Sweet On The Inside, Sweet On The Outside

“For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.” (Lu 6:44 AV)

What do thorns have to do with the type of fruit a tree or vine produces?  Having grown up with the woods, I am a bit familiar with fruit produced on thorny trees or vines.  As a pattern, fruit produced on thorny trees or vines tend to be tart or sour as opposed to overly sweet.  This is not always true.  But it is a pattern.  I read of the wild orange tree that, when young, possesses thorns.  The fruit is very bitter.  However, as it matures, the thorns go away, and the fruit becomes sweet.  What I wondered is if the presence of the thorns and the nature of the fruit are somehow related.  Not that the thorns produce bitter, tart, or sour fruit.  However, I wondered if the gene that produces the thorns also cause the fruit to be bitter, sour, or tart.  Most sources will say no.  But then I read of the orange tree.

The orange tree will grow thorns early in its life.  It does so to protect the bark and the fruit.  For the first few years, the young tree is focused on maturing.  During that time, the bark contains thorns.  As the tree ages, the bark outgrows the thorns.  What is fascinating is that the orange tree, if grown from seed, will take 7-15 years to produce sweet oranges.  Until then, the immature tree may produce bitter and inedible fruit.  That leads me to believe that in some species, the genetic makeup of the tree or vine correlates with thorn production and fruitfulness.  Thorns do not produce bitter fruit, and bitter fruit do not necessitate the appearance of thorns.  However, both are the result of an inward quality of the plant.  The two are related in the sense that they both come from the same gene pool.  A general rule is that thorns are always present.  Unless they die and fall off or are snapped off, thorns are pretty much there until the plant dies.  Fruit, however, is cyclical.  It arrives in the spring and is harvested in the fall.  Therefore, thorns are a great indicator that waiting for edible fruit is a waste of time.  What is inside and produces the thorns will also eventually produce unusable fruit.

Which brings us to our application.  What we are inside will come to the surface.  If someone has a thorny personality, then do not expect words of a sweet-smelling savor to come from his lips.  If a person has a cantankerous, churlish, or agitated state of being, then one cannot expect words that will do some good.  The same is true of those who may not be naturally so.  We can be surly, impatient, frustrated, or angry at any given time.  We can be argumentative, disagreeable, or downright mean.  Perhaps it is best to remain silent at such a time as this.  What we are on the inside comes out on the outside.  The thorns of a disagreeable spirit are evident before the words flow from the lips.  It is best to have that sweet spirit before the can look for sweet words.  I like the orange tree because when it is young, it is prickly.  But time, experience, cultivation, and outside influences grow a tougher skin.  The bark overgrows the thorns.  The thorns disappear because the tree allows patience to have her perfect work.  Perhaps the key to eliminating the thorns is to have thicker skin.  Then our fruit can be sweet to all who enjoy it.

Ever-present Word

“As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:” (Lu 1:70 AV)

Which would have necessarily included Adam!  There has been no time since the beginning in which God has left us without witness.  What a perfect truth!  Never has mankind been without the revealed will of God.  Never has mankind been without a human voice declaring the mind of God.  Never has there been, or will be, a time when God refuses to verbalize His will to the inhabitants of the earth.  Just because the written word did not appear before Moses wrote it down does not mean the word of God was hidden.  On the contrary.  According to Luke, prior to the written word inspired to Moses, the necessary word of God appeared and was preserved perfect in the mind and speech of God’s holy prophets.  This makes complete sense.  God is not going to require of mankind obedience to His will without also providing His will to which we can conform.  The first thing God did with Adam was to give him direction regarding the naming of the animals, tending the garden, and building a family.  God didn’t create Adam and then leave him with no purpose or command.  By the mouth of the Creator, Adam knew what the will of God was and the consequences for disobedience.  God communicates.  He always does.  He has from the beginning and He will do so into eternity.  Always, and at all times, and in all places – the will of God is declared.

