Fruit of the Spirit - Part 5 PEACE

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Monday, May 27, 2019

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Galatians 5:22-23

A story is told of a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart, but was very frustrated.  The world seemed to be falling apart.  She would read the papers and get depressed.

One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random.  She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter.  She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she'd seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. 

She finally got up her nerve and asked, Excuse me, are you Jesus?  I am. 

Do you work here?  No, I own the store.

Oh, what do you sell here?  Just about everything, Jesus said.  Feel free to walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want and then come back, and we'll see what we can do for you.

She did just that, walked up and down the aisles.  There was [for sale] peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources.  She wrote her list furiously.  By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list.  Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled.  No problem.  And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up and laid out the packets. 

She asked:  What are these?  Seed packets, Jesus said.  This is a catalog store.

She said:  You mean I don't get the finished product?

No, this is a place of dreams.  You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds.  You plant the seeds.  You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits.

Oh, she said.  And she left the store without buying anything.^[2]

Sometimes it is easier to dwell on having personal peace than on the peace which compels us to go into all the world with the good news. 

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  That was the eighth day…a whole week later than the first time Jesus said “peace” to them.  This time he came back when Thomas was there.  Thomas may have felt pretty much a second-class-citizen as a disciple.  But Jesus came back and spoke the same wonderful word to him…. “Peace”!

We all come to Jesus at different times and in different walks – but his peace is still his peace.  Symbiosis is:  a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship between two people or groups.^[3]  To be “symbiotically-peaceful” is to get along with each other in the kind of love God planned for us.  It is symbiotic peace that conjoins us and holds us together in a bond of brotherhood and the selfless love of God.  This is the whole point of Easter.  It is what Paul meant when he told us that God was in Christ to reconcile the whole world to himself^[4] – and has given us that very same mission. 

Peace is the work of reconciliation – first I am reconciled to God with his saving peace, having been rescued from my sins.  Then I take part in rescuing others because of his sending peace.  And I am taught to live in symbiotic God-love, the peace that passes all understanding.  It is a matter of living in God’s peace. 

So…Pass the Peace brothers and sisters….take a moment and pass the peace; take this lifetime and pass the peace!

For You Today

Let the peace of Christ dwell in you today. 

For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Romans 14:17

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com  
             Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

[2]Migan McKenna in Parables, cited in Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spiritual Literacy (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 359.

[3] Encarta dictionary

[4] 2 Corinthians 5:19

Fruit of the Spirit - Part 4 JOY

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Friday, May 24, 2019

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Galatians 5:22-23

We are looking at the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit, those qualities and characteristics which develop in people who have genuinely surrendered to following Christ.  Today’s focus is on the fruit of joy.

Images:  Pixabay.com

As with the rest of Christian experience, with joy there is a problem with counterfeits.  It comes in the form of almost, but not really.  Looking at two pictures illustrates this. 

In the first picture (which is the typical one you’ll get if you do a Google search for “joy”) we see a guy who is jumping over mountains.  He is (if you’ll pardon the woeful pun) on top of the world.  This giddy, exhilarated jumper projects that some wonderful experience is his, and he’s celebrating.  This is not the kind of “joy” of which the Bible proclaims, although this kind of overwhelming happiness can be associated with genuine joy.  

The second picture, a baby’s hand clutching the finger of a parent is relationship that needs very little explanation; there is trust, dependence and a bond that goes deeper than words.  The first picture pretty much depends on how you feel because of what you have, or circumstances.  The second only depends on who you are.  The apostle Paul has these words to help us understand the difference:

Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”  Romans 4:8

Circumstances can change like the weather, a promotion on the job, winning a scholarship grant, hurricanes that wipe out life savings and memories, a doctor’s report that says get your affairs in order, or getting served divorce papers.  But joy, in the Biblical sense, only knows change in the sense of deeper awareness.  It is that growing sense that you are truly loved with an everlasting lovingkindness:

Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.  With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.  Jeremiah 31:3

This is the relationship that brings genuine joy, not a momentary exhilaration or love affair with a new car, house, job, or circumstance that can fade and whither as all substitutes for God will produce.  Again, listen to Paul’s take on what being in the Kingdom of God as a child of the king produces:

For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Romans 14:17

A life lived in the fruit of the Holy Spirit is to be filled with God’s goodness and God’s peace, and God’s joy; none of that depends on your family tree, your financial portfolio, or what the world thinks of you.  It all depends on His love.

For You Today

Let the peace of Christ dwell in you today.  Scripture finishes our devotional thought of producing Kingdom fruit:

The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life;  Proverbs 11:30a

If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.  If it is giving, give generously.  If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.  And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.  Romans 12:8

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com  
             Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©