Fruit Salad

This post is sort of related to the last one. I brushed across the tip of the subject, anyway. I had said that you can tell what your priorities are by looking at where you invest your resources. In the same way you can tell what you are on the inside by what shows up on the outside.
Jesus said "by their fruits you shall know them." In that context, though it is unpopular to say this, Jesus was talking about evaluating teachers as to whether or not they were false. I say it is unpopular because so many people start hollering "JUDGE NOT" when you talk about whether someone is *actually* preaching the gospel or not. However, they never quite finish that verse either. But that's a topic for another day. The point is, you can tell an apple tree by whether it produces apples. If it produces oranges, you can pretty much bank on the fact it is indeed not an apple tree.
Jesus also said in the same passage that good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit.
Then in the Parable of the soils, Jesus speaks of the fertile soil causing the seed to bear fruit.
Oh, and then there's the part where Jesus says that He's the vine and we're the branches and if we abide in Him we'll bear MUCH fruit.
Come to think of it, the Bible talks a lot about fruit. The point is, the fruit of your life is very important. Let's take the aforementioned fruit we bear through Christ, for example. Basically Jesus is saying, if you're a Christian, people are going to be able to take a look at your fruit and say "woah! That guy's a Christian!" It's going to be obvious. If you don't have fruit, it means you're not abiding in the vine. So again, this is the thermometer by which I can guage my life. Am I bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God? If not, maybe I'm not getting sap from the vine.
Now let's look at the fruits of the spirit. In sunday school you learn about the fruits of the spirit. They're cute little fruit characters. Nine of them. A nice little fruit salad, they make. Aside from the fact this caused me to have a distored view of fruits as a child, I also grossly misunderstood how the fruits of the spirit worked. You see, I always learned "You have to be loving, have joy, peace, and patience, be kind" etc. It was all doing and being. But does an apple tree have to *try* to produce apples? Or does it just do so naturally, so long as it is a healthy tree? Does a gardener have to do something special to make the apple tree specifically produce apples rather than, say, bananas? There's no guesswork involved. Apple trees bear apples. Period. You know it's an apple tree because it has apples, you don't have to hang apples on it to make an apple tree. Fruit is the thermometer, not the compass.
That being said, the list of the fruits of the spirit (which, incidentally are preceded by the fruits of the flesh) is *not* an exhaustive list. The preceding list of the fruits of the flesh is not exhuastive list either. But Paul throws out several so you have an idea of what he's talking about. And he's not saying "do these things to stop sinning" or "do these things to be spiritual." He's saying "Do you do these things? That's because you follow after the flesh or spirit respectively."
This all may be a bit of an "of duh" moment for some of you. Or for some of you it may be an "oh wow" moment. For me it was an epiphany the first time I read Galatians through like it was intended to be read. Everything made so much more sense. Instead of trying to do the right things, all I had to do was follow the Spirit. And if I ever wondered whether I was walking in the spirit all I had to do was look at the fruit my life was producing. Amazing! What a relief to not have to worry about following a list of do's and don'ts, and what freedom!
This what God intends for us. Not a list of rules, but an abiding in the vine--a walking in the spirit-- whereby we know in our hearts and by the fruit of our lives that we are doing what God ultimately wants from us. THAT is true relationship. Not the little cliché about religion vs relationship (can you tell I hate clichés?). The real deal.
What does your fruit say about you? Are you abiding in the vine, or are you a sickly branch? Are you bearing good fruit that indicates the spirit root or are you bearing bad fruit that indicates a flesh-focused root? Think about it.

