Around Thanksgiving and Christmas my mother used to make an apple salad that I love
to this day. I usually make it myself around those two holidays.You can put what you want in
it, but I usually include the following: peeled apple (Red Delicious) cut in
small cubes, celery (cut up small), raisins, miniature marsh mellows,
mayonnaise, nuts (Pecans or Walnuts) cut up small. All of this is mixed to taste,
but there is one other ingredient that must be used after cutting up the
apples. It is called Fruit Fresh. On the container it states that it is a “produce
protector that prevents browning and protects flavor of fresh-cut produce.” If this
isn’t used, the apples are going to get real nasty over a short time.
Our Lord has told us He wants
those who are His to produce fruit, because in His divine wisdom He has a recipe
to make our lives more enjoyable and more productive for His glory.
“By
this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
(John 15:8)
Assuming we are following His
command of producing fruit, our fruit can be fresh and tasty or it can result
in brown, unsavory rottenness if the Fruit Fresh isn’t applied in our life. Our
Fruit Fresh is the application of the Holy Spirit in whatever we do.
“that
you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every
good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;” (Colossians 1:10)
If the Spirit of God is sprinkled
in whatever we do, say and think then our fruit is pleasing to Him.
“But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
(Galatians 5:22-23)
However, if we are not sprinkling
our fruit with the Holy Spirit, it will become rancid and take on the
appearance of the world. The world, those without Christ, can only produce
fruit of the flesh because there is no preserving power of the Holy Spirit.
“Now
the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies,
outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders,
drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I
also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not
inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21)
Today, our world is
topsy-turvy. Everything is upside down and backwards. Instead of the church going
out into the world, the world has come in and is taking over the church. Isaiah
said it well:
“Woe
to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who
put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who
put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)
When I think back to the days
of my youth and then consider our society today, I feel like I must be on
another planet. Our world today is going to hell in a handbasket. How did we
get here? When it becomes difficult for the world to tell any difference between
themselves and a true Christian, the answer is obvious. We got here because we
compromised.
It is surprising today when those
who claim to be Christians can’t even tell right from wrong. Sin parks on their
doorstep and they invite it in. False gospels flow from the pulpits of America
and untold numbers of professing Christians don’t recognize it for what it is.
Why is that? In one word … ignorance.
Until the printing press was
invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450 almost no one had a Bible. Even afterwards,
men gave their lives for the Bible to be printed in the language of the people.
Most people didn’t even know how to read and write. Therefore, many were
ignorant of God’s Word, but today there is no excuse. Today, ignorance is by
choice. Most still allow the opinions of others to rule their thinking instead
of going to the Bible and getting the Truth.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
has been so watered down by liberal pulpits, entire churches have been conned
by Satan’s lies. Why? It is because so few Christians really and truly study
God’s holy Word; i.e. the Bible, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide their study
and to guide the life they live.
Our fruit has become very offensive
because we refuse to use the only thing that will keep it fresh. As already stated,
the Holy Spirit working in the life of a Christian works like Fruit Fresh to
keep produce from spoiling, but the Spirit of God must work through His own
Word to produce the right kind of fruit in our lives and to keep it fresh.
We need to ask our selves
(notice I say “We,” not “You”):
Can others look at us and see
Love for them?
Can they see Joy and Peace in
our lives?
Are we Longsuffering (patient)
with others?
Are we Kind?
Can they see Goodness coming
from us?
Can they see that we are Faithful
to Jesus?
Are we Gentle with others?
Do we practice Self-control?
I think the most important is
that our fruit shows a legitimate love for others. The apostle Paul said in 1
Corinthians 13:
“Though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become
sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so
that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I
bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love
suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is
not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks
no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love
never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there
are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For
we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has
come, then that which is in part will be done away.
When
I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a
child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a
mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know
just as I also am known.
And
now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Jesus Himself told us:
“…Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)
You think maybe God is saying
that if we take care of the “love” part of our Christian lives, the rest will
take care of itself, including the fruits we produce?
Any true Christian wants to
produce good fruit for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We all want to hear
Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” If we would seriously study
His Word and ask Him to keep us fresh in His Spirit, there is no reason we can’t
honor our Lord with good fruit. And Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know
them.” (Matthew 7:20)
Jesus is returning soon, and many
Christians will be surprised. When is He returning? I don’t know, but we are
definitely in the season of the Lord’s return. He could come at any time. Are
we producing fruits for Him? He left us this word by the apostle Paul.
“The
night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of
darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
Let
us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in
lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
But
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill
its lusts.” (Romans 13:12-14)
Grant Phillips
Email: Phillip5769@twc.com
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
Rapture Ready: http://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html
