The witness of others

This past week we talked about the parable of the two sons contained in Matthew 21:28-32. Jesus was rebuking the chief priests and teachers of the law because they say yes to God but never do anything about actually following God. Jesus points out in the passage that even though they saw the change that came over tax collectors and prostitutes who repented when John the Baptist came, they still did not follow after God. Not only did they have the message of John, they had been able to see the fruit of the message by the change in these "sinners" lives. Maybe you are out there and you don't know if you can trust the message that has been written to us in the Bible. I challenge you to take a look at the change that it has wrought in people who have followed it. I was reading in John 4 and it talks about Jesus' interaction with a Samaritan woman. She later goes into the town and tells everyone about Jesus. On the basis of her testimony, the people come to meet Jesus and they end up saying this. It is no longer because of what you have said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.(vs 42) They saw a change in her life and wanted to find out more and once they encountered Jesus they had their own experience with God and were changed. Don't be like the chief priests who rejected both the message and the fruit of the message. Say yes to God and then do what he commands.

The Fig Tree

This past Sunday, Ed Webster shared from Matthew 21:18-22 about Jesus casting judgment on the fig tree. I have always wondered about why Jesus did this and Ed was able to bring to light a lot of things about this passage. I was interested to find out that the fig trees in Israel have a bud that comes out before the fruit appears that is edible. If the buds don't appear then their will be no fruit. Jesus passed judgment on the fig tree because it would not be bearing fruit. The early sign of fruit did not exist. It was an example to the disciples of what was about to come upon Jerusalem and the nation of Israel because they were not bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. The warning also applies to us in our communities of faith. We need to bear fruit in our churches or we will begin to wither from the root upwards. Each one of us in a branch on the tree and all of us need to work together to bring the fruit out. We need to stick close to the source from which all good things flow which is Jesus. If we remain in him we will bear fruit. If we are not bearing fruit it is a sign that we are not in him. Are you remaining in Jesus?

Time off

Everyone needs time off once in a while. I took the last couple of week off to do a lot of things around the house. I had a list of at least 16 projects that needed to be completed. So the first week I worked on the most important ones. You know, the projects you promised that would get done. Then I got sick. I was planning on doing the entire list and not really taking a whole lot of down time to just relax and enjoy not having anything to do. Well, once I became sick, I didn't have a choice. The list was put away and I laid around for 4 or 5 days trying to recover. I have to say that this was not the worst sickness I ever had and it was a reminder that I need to take time to not do anything even when I have a list to complete. I feel better now and I have a better sense of things that I need to be focusing on in the next couple of weeks for work and around the house. I did end up getting 11 of my 16 projects done so it wasn't a complete wash out.