I find archeology fascinating.  I find it fascinating from some of the wild ideas that modern scholarship proposes.  This is probably true regarding many disciplines.  Either the scholar has a biblical worldview and a reference point acclimated toward God’s existence, or the scholar is secular and natural in his worldview.  The latter is what amuses me.  They find something and because they are not accustomed to think biblically, their explanations are way out there.  It takes more faith to believe what the secular scholar proposes than what the Bible reveals.  A case in point was a particular video I watched regarding a site in the middle east.  A bit over one hundred years ago, biblically oriented archeologists happened upon a site once belonging to the Amorites.  The Bible refers to the iniquity of the Amorites as yet being ended.  The word of God indicates that the iniquity of the Amorites will be practiced until Jesus returns.  This archeologist found human remains of young people and babies that seemed to be butchered and burned.  They were contained in different parts of the dig, as if left in the open and not buried as would normally have been done.  They concluded that the site they had uncovered was a high place of the Amorites where children were sacrificed to false gods.  Infanticide is still practiced today in the form of abortion and other atrocities.  Since then, all but the photographic evidence has been scrubbed from the site and instead, the powers that be have redefined the site as a place where eight nations gathered to form a peace alliance.  If the Bible did not tell us who the Amorites were and what they did, the evidence would have been lost to a biased viewpoint.

Praise the LORD that He has left us revelation and illumination for our entire human existence.  The book of Romans declares that even if the written word is not available, the truth of God and His offer of redemption is written in the patterns of our natural world.  The Psalmist testifies that the heavens declare God’s handiwork.  His revelation is all around us.  He has not left His creation ignorant.  That would be unethical.  God is moral and all His works are right.  That is exactly why there have been prophets from the moment man walked his first steps.  God has spoken by His prophets from day six.  Without exception, the word of God has been present.  Praise be to God that He has not left us blind.

Faith And Witnessing

“Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mr 16:14-15 AV)

By coupling the great commission to lack of faith in the eleven, it is suggested that if they did have faith that Christ arose, then they would have naturally published the news everywhere they went.  We don’t blame the eleven for their lack of faith.  We would probably react the same way.  Although the LORD sufficiently taught them of His pending death and resurrection, they simply did not have the faith that Jesus could raise Himself from the dead.  Sure, they saw Jesus raise three people from the dead.  But that is a far cry from raising one’s self.  It was the resurrection that was the power behind their preaching.  The more that they believe that Jesus was risen from the dead, the more zeal they have to proclaim it.  Jesus is saying to the eleven that His promise prior to His death and resurrection with the testimony of those who saw Him should have been sufficient to start the great commission!  The great commission is usually disconnected from any other context.  It is a context all its own.  They may be true in Matthew.  There could have been more than one time that Jesus commissioned the eleven.  In fact, He did so in Acts as well.  That was a different time and place.  What we do know is the above event was immediately following His resurrection.  The above event was meant to solidify the fact of His resurrection and the proper response the eleven should have to it.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, the eleven did the same thing.  Jesus told them to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.  They watched Him ascend and then stood there for a great while looking heavenward.  An angel rebuked them and asked them why they were gazing up.  He then reminded them of the promise that Jesus would return in the same manner in which he ascended.  This time, they understood.  Following the rebuke, they returned to Jerusalem and began their public ministry.  In short, the resurrected and ascended Christ should have naturally led to preaching the gospel.  Lack of faith is what hindered it.  The eleven were stunned at the miracles they had witnessed.  He rose from the dead and then 40 days later ascended alive into heaven.  Never before had anyone ever seen such things.

The application is obvious.  We will share the gospel with others to the extent we feel the miracle of salvation affected our lives.  The closer we become and the more faith we have in God, the more we will share Him with others.  The more our interaction with our Creator and the more work He does on our behalf, the more we are apt to tell others about Him.  We are silent because we have not yielded to His hand.  We do not share Him with others because He doesn’t mean all that much to us.  We do not think He can make a difference in the life of others because we haven’t allowed Him to make that much of a difference in our lives.  Is short, Jesus ties the great commission to faith in His resurrection because the more faith they had that their Savior rose from the dead, the more they would share that good news with those who need Him.  The more they realized that the resurrection made their salvation secure, the more they were not afraid to share the good news of Jesus with others.  The same is true for us.  The more faith and security we have in Christ, the more we are likely to share Him with others.