Priorities: treasures of the heart

Idol-worship. Idolatry. Tricky word. What does it bring to your mind? Not long ago the term "idol worship" would trigger in my mind an image of some sort of pagan worship-- something akin to the Israelite's golden calf on Sinai, or the grand temples we read about in the Bible and other History books, dedicated to all sorts of "gods" made of stone. The first two commandments clearly put the nix on that sort of thing. So I thought I was safe. But is that what idolatry really is? Yes. But no. Certainly, cutting wood or stone into an image and bowing down and paying homage to it is idolatry. But that's not all idolatry is.
Recently I came across a very eye-opening video on this subject:
<iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QPil9Br-5lE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This video struck me  pretty deeply because it resonated with something God had been showing me. My idol is not necessarily a physical carved image, and it's not necessarily something I consciously think about being "greater than God" per se. In fact, in our culture more often than not that is not the case. My idols are much subtler than that. People I love, my job, social status, entertainment, leisure, hobbies, sports, money or possessions--literally anything in my life can be my idol.
How can I tell what my idol is? Simple: What's my priorty? Where do I focus my energies and resources? What do I think about or look forward to all the time? Jesus put it quite well in Matthew 6:21, "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." So, looking for your treasure? Where's your heart? Looking for your heart? Where's your treasure? They hang out together like kids dating in school-- one is never far from the other.
I became terribly convicted when I realized where my treasure was. I didn't save up my money to support God's work. I didn't look forward with anticipation to "devotions" time. I didn't spend all my time thinking about God and praying. It was all about me. And I realized something: These things I was seeing were the thermometer, not the compass. The places I put my energies and resources were the fruit of the tree of a me-centered life, not the other way around. If I tried to make myself do all the right things I was going to fail. The only way to change the fruit is to change the root-- rather than being me-centered, I must put the focus on God and HIS kingdom, then the fruit I bear will be for HIS glory. How freeing to realize!
Where are your priorities? When was the last time you had to drag yourself away from your Bible to watch TV? Would you rather go boating with friends or serve the needy in the name of Christ? Are you committed to understanding and learning more about God? Or are you busy chasing the temporal? Think about it.

