Many of you have met my mom. Her name is Patty, she faithfully serves in the childrens department at Canyon Creek, and she is one of the godliest women, wait PEOPLE, that I know. I want to tell you a little bit more about her today.
My mom is number 12 of 13 children. Her mother passed away when she was very young and her dad worked long hours at 2 or 3 jobs to keep some sort of food on the table. A housekeeper had a hand at raising the 13 kids, most of whom left home at early ages, started families and were in multiple marriages and relationships. My mom had me when she was 15 and shortly thereafter she and my dad were married at the ages of 16 and 17. (They are still married today which I think is pretty cool!). After a rocky start, under less than ideal circumstances, my mom found Jesus as her Savior in her early 20s with two young kids. After salvation, my mom was completely different. While she grew in her faith in God, her siblings walked through marriages, divorces, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, affairs, heartbreaks, loss of children, multiple children to multiple parents and the list goes on. This is not to say that my mom was perfect, or didn't have her share of difficulties, but with Jesus, she remains married to my dad (the only marriage of her siblings that lasted) and she has joy and peace, she is loving, faithful, kind, generous & good, gentle, patient and full of self control. Basically if you know my mom, you have seen the fruit of the spirit evident in her life.
A few years ago, my mom was faced with a heartbreaking situation. Her dad had remarried years before and his wife (my mom's step mom) was experiencing mental and emotional deterioration.....some form of undiagnosed dementia. For years, many of my mom's siblings had expressed their distaste, and eventual hatred of this woman. She mistreated everyone around her, including her husband, to the fury of all of his children. Early on, my mom had determined to serve this woman. She cleaned her house, went and visited her, helped her with projects and bought her gifts. For many years the stepmother (though extremely difficult to be around) was grateful to my mom and treated her well. But a few years ago, she turned on my mom. Without getting into all of the ridiculous details, this woman dragged my mom's name through the mud, took her to court and sued her and basically made my mom's life miserable. The amazing thing about it, is you really couldn't pick a more selfless, kind and generous person to make accusations of, it was absurd. My mom, however, was devastated. She had spent years of her life trying to be a good example to her siblings hoping and praying for their salvations. Instead, she found herself in court being sued for stealing from her stepmother (which of course was ludicrously untrue) and her reputation in danger of being forever tarnished.
Throughout this time I kept encouraging my mom that her character would speak for itself. Her siblings didn't even care for their step mother to begin with, there was no reason for them to believe her now, but my mom was heartbroken over the possibility of ruining her chance to be a witness. And then an amazing thing happened. One by one, my mom's siblings began to rally around her. These siblings who hadn't spent any time together in years began getting together for lunch with my mom to support her. My mom now had multiple opportunities to share her faith with them, and they began to open their hearts to the gospel being presented. The next thing I know my mom is buying Bibles for her siblings and one after another they are having salvation experiences. At the funeral for my grandpa about 2 years later, almost 20 of my mom's family prayed salvation prayers. Many were baptized, one has become a full time pastor and many are faithful in church. How in the world did all of that happen? I am fully convinced that my amazing mom, having surrendered herself to the control of the Holy Spirit, was a living, breathing example for God because of the fruit of the spirit evident in her life.
Have you ever wondered how someone can walk through the most agonizing circumstances and seem to radiate peace and trust? Fruit of the Spirit. Have you watched a parent stand by and continually fight for a loved one who is sick and needs medical care and wonder how they find the energy and grace for such exhausting work? Fruit of the Spirit. Do you know a parent who daily manages to find the patience to fight for a special needs child? Fruit of the Spirit. Relationships, finances, daily commitments, stress, children, family, futures, death, discouragement, loss, heartbreak, how do we face all of that and not lose our minds? We surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit and allow him to plant seeds of spiritual (and eternal) fruit in us that ripen and mature as we grow. The result? We bear spiritual fruit that is more effective as a witness for Jesus than any sermon we could ever preach.
Galatians 5:22 says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control." The New Living Translation says it this way: "but when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us:..."
