heaven's tree book club

Break  Through to Fruitfulness

August 5, 2012
BREAK THROUGH TO FRUITFULNESS
This chapter is about spiritual growth. There are times when I wonder if I am growing. I have been feeling quite empty at church for a while including today. It seems like we sing three songs, listen to a half an hour sermon and go home. I feel incredibly unfulfilled in my Christian life. I feel like there has to be more. I feel very complacent and lukewarm. This is a very dangerous place to be spiritually. There really has to be more to Christianity than this. The author speaks to this problem in the church.
"Sadly, much of the church today has lost this emphasis on spiritual growth and has instead become preoccupied with mere churchgoing and mental affirmations of doctrinal truths. How many Christians can testify to an ongoing growth in God? I fear that many of us have mistaken outward observances for spiritual growth, being unaware of God's plan for the healthy development of our spiritual lives."
There are many Sunday Christians in church and I suppose we can even include midweek meetings into this catagory. Merely attending church functions does not make us grow spiritually. It helps. However, just going to church or fellowship is not enough. I have been to a lot of conservative churches that emphasize this correct doctrine as the author talks about. Don't get me wrong. It is important to have a church that teaches correct doctrine. However, as I was talking to a brother earlier, he felt like all the campus fellowship focused on was Bible study. There is so much more to the Christian life than Bible study. There is service, missions, worship, fellowship, and many forms of outreach. So many things can be described as spiritual growth or fruitfulness. However, we tend to make things more complicated than they really are. I love how the author breaks down what is fruitfulness.

"Only the Holy Spirit can produce the fruitful living God requires. The Bible says that the Spirit lives inside every true Christian and stands ready to make us a display window for the beauty of Christ. Foremost among all his fruit bearing is love. Some Bible commentators believe that love is the fruit of the Spirit and the other graces listed are different characteristics of this love.
Without love, every form of religious observance is worthless. Proficiency in Scripture is just a deception. We may understand the divine attributes or probe into the mysteries of predestination, but without love we have no proof of citizenship in heaven. We may perform miracles and preach eloquently, but all our efforts are for nothing if we do not have love. Even the most difficult sacrifices are nothing if they are made without love:
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:3).
Because God is love, the most prominent character trait of a Christian should be love. Shouldn't congregations that bear the name "Christian" be places of acceptance, mercy, and grace? After all, the apostle John clearly used love as the test to distinguish the true from the counterfeit.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:7-8).
What an incredibly bold statement! People who don't love others cannot know God no matter what religious heritage they claim. It's not whether you read the King James Version or the New International Version that matters. Nor is it about knowledge of Scripture or insights into prophecy. Speaking in tongues or having the gift of healing doesn't define our spiritual condition either. The sign of God's presence is always love.
A life of little love, then, equates with only a scant understanding of God."
It is not about how much Bible we know, or how many verses we've memorized. It is not about even how many people we have led to Jesus. All these are external actions that cannot demonstrate the contents of our hearts. The distinguishing mark of the Christian is love. God is love and for those who know God know love. I was pleased and delighted to have the Tongs come with us to church today. For the first time in the four years knowing the Tongs, we had a chance to pray since our church spends about five minutes before the sermon to pray for various things. You can tell a lot about someone's heart by the words they use and the prayers they pray. The outward acts of kindness indicate what is in the heart, and how we pray and for what we pray illustrates our spiritual state. Love indeed is the difference. The author closes with these words.
"As I travel around the country, I witness firsthand the spiritual hardness and bigotry that disgraces the name of Christ. I write about it here with deep sadness because God's kingdom suffers reproach on account of the absence of Christlike love among his people. At the judgment seat of Christ we will all have to give an account of our own fruit bearing.
If you recognize yourself or your church in what I have said, find a quiet place to be with God. Humble yourself in his presence and ask him to purge you of all that is unkind and hurtful. May all of us seek his face today for a personal revival that will bear fruit to the praise of the glory of his grace."
Prayer:
Father, I notice firsthand of this great tragedy the author shares from his heart. It is so hurtful to see all the churches in this country who do not welcome minorities. The author speaks of racial minorities and this is true, but also minorities of class and disability and age as well. Right now, the church I go to has only four men out of about 30 people. I am the only person in the 16-45 age range. I have felt so unwelcomed in white churches and black churches in both here and New York. White churches tend to be almost all white and black churches almost all black. I long to see an integrated multi-ethnic, multi-generational church. What is more is my mom who comes from a poor working class background and has trouble reading. There is not a church for those who cannot read and cannot listen to forty minute sermons. My brother, though educated, has found no church that he can call his home that we have brought him to. I thank You Father for the dream You gave to me this morning where he actually came to faith. I cling on to this dream and to this hope that the Gospel can change lives. I often wonder is there a church in this city that will welcome our family. Father, please bring down the walls of the church in this city, walls that divide and discriminate, people who turn their hearts against the different. Create in us I pray a clean heart O God.