How to study the Bible 101 part 2: Context and Expository study

While I was blogging yesterday I started to go off on a rabbit trail (I tend to do that--oops!) which is highly related to what I was talking about... it's part of what God was showing me then, too. That is, how we read the Bible (for devotions or for study) is important. Therefore, I wish to explore this subject now.
Context is very important in the proper understanding of the Scripture. When the Bible was penned all those thousands of years ago, there were no chapter/verse divisions. As I understand it, there wasn't even punctuation as we know it. I remember when I was younger being frustrated at Bible memorization programs that only gave you part of a verse to memorize. I felt like if you were going to do that, you could take any phrase out of the Bible and make it say whatever you want. Come to find out, that's precisely what some people do. (Not bad deduction for a kiddo, eh Watson?). As I got older I realized that even just reading or quoting one or two verses was not much better. Verse divisions do not necessarily begin and end with sentences. In fact, they usually don't. So I had this brilliant idea: I decided to take one of the smaller books of the Bible (one of the Epistles) and read it as much like it was written as possible. I read it like it was a letter from a friend. (go figure-- an Epistle = a letter) What an epiphany! I had sorta guessed by then that context was important, but here it was before my eyes. What enlightenment to take a whole letter of which I knew bits and pieces and read the whole thing. It made so much more sense. And it made me realize that so much of what I had been taught was based off of verses that had been extracted from their context, leaving their meanings subject to the teacher's interpretation. Not cool.
Now, before I go on, I want to point out the fact that God's Word is living, powerful, and perfect. Perfect meaning complete and multi-faceted. Much like a diamond can be looked at from many angles--still being the same diamond. For example, oftentimes there is a literal meaning (or meanings) AND a symbolic meaning(s). This is how you can read a passage over and over and come up with a new revelation each time. Because it's not just words on a page--it's God-breathed, God-inspired words on a page which interact with the living Holy Spirit of God inside of you, who takes what you read and applies it to your life in the most personal way possible. It's simply amazing! I don't know if I can even adequately explain it, but you who have experienced it know what I mean.
Now, the point of my rabbitish trail is that there is a place for "personal interpretation" of scripture BUT I must also clarify it must follow certain rules. #1 it must be consistent with all of Scripture. #2 it must be consistent with the heart of God. (perhaps redunadant, but a necessary distinction, methinks) #3 context of the Scripture must be taken into account to be sure the interpretation is valid, not just something you burped up after eating too many extra long cheese coneys from Sonic. Every day, somewhere in the world, whether in the pulpit or in private Bible study, the Word of God is grossly misconstrued and strange doctrines are born because people don't take context into consideration. Some of these doctrines have even become major teachings of the church! I won't start naming them now, but I will likely eventually be tackling some of them.
Now, let's take a look at the other side of the pendulum. Remember those speed-reader types I mentioned in part 1? They're great at getting the context. But they're missing something huge. The deep study where you actually pay attention to what you're reading and what it means. The part where you get out your Bible dictionary and concordance and all sorts of other delicious Bible study tools and have a serious "feast on the Word" like it was Thanksgiving dinner at grandma's house. (Do I sound like I'm salivating on my computer here?). Guess what though! It's impossible to properly do this without--you guessed it-- context.  What did I say before? (say it with me class) Balance in everything.
Therefore, the key to proper Bible study (devos included) is a beautiful balance between taking in context and digging deep. There is a place for objective, expositional teaching/studying of the Bible, and there is a place for subjective teaching/studying of the Bible. One without the other = improper balance and improper balance is never a good thing.
Now I realize some people's heads may be spinning right about now. You look at your daily planner, back to me, back to your planner, now back to me... And as you add up the hours of Bible study we're looking at you say "Yikes!" and start wondering how you'll look in that monkish or nunnish garb. After all, you've already set aside 2 hours and 40 minutes a day for Bible study AND prayer, but it takes at least 4 hours to read through Genesis, not to mention getting down to the nitty gritty. Yes, I'm talking to you. Relax. As much as you would like to drop everything and spend your entire life reading and studying the Bible, I (and hopefully you) realize that's just not practical for 99.99999% of Christians. And anyway I'm pretty sure God doesn't want you to sit around and gorge yourself on the Bible 24/7 and ignore the world around you that is dying of hunger. Again! (say it with me!) BALANCE in everything!
I had this conversation with God too. And this is what I felt like God was telling me. Remember yesterday when I was talking about meditation? (you did read yesterday's post, didn't you? Good.) That's part of the equation. I find that if I take in large portions of scripture and saturate my mind with it, meditate on it, then study it expositorily (that's a word, right?) for however long it takes... Well, it's just like three square meals a day. I dare you to try it. I find that since I adopted that method of meditation and study I can pop scriptures off like crazy when people ask me questions. I get to have the most riveting theological conversations, too. It really is like a well-balanced diet! Furthermore, I'm much more likely to actively share my faith because it's at the forefront of my mind and because I'm more confident in my growing knowledge of the things of God.
This thought may be overwhelming to you, as it was to me at first. But rest assured, once you get things sorted out, it's really not that hard. What I learned to do is set aside several segments of the day for reading through the larger portions of scripture, spend most of the day meditating on it (which isn't hard to do since each reading segment is like a jump-start to the "thinking on scripture" train of thought), then I set aside a specific time (maybe not every day, depending on my schedule). Also, Bible on MP3 is a wonderful invention--I can listen during commutes and whatnot.
Different things work for different people. It's just up to you to figure out what works. Are you commited to being obedient to the Word by meditating on it? Are you willing to skip out on entertainment or leisure in order to get your spiritual sustinence? What's more important to you? Think about it.

Daily Devos: Are We Doing it Wrong? (or, how to study the Bible 101 part 1)

It's hard to know exactly where to start, but I'm going to attempt to start with one of the first things I awakened to when I began this journey: the daily devotional time. "Devotions" is one of those overly-clichéd words that has completely lost its meaning due to its over-use. While growing up, the word to me meant the small portion of your day where you pay homage to God so He'll bless your day. It's almost like you get special brownie points for doing devos. If you don't do them, you're not going to hell right away, but you'd certainly better feel guilty or else you might not have a spiritual pulse.

