATISFYING, SAVORY, & SWEET
• ISAIAH 16:5, "A throne will even be established in lovingkindness, and a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David; moreover, he will seek justice and be prompt in righteousness." STRANGE
• HOSEA 2:19,  “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,in lovingkindness and in compassion," SATISFYING
• MICAH 6:8,  "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" SAVORY
• JOHN 15:13, "“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." SWEET
• HEBREWS 10:24, "and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds," STRANGELY SATISFYING, SAVORY & SWEET                                                     [verses from NASB]

"Beloved, if God loves us in this way, we are indebted also to love one another." 1 John 4:11 (AramaicNT)

Each piece of God's word holds the nourishment needed for daily living that revitalizes our spirit. 

The next post is on joy and is coming soon.

Father, it is my desire that the reader(s) will be satisfied by your love, and that your love will be seen clearly in the things I say and do on your behalf. Thank you for allowing me to live in your freedom. I humbly make my way through this world waiting for you to take me home. While I wait, help me become more like you, Jesus. Bless those who seek your face...make the connection between understanding your love in their head, and knowing it with their heart. May we all receive the nourishment we need by consuming your words. Let us be inspired and refreshed and quick to give away what we've been given.

Footnotes:

(1) http://concordances.org/greek/25.htm