Our study this fall is on the fruit of the spirit. I think every one of us would say that we want those 9 attributes obviously working in our lives. I think even unbelievers would say they want to be known for those attributes, but the key to them is stated before the list...."when the Holy Spirit is in control. I want to start our study of the fruit of the Spirit with that clearly stated. This study is not about acquiring those attributes, it is about surrendering ourselves to the Holy Spirit, with those attributes resulting in direct proportion to our surrender.
Galatians 2:20 says "I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. so I live my life in this earthly body by trusting the Son fo God who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 2 is very significant for us to build on in order to reach our intended desire of spiritual fruit in our lives. You'll notice that the chapter starts off with the disciples (Jesus is gone and the disciples have the impressive and noble job of evangelizing the world) accepting Paul. This is noteworthy because they acccepted a guy who was very similar to themselves. He had similar heritage (he was Jewish) and similar upbringing (raised studying and teaching the "Law"). In other words, they accepted a guy who was raised religiously. Paul is writing though, to confront them for NOT accepting those who are unlike themselves. The religious leaders of the newly founded Christian church, were expecting new converts who were not Jewish to conform to pre-set expectations and laws. In other words, there were conditions to their salvation. In this case (and among other things) circumcision was the point of argument. Good religious Jewish boys were circumcised, while non Jews (or "Gentiles") were not brought up practicing circumcision, and somewhere along the line the concept was introduced that you have to earn your salvation. Different packaging today, but still the same problem. We, as Christians, have this natural urging to earn our way. We want to earn God's love, earn his favor and earn our way BACK into his "good graces" after we have made mistakes. In fact, we don't even feel we deserve to ask God for anything until we have paid penence for our misdoings, and earned our way back. sound familiar?
I would like to point out two things that stand out to me from Galatians 2:20 that contradict this nature.
1. "I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me." As believers in and followers of Jesus, and as those who desire to have the fruit of the Holy Spirit evident in our lives, we have to be willing to abandon our own will and agenda; give up our "rights" (a topic to be revisited later in this study), and stop trying to earn our own way. Those in the Galatian church were swayed by the beliefs and opinions of those around them. we are constantly faced with that as well, the need to please (or impress) those around us with how spiritual we are. We cannot manufacture the fruit of the spirit by trying harder. We can implement good habits and work to break old ones, we can be disciplined and exercise self control (and we should!) but ultimately, growing and going FORWARD in the fruit of the spirit, requires us to LAY DOWN or GIVE UP our own rights. We can't have both. In fact if you read on in Galatians 2, verse 21 says "If we could be saved by keeping the law then there would be no need for Christ to die." Translation? you can't do it on your own.
2. The second thing we as followers of Jesus must do have fruit of the Spirit evident in our lives is trust God. Trust doesn't come naturally, in fact it requires a deliberate act of our will. It also requires that we spend time with whom we are putting our trust in. That means we have to spend time alone with God. I am convicted this morning, after studying these verses, to get myself in gear and spend some quality time with God. That is something I can do. The result is that as I yield my will and rights and choose to trust, the Holy Spirit begins to take control; and when the Holy Spirit is in control, HE is more evident in ME. You see less me and more HIM.
Galatians is all about what we GAIN, by what we GIVE UP. We give up our rights, our will, all of the rules that we want to live by to earn our own way, and we gain freedom, eternity with Jesus, and love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, and self control. Pretty good deal if you ask me. I want to be like my mom, and radiate the fruit of the spirit. I am even willing to lay down my rights to do it (God is going to have to help me!) so I can see others find Jesus as a result. But more than anything, I just want to know Jesus. I want to be close to Him and really know Him; and I want that for all of you too.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. Memorize the 9 fruit of the spirit, we want to recognize what is growing in us as it starts to spring up!
2. Post to the group the fruit of the spirit that mosts stands out to you. this will likely be because it is the one you struggle with the most.
3. Make a plan for how you will carve out some quality time with God THIS WEEK. We have to spend time with Him in order for Him to have the opportunity to put His finger on those areas that need attention in our lives. Post your plan, along with number 2 above.