Compassionate Yet Uncomfortable Truth

“And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” (Mr 14:27 AV)

The truth of what we are is sometimes uncomfortable.  Jesus is speaking to the eleven regarding his near betrayal and crucifixion.  Of course, they all objected.  They did not think themselves capable of cowardice.  Yet, Jesus’ words were true, nonetheless.  The only one who was faithful through the whole ordeal was John.  Everyone else fled, or in the case of Peter, denied the LORD.  However, we see in the words of Jesus Christ a kindness.  It is better they be forewarned of their pending failure from a heart of compassion and understanding rather than a statement of rebuke afterward.  In this statement, Jesus was forgiving them before the transgression occurred.  Facing what we are before we act on what we are is humbling and gracious all at the same time.  Knowing what we are beforehand is not always easy.  But is does soften the blow when we do fail.  I think this was our Savior’s motive.  He didn’t condemn them for an action yet taken.  Rather, He was softening the conscience once the failure occurred. What a Savior!

Those in leadership experience this from time to time.  The LORD surrounds us with good people.  They rarely let us down.  However, the leader does know the limits of his people.  He knows what they can and cannot do.  Many years ago, I had an incident regarding a fella who wanted to do me great harm.  He had a wide influence among the greater population of our county.  He had a loyal following.  We fell out of graces because I would not support a decision he wanted me to make.  For him, the decision was a very personal one.  It was a very emotional one.  My issue with it was his wishes was not in the best interests of those closest to him and would also bring reproach on the name of the LORD.  He took great offense at my counsel and refusal to accommodate his wishes.  This led to a smear campaign that involved thousands of people.  The leadership of our church would not stand with me and confront this individual.  They could not.  Some were related to him.  Others were very emotionally close to him.  But as the leader, I already knew they would not stand with me.  I left it with the LORD and went on serving with and loving on them.

Jesus does not expect us to change overnight.  He knows our weaknesses.  He knows our frame.  As the sweet psalmist says, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we [are] dust.” (Ps 103:14 AV) What I see in the words of Jesus is a very compassionate way of informing His disciples that He knows what they are and what they will do, yet deeply loves them anyway.  What I see is a God who knows us better than we know ourselves and will soften the blow of guilt and disappointment we feel when we fail Him.  What I see is a Savior who died for souls who can never live up to His standard, and did so with an everlasting love.  I don’t see condemnation.  I don’t see judgment.  I don’t see disappointment.  What the Spirit wants us to know is that God understands.  God knows what we will do or fail to do from eternity.  He came and died for us, anyway.  What I see in His words is eternal love.  What I see in His words is paternal patience.  What I see in His words is someone who loves us more than we can ever comprehend.  What love!

Loving the Lost

“Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.” (Mr 10:21 AV)

The first six words of this verse are very sweet.  The rich man claimed blamelessness before the law.  He fully expected Jesus to exonerate him from additional requirements before the law.  Knowing the heart of this young man, Jesus did not choose rebuke.  He did not castigate this young man for his presumption.  Rather, he saw a man who was trying the hardest he knew yet coming up short.  What this young man did not learn was self-denial.  He did not learn sacrifice.  If he were to be a disciple of Christ, it wasn’t enough to simply profess a saving knowledge of Him.  To be a disciple, he had to learn Christlikeness.  This came at a cost.  But it is the first six words that really touch my heart.  Rather than seeing a young man failing in his pursuit of discipleship because of selfishness in his heart, the LORD loved him.  He loved him enough to tell him the truth in a way that got to the heart of the matter in an indirect but obvious way.  He did not condemn the man.  Rather, the LORD put a condition before him where the young man condemned himself.

