26 October 2013 - tree party

26 October 2013 - tree party

We are called to bear fruit that will last.  The opposite of a fruit bearing tree isn't just being an isolated individual tree with no impact on the larger environment.  If we don't bear fruit we are actually affecting others negatively by keeping resources to ourselves.

‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?’

But Jesus is the gardener who does not easily give up on his trees.  If we aren't bearing fruit now he gives us every opportunity and grace to do so.  As trees, we don't go out and hunt for fertilizer.  We can't stretch to cultivate our own ground.  But our gardener is diligent.  He is faithful.  He gives us everything we need to bear fruit.

He said to him in reply,
‘Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.

We are transformed from a lifeless tree to one which bears fruit by the Holy Spirit.  He is the divine fertilizer which gives us life. 

If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.
The situation for us who aren't bearing fruit is worse than we thought. We are dead in sin.  We don't bear fruit because we have no life.  No human skill can fix trees like this.  Only the power of the resurrection can let dead trees bear fruit again.

What fruit do we bear?  The fruit of the Spirit:  "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

But we can only do so to the degree that our hands are sinless and our hearts are clean.  These are blessings of the Holy Spirit.  Without him we cannot escape sin and condemnation.  With him we find life.

Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has freed you from the law of sin and death.

Therefore let us bear fruit.  Not just thirty fold.  Not just sixty fold.  We have all the blessings we need to bear fruit even one hundred fold.

The reward we receive from God our savior is to stand before him and see his face.  This is what our hearts long for.  This is the vision that satisfies forever.