Trees

It's that time of year again. The television, radio and print media are full of advertisements for Christmas "stuff". Yesterday I was looking at a flyer filled with varieties of artificial Christmas trees.

The trees came in a wide range of sizes from two feet on up to too tall for in my house. There were artificial spruce, pine and fir, as well as generic "evergreen". There were also a variety of colors. I saw silver, white, blue and green but there may have been more.

Some of the trees had lights already in place. Others were fully decorated with various themes and many more were empty waiting to be decorated when they got "home".

Now, no matter what you think of Christmas trees, and Christians are quite divided on the issue (although it's a non-essential so we need to show grace to those of dissenting views), those advertisements got me thinking. Christmas trees have a certain beauty, but it's all from the outside. All the decorations are attached superficially.

It's like the faith of many people. They wear their "religion" as an external badge, doing religious things, keeping laws from Scripture, laws from their particular faith tradition and laws of their own making. They're like the Pharisees of old. Cold and lifeless on the inside, but working very hard to look good to themselves and others on the outside.

They have convinced themselfs that there appearance or their good deeds have made them righteous. It's a sad sort of pride because neither self-righteousness (which is never righteous) or works bring salvation.

We're called to be a much different type of tree. We're called to be fruit trees. Our faith will show through, but we're alive on the inside. We know our salvation and righteousness is only a gift from God. The beautiful fruit that shows is from Holy Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 NIV

Have a look at your heart. Are you a fruit tree or a Christmas tree?

Until next time, may the love of Jesus quicken your heart and Holy Spirit bring to fruition a large harvest from your life and faith walk.

Be blessed

Kevin

Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. You have value in the eyes of God so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that heaven will not be complete without you.