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Are We Fruitful or Disappointing?

This has been a disappointing week. First, I was out on a walk, enjoying the prolific flowers we've had after an unusually wet spring. I went from flowering tree, to flowering bush, to flowering gardens, sniffing away, with much the same results. Hardly any of the beguiling flowers had a fragrance!

Then, after a few recent weeks of hot, dry weather, we're in need of rain. The past three days, big thunderheads rolled in over the mountains each afternoon. And each time, the same result: not even a drop of moisture.

To top it off, I bought some rather expensive cherries at the grocery store, since they're one of my favorite summer fruits. Throughout the whole bag, about one out of 8 were enjoyably sweet. The rest were either tasteless or sour. By this time, I was pretty sure it was a conspiracy!

There's nothing worse than when you have your hopes up, counting on something to be a certain way, and it just doesn't happen. Like when a beautiful flower has no fragrance, or a stormy sky doesn't deliver moisture, or a bag of cherries turns out to be the pits.

There was a time when Jesus felt disappointed, too. He was hungry, and he saw a fig tree in full leaf, which meant it should have fruit. But as he neared the tree, it was completely void of fruit. He cursed the fig tree and it withered and died (see Mark 11:12-14).

Perhaps this situation was the real life inspiration for His parable in Luke 13. Either way, Jesus made a point for us today. There's nothing more disappointing than people who put on the "show" of a fruitful life, beckoning the spiritually hungry from a distance, yet up close one finds that it was only false advertising.

There are many believers today who can look good from a distance, pretending to be someone different in public than they are at home, or pretending to have answers that end up shallow and untried in their own lives. But these pretenders have no authentic or lasting fruit-bearing properties about their lives because they're only in it for show. And when the world approaches them hungry, they go away disappointed and empty.

As Christians we should, by default, be living advertisements of the solution to people's spiritual hunger. What are we doing to bear genuine tasty fruit in our daily lives? Are we pursuing authenticity, humility, dependence on God, and obedience? Is God building wisdom into our lives through our teachable hearts? It's only when we pursue these virtues that people will indeed find something worthwhile about us up close. But on the flip side, remember the sobering fate of a life for show--chopped down and destroyed.

Offer your life to the Gardener today so that you might bear lasting, life-giving fruit for all who pass by.

Then Jesus used this illustration: "A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I've waited three years, and there hasn't been a single fig! Cut it down. It's taking up space we can use for something else.'" Luke 13:6-7

June 23, 2008 | 1 Comment | View or add comments

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Surprise Your Mother...Live Dangerously, Disturbed, & Ruined

Recently I heard Kay Warren speak at a conference. She said, "I'm not too much fun at dinner parties anymore." She went on to explain that, ever since she got involved with AIDS orphans, not to mention battling a life-threatening bout with cancer, she doesn't want to waste time discussing trivial matters in life anymore. She wants to talk about things that really matter in the grand scheme, and I guess certain associations get bored with her new life pursuits.

She went on to challenge the audience to live out their remaining days on earth in three dimensions for the sake of Christ:

Dangerously surrendered: Why "dangerously?" God is not safe, but He's good. To be dangerously surrendered means that you are willing for the adventure, wherever it takes you, believing that God is good and He will only lead you on a path of good, even if it seems perilous at times. Living this way will threaten your reliance upon what is known and comfortable, but will take you places you never dreamed possible.

Seriously disturbed: there's only one way to become seriously disturbed for the cause of Christ and that is to get your hands dirty. Go on a mission trip. Get involved in a worthy cause with those who are the "least of these." When you see and experience first hand the suffering of others, you will forever be marked and disturbed in such a way, you will want to do something.

Gloriously ruined: In Isaiah's words, we read: "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty (6:5 NIV)." When we encounter the Holy, we become ruined by Him and for Him. We never quite see life the same again. Our old ways of fun are spoiled, our old habits are no longer enjoyable, our priorities and perspectives are changed. But instead of losing out, our life actually becomes new, full, and beautiful!

In Audio Adrenaline's song, "Miracle," Mark Stuart writes:

I am free
For the first time
I can see
Further than before
Everything's different now
Now that you've ruined my life
You took my dreams
And stole my schemes
And turned my life upside down
You took my heart
Stole every part
And made it a miracle

Make the decision to live dangerously surrendered, seriously disturbed, and gloriously ruined for Christ. Ask Him to help you be ready to do this. Put your life and future in His hands. I guarantee (money back) it will be the best decision of your life. In fact, you will find that only in choosing this kind of life, are you truly living.

June 16, 2008 | 2 Comments | View or add comments

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