4. Any other comments, and thoughts are welcome. If you haven't read Galatians 2 yet, GET TO WORK!!
Looking forward to hearing from you!
My mom is number 12 of 13 children. Her mother passed away when she was very young and her dad worked long hours at 2 or 3 jobs to keep some sort of food on the table. A housekeeper had a hand at raising the 13 kids, most of whom left home at early ages, started families and were in multiple marriages and relationships. My mom had me when she was 15 and shortly thereafter she and my dad were married at the ages of 16 and 17. (They are still married today which I think is pretty cool!). After a rocky start, under less than ideal circumstances, my mom found Jesus as her Savior in her early 20s with two young kids. After salvation, my mom was completely different. While she grew in her faith in God, her siblings walked through marriages, divorces, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, affairs, heartbreaks, loss of children, multiple children to multiple parents and the list goes on. This is not to say that my mom was perfect, or didn't have her share of difficulties, but with Jesus, she remains married to my dad (the only marriage of her siblings that lasted) and she has joy and peace, she is loving, faithful, kind, generous & good, gentle, patient and full of self control. Basically if you know my mom, you have seen the fruit of the spirit evident in her life.
A few years ago, my mom was faced with a heartbreaking situation. Her dad had remarried years before and his wife (my mom's step mom) was experiencing mental and emotional deterioration.....some form of undiagnosed dementia. For years, many of my mom's siblings had expressed their distaste, and eventual hatred of this woman. She mistreated everyone around her, including her husband, to the fury of all of his children. Early on, my mom had determined to serve this woman. She cleaned her house, went and visited her, helped her with projects and bought her gifts. For many years the stepmother (though extremely difficult to be around) was grateful to my mom and treated her well. But a few years ago, she turned on my mom. Without getting into all of the ridiculous details, this woman dragged my mom's name through the mud, took her to court and sued her and basically made my mom's life miserable. The amazing thing about it, is you really couldn't pick a more selfless, kind and generous person to make accusations of, it was absurd. My mom, however, was devastated. She had spent years of her life trying to be a good example to her siblings hoping and praying for their salvations. Instead, she found herself in court being sued for stealing from her stepmother (which of course was ludicrously untrue) and her reputation in danger of being forever tarnished.
Throughout this time I kept encouraging my mom that her character would speak for itself. Her siblings didn't even care for their step mother to begin with, there was no reason for them to believe her now, but my mom was heartbroken over the possibility of ruining her chance to be a witness. And then an amazing thing happened. One by one, my mom's siblings began to rally around her. These siblings who hadn't spent any time together in years began getting together for lunch with my mom to support her. My mom now had multiple opportunities to share her faith with them, and they began to open their hearts to the gospel being presented. The next thing I know my mom is buying Bibles for her siblings and one after another they are having salvation experiences. At the funeral for my grandpa about 2 years later, almost 20 of my mom's family prayed salvation prayers. Many were baptized, one has become a full time pastor and many are faithful in church. How in the world did all of that happen? I am fully convinced that my amazing mom, having surrendered herself to the control of the Holy Spirit, was a living, breathing example for God because of the fruit of the spirit evident in her life.
Have you ever wondered how someone can walk through the most agonizing circumstances and seem to radiate peace and trust? Fruit of the Spirit. Have you watched a parent stand by and continually fight for a loved one who is sick and needs medical care and wonder how they find the energy and grace for such exhausting work? Fruit of the Spirit. Do you know a parent who daily manages to find the patience to fight for a special needs child? Fruit of the Spirit. Relationships, finances, daily commitments, stress, children, family, futures, death, discouragement, loss, heartbreak, how do we face all of that and not lose our minds? We surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit and allow him to plant seeds of spiritual (and eternal) fruit in us that ripen and mature as we grow. The result? We bear spiritual fruit that is more effective as a witness for Jesus than any sermon we could ever preach.
Galatians 5:22 says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control." The New Living Translation says it this way: "but when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us:..."