We are not always as loving when instruction or correction is warranted.  One of the worst memories of Bible college was my Problem Text class.  This class was organized to teach the students that there are no mistakes in the word of God and that if there seemed to be one, there was a logical and acceptable answer to it.  Most are common sense.  Names are common among several people.  Just because one person existed at one point in time and another with the exact same name appears years later does not mean they are the same person.  Similar events may have different details.  There is no discrepancy.  In one particular problem text, three different numbers are given for the same group of people.  Then answer is the purpose for the recording and from what perspective the number was given.  Still another has the measurements of the same articles as different when the standard from which the items were measured is never mentioned.  Obviously, two different references give two different numbers.  In this class, our instructor thought it was ‘love’ to berate us and abuse us.  We were given a problem text and then paneled before the instructor to defend our position.  He was brutal.  There was no love at all.  Just ego!  There was no interest in instruction.  Only winning a debate.

When Jesus beheld this young man, as wrong as this young man was, Jesus loved him.  When Jesus heard the young man’s charged question, rather than put him in his place, Jesus loved him and instructed him out of the law.  Rather than take advantage of a young man, Jesus responded in love and very subtly accused the young man of his sin of materialism.  What strikes me is the emotional foundation of his interaction with someone who was obviously not what he appeared.  Jesus saw this young man for what he was.  He was a lost soul who was under the delusion that financial success meant God’s affirmation.  This young man was under the misunderstanding that God looks on the heart first.  He did not understand the relationship between Christlikeness and the lack of things.  All he saw was that obeying the law to the letter and enjoying the blessings that come with it are proof there is no need for anything else.  How false!  That is for what the LORD had compassion.  This young man needed to have his bubble burst.  It was going to be a hard truth to swallow.  May we love all who need Christ in the same manner!

Salt

“For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt [is] good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” (Mr 9:49-50 AV)

Salt is an antiseptic.  It cleanses bacteria which we cannot see.  The Old Testament law required that all sacrifices be salted before they were placed upon the brazen altar.  This assured that the sacrifice was pure down to the microscopic level.  Salt was often placed in an open wound before dressing.  Salt was added to meat that was stored.  Salt was more than just a seasoning.  It was a preservative.  Verse 49 has commentators baffled.  The ‘every one’ is said to be those who are lost and refuse to repent.  However, the antiseptic nature of God’s presence works on the lost and on the saved.  We are saved yet so as by fire.  The fire of God’s cleansing or the fire of God’s judgment; either way, every soul will experience one or the other.  The application above can be thought of two ways.  First, it might be a call to salvation.  To have salt in oneself could mean to go through the cleansing of God’s holy fire and be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.  But it could also mean to have the flame of God’s cleansing as a permanent influence on the soul.

Sodium Chloride is the chemical name for salt.  Sodium Chlorine is a stable mineral.  Pure salt will always be salty.  So, how does salt lose its saltiness?  There are several ways in which salt can lose its saltiness, but it all boils down to one cause.  When salt is neglected, it will lose its saltiness.  How is that possible if sodium chloride is a stable compound?  The answer is in how it is harvested, stored, and used.  Rarely does salt appear in its purest form.  Salt is often mixed with other compounds.  It is harvested and stored, then purified, then sold.  Since salt is water soluble, when neglected, the humility or rain will wash the salt away from the other minerals and what is left looks like salt.  But it doesn’t taste like salt.  I have also noticed that heat will do the same.  We keep our rock salt in the front entryway, which is almost completely glass.  It is easily 20 degree hotter than the outside.  The heat mixed with the humidity turns the salt into a shallow puddle.  The salt has to be stored in a cool and dry place.  In other words, the best way to manage salt is to purify the latent minerals from it and then use it.  Salt loses its saltiness when it lays there unused.

