13 Sept 2014 - river roots

“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.

We are called to produce good fruit. Many of us are self-styled fruit trees. We imagine apples, pears, oranges, and other fruit. We delight in thinking of the fragrance. We delight in imagining the taste. Yet our branches remain barren. No fruit actually grows. 

If we want to be apple trees we need to grow apples. If we want to be fruit trees, the fruits of the Holy Spirit must manifest in our lives including, "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (cf. Gal. 5:22-23). They can't be abstractions. These fruits are meant to be so tangible as to feed the world.

But often our roots don't go deep enough to bear fruit. We spiritually dehydrated, barely able to think or move. Yet we lose ourselves in wistful visions of the sweet fruits we want to produce. We need to dig deeper. We need stronger foundations. There is a river that is meant to nourish us and give us the abundant life we need to bear fruit.

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing. (cf. Eze. 47:12)

It isn't so much that we need to work harder digging or spend more effort building. We just need to plant ourselves in the right spot. We need to build on the foundations which the LORD gives us (cf. 1 Cor. 3:11).

But we try to straddle the sand and the rock. In a lot of ways that can be even worse than just being on the sand. It stresses us in such a way that we might just split in two. There is one bread, one cup, one Body only. Yet we try drink the cups of demons and the cups of the LORD. We imagine ourselves to be fruit trees yet produce thorns and brambles. We are called to integrity. We are called to be consistent from the inside out. We must be built on rock only. Our roots must only drink of the river of God. The solution is offered by the psalmist. It is the cup of salvation that the LORD himself supplies. May we set aside the cups of demons in delight in the cup of salvation alone.

How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.