Our study this fall is on the fruit of the spirit. I think every one of us would say that we want those 9 attributes obviously working in our lives. I think even unbelievers would say they want to be known for those attributes, but the key to them is stated before the list...."when the Holy Spirit is in control. I want to start our study of the fruit of the Spirit with that clearly stated. This study is not about acquiring those attributes, it is about surrendering ourselves to the Holy Spirit, with those attributes resulting in direct proportion to our surrender.
Galatians 2:20 says "I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. so I live my life in this earthly body by trusting the Son fo God who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 2 is very significant for us to build on in order to reach our intended desire of spiritual fruit in our lives. You'll notice that the chapter starts off with the disciples (Jesus is gone and the disciples have the impressive and noble job of evangelizing the world) accepting Paul. This is noteworthy because they acccepted a guy who was very similar to themselves. He had similar heritage (he was Jewish) and similar upbringing (raised studying and teaching the "Law"). In other words, they accepted a guy who was raised religiously. Paul is writing though, to confront them for NOT accepting those who are unlike themselves. The religious leaders of the newly founded Christian church, were expecting new converts who were not Jewish to conform to pre-set expectations and laws. In other words, there were conditions to their salvation. In this case (and among other things) circumcision was the point of argument. Good religious Jewish boys were circumcised, while non Jews (or "Gentiles") were not brought up practicing circumcision, and somewhere along the line the concept was introduced that you have to earn your salvation. Different packaging today, but still the same problem. We, as Christians, have this natural urging to earn our way. We want to earn God's love, earn his favor and earn our way BACK into his "good graces" after we have made mistakes. In fact, we don't even feel we deserve to ask God for anything until we have paid penence for our misdoings, and earned our way back. sound familiar?
I would like to point out two things that stand out to me from Galatians 2:20 that contradict this nature.
1. "I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me." As believers in and followers of Jesus, and as those who desire to have the fruit of the Holy Spirit evident in our lives, we have to be willing to abandon our own will and agenda; give up our "rights" (a topic to be revisited later in this study), and stop trying to earn our own way. Those in the Galatian church were swayed by the beliefs and opinions of those around them. we are constantly faced with that as well, the need to please (or impress) those around us with how spiritual we are. We cannot manufacture the fruit of the spirit by trying harder. We can implement good habits and work to break old ones, we can be disciplined and exercise self control (and we should!) but ultimately, growing and going FORWARD in the fruit of the spirit, requires us to LAY DOWN or GIVE UP our own rights. We can't have both. In fact if you read on in Galatians 2, verse 21 says "If we could be saved by keeping the law then there would be no need for Christ to die." Translation? you can't do it on your own.
2. The second thing we as followers of Jesus must do have fruit of the Spirit evident in our lives is trust God. Trust doesn't come naturally, in fact it requires a deliberate act of our will. It also requires that we spend time with whom we are putting our trust in. That means we have to spend time alone with God. I am convicted this morning, after studying these verses, to get myself in gear and spend some quality time with God. That is something I can do. The result is that as I yield my will and rights and choose to trust, the Holy Spirit begins to take control; and when the Holy Spirit is in control, HE is more evident in ME. You see less me and more HIM.
Galatians is all about what we GAIN, by what we GIVE UP. We give up our rights, our will, all of the rules that we want to live by to earn our own way, and we gain freedom, eternity with Jesus, and love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, and self control. Pretty good deal if you ask me. I want to be like my mom, and radiate the fruit of the spirit. I am even willing to lay down my rights to do it (God is going to have to help me!) so I can see others find Jesus as a result. But more than anything, I just want to know Jesus. I want to be close to Him and really know Him; and I want that for all of you too.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. Memorize the 9 fruit of the spirit, we want to recognize what is growing in us as it starts to spring up!
2. Post to the group the fruit of the spirit that mosts stands out to you. this will likely be because it is the one you struggle with the most.
3. Make a plan for how you will carve out some quality time with God THIS WEEK. We have to spend time with Him in order for Him to have the opportunity to put His finger on those areas that need attention in our lives. Post your plan, along with number 2 above.
4. Any other comments, and thoughts are welcome. If you haven't read Galatians 2 yet, GET TO WORK!!
Looking forward to hearing from you!
posted by Di Beals | 11:10 AM
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