When the LORD challenges all people to have salt in themselves, it is a call to salvation and yielding to the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit.  This implies a choice on our part.  Unlike the sacrifice of the Old Testament that didn’t have a choice in the matter, we do.  Whether we choose to be cleansed by the blood of Christ or burn in the eternal fires of damnation, it is our choice.  God will not force anyone to accept Jesus.  If they refuse, then God does force them to suffer eternally for their refusal of His grace.  For the saint, God does not force us unto a life of purity.  We must yield to the work of the Holy Spirit.  We have to allow salt to do its work.  It also appears by the word ‘have’ that this choice is a proactive one.  It is a choice of pursuit as much as it is a choice of yielding.  To have something, one must reach out and grab it.  Jesus knows what we need.  He knows better than anyone.  The salt of God’s cleansing by the word of God and ministry of the Holy Spirit is something we both pursue and allow.  I don’t know about you, but the smell of rotting flesh or food is not something I enjoy.  If we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to do His work, then our testimony will not be something God or others will appreciate.

Faith of the Guilty Conscience

“And king Herod heard [of him]; (for his name was spread abroad:) and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.” (Mr 6:14 AV)

Herod spoke this of Jesus Christ.  He believed that John the Baptist had come back from the dead and was now more powerful than he had been in his prior life.  Stop for a moment and consider what it is that a rebel is testifying to.  Remember that Herod had John the Baptist beheaded.  We also know that the disciples of John retrieved his remains and buried them.  Mark, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls the body a corpse.  This is the only place where this word is used.  No other verse in the entire word of God calls the body of a deceased a corpse.  The Greek word used for corpse is only used three times.  Each time is refers to a dead body that has been desecrated.  In the other two mentions, the bodies have been lying in the open, rotting under the elements.  This leads the writer to believe that the disciples gathered the headless body of John to bury and did not include his head.  Or, if it did, it was still unattached.  Therefore, for Herod to believe that John had risen from the dead, he had to believe in reanimation following decapitation.  That is a leap for a man who was living in open rebellion towards God.

Fear and anxiety can lead us to believe some rather impossible things.  Herod was fearful because he had beheaded a prophet of God.  And he knew it.  When the daughter of his wife asked for the head of John on a charger, he was distraught.  He knew that John was a prophet, and all the people held him as such.  Herod had married his brother’s wife against Jewish law.  If Philip had died and Herod took his wife as a widow, he would have been okay.  However, history tells us that Herod took his brother’s wife while he lived.  At the preaching of John, Herod was brought under deep conviction.  John was incarcerated but still alive and well-tended to.  His wife, however, was deeply offended.  When her daughter danced before her stepfather, he promised her anything up to half of the kingdom.  That should caution the reader right away.  For a mother to be okay with her daughter dancing before her stepfather and stirring him to reward her should have given her pause.  She should have been offended.  Rather, she was more offended in the truth from the preacher than she was at the lust of her husband toward her daughter.  Now, as Jesus is preaching and healing, Herod exercised more faith in what God is able to do than most of Israel.  He believed Jesus to be the resurrection of someone who was without a head!

Herod had every reason to think irrationally.  He was condemned before God for adultery and murder.  He was unrepentant.  His wife was a piece of work whom he could not control.  But the child of God who is repentant and who desires to walk with Him has no cause for irrational fears.  We are made free from the wrath of God by the blood of Jesus Christ.  The wrath of God does not abide on the child of God.  This does not imply that the child of God is free from divinely sent correction.  This does not imply that the child of God is free from the consequences of sinful choices.  On the contrary.  We face them on a regular basis.  What we need to guard against is the idea that God’s vengeance or vindictiveness will be visited on His people. It never will be.  That was the whole point of Jesus’ suffering.  The wrath of the Father was poured out on the Son.  He took the wrath of His Father for our sakes.  If we are suffering from irrational fears, then our faith must run to God and not away from Him.  I know that fears and anxieties have many causes.  Sometimes they are physical.  A sick endocrine system can cause feelings of fear or anxiety.  Trauma to the body can cause fears and anxieties years after the trauma.  Irrational fears may be caused by external influences.  But the answer is always the same.  It must include a close and intimate relationship with the LORD!