Now, it seems that in the average "Christian" American home, devotions usually includes reading a verse or two (or maybe a short passage) of Scripture, generally guided by a little booklet (I won't mention any names, but you probably know what I mean) that has some little story to go along with the verse. It's a great feel-good start to get you on your way. The problem? Well, if the Bible is your spritual sustinence for strength in the spiritual warfare we face day-to-day, let's just say that this would be akin to eating a cracker for breakfast before going out onto a labor-intensive job. And not eating lunch, either. Maybe even having another cracker before going to bed. Sound reasonable?

On the other extreme, some people's idea of devotions is to take a verse or two and do a super-deep expositional study for anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours. Admitedly, this is much more spiritually filling--more akin to eating steak for breakfast, to continue the illustration-- but again, it's only one meal, and not a very well-balanced one at that. Many strange doctrines can come out of this style of study as it generally requires taking one or two verses without context, which can be a detriment, which I will delve into in a later installment.

Now, smack-dab in the middle between the different styles of one-verse-wonders are the super ambitious "read through the Bible in five minutes" types who read large volumes of Scripture in short periods of time. They may win all sorts of speed-reading awards, but how much do you really get? This style is akin to eating a bagful of cotton candy for breakfast before that long day of hard work.

My suggestion? Balance in everything. Just as you (hopefully) eat a blanaced diet, you should balance between the contextual reading of what you read and studying the deeper meanings behind what you read. As I said before, I'll get into the importance of context vs depth in a later installment, but for now I want to get back to the point of devotions.

Let's look at what the word "devotion" really means. Taken from DictionaryDOTcom:

noun

1. profound dedication; consecration.

2. earnest attachment to a cause, person, etc.

3. an assignment or appropriation to any purpose, cause, etc.: the devotion of one's wealth and time to scientific advancement.

4.Often, devotions. Ecclesiastical . religious observance or worship; a form of prayer or worship for special use.

Interestingly enough, the 4th definition is the religious cultural definition. Being a bit of an etymology geek, I always ask the question, How did this word come to mean this? My theory is as follows: devotion time started as being a time Christians devoted (definition 3: assigned to a purpose) to studying God's Word to learn more about Him, thus becoming devoted (definition 1 or 2: dedication or earnest attachment to a person) to Him. Unfortunately, as is often the case, it seems to have become a religious cliché, as we see in definition 4. 

How do we break this cycle? How do we learn to truly be devoted to knowing God? Do we have to drop career and family--everything-- and become monks or nuns and spend life in solitude and silent meditation to show our devotion?

Yes! Join up today and you'll receive a free copy of my latest book "How to Please God in 12 Easy Steps!" Well, there's no simple answer, really. But I think that God gives us the clues in His Word. Think of how much the Bible (especially in Psalms) talks about meditating (or related words) on God's Word [day and night, no less!]. (hint, if you don't think of about a dozen off the top of your head, do a word-search on Biblegateway.com. That might help jog your memory). That doesn't mean you sit there in a trance-like state mumbling Bible phrases in the original Greek. God didn't call us to be zombies. Think about the book of James that talks about being a doer of the Word rather than a hearer only. 

The point is, whether you read one verse or a thousand--slowly and carefully or at high velocity--if you just forget about what you've read, you've missed the point altogether. The key is not quantity or quality of Bible reading, the key is whether it changes you. Does your daily devotions time make a difference in your life? Does it simmer in the back of your head all day and influence your decisions? Do you pull it out when you have a spare moment and chew on it a bit-- have a little "pick-me-up snack" or another "meal" to boost your strength for your daily battle? If you miss your Bible time, do you still meditate on familiar Scripture and commune with God, or do you hide from him in fear and guilt? God doesn't care whether you "do devotions" but whether you are devoted. Think about it.