Freedom is Good News Part 46

“Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (John 15:7)   This is where we left off in our previous article as we were talking about producing fruit, and remaining in Jesus Christ.  So the first thing I must remind us, is that we are in the midst of a parable.  Keep this firmly in your mind and understand that we may not leave the parable to seek things outside the parable.  Do you want to produce fruit?  Ask that you may produce fruit! What does this fruit look like and what purpose does it serve?

The look and purpose of fruit is explained by Jesus in the next verse, “This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”  Wow!  So the fruit we are to produce is to bring glory to the Heavenly Father.  Do you need anything to help you produce this fruit?  “Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”  God does not leave us empty or without help.  His promise is real.  If our desire is to bring glory to God, He will pull out all the stops and provide us with whatever we might ask in our effort to bear much fruit.

I believe this is the heart of what we have been looking at the past two weeks.  I do have a few branches on my grape vine (in the backyard) that were pruned off last year.  They were not producing a thing.  But the reality here is that our Savior, the One who shed His blood for me, has asked me to produce fruit that will bring glory to God the Father and also show that I belong to Jesus and may call myself His disciple.

I have said it before and I will say it again, we can do nothing of ourselves to earn salvation!  It is a free gift of God.  But when God who owns the entire universe gives you the greatest gift, the gift of His Son, His only Son whom He loves, and then invites you to be as His Son was – totally obedient and totally faithful – shouldn’t we strive to do so?

We have been looking at John chapter 15 in this study but in chapter 17 Jesus makes a most remarkable statement.  Chapter 17 is the true Lord’s Prayer.  It is given only hours before His death on the cross and in the prayer Jesus talks again about glory, “Father, the hour has come.  Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. …. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”  Did you catch that?  Jesus brought glory to God by completing the work God gave Him to do!  Jesus completed the work of salvation for you and me.  And God was glorified!

What is the work He has given to you?  Maybe you don’t care.  Maybe you are not interested.  That is between you and God.  But if you are interested and you want to bring glory to God then perhaps we need to consider this subject.  And we shall!!

Until next time…..

Freedom is Good News Part 43

I live in Elk Horn Iowa and am surrounded by agriculture.  Corn and soybeans are the main crops to be planted.  The cattle are grazing in the fields.  And those with back yard gardens, from year to year, desire to see the “fruit of their labor”!  If you are even a little bit familiar with the Word of God, you know that there are a multitude of references to the planting and growing of food.  People from the time of Adam to the days of Jesus Christ, lived in an agrarian society.  So it should be of no surprise that when Jesus wanted to use a metaphor in His teaching, He drew upon the concept of farming. 

In the 13th chapter of the book of Matthew we find seven parables; one about fishing, one about baking, two about treasures and three about farming.  Let’s take a look at the first of these parables which happens to be about farming.  Starting in verse 3 we read; “Then He told them many things in parables, saying:  ‘A farmer went out to sow his seed….’”  As the farmer scattered his seed we find that there were four specific areas upon which the seed fell and four differing results for harvest.  The seed fell upon the walking path, upon the rocky soil, upon soil with thorny weeds and finally upon good soil.  The results of this scattering were; the birds ate up the seed on the path (no harvest here), the rocky soil produced plants but only for a short time because they could not develop a root system (no harvest here), the thorny soil produced plants but they could not compete with the weeds and they were choked out (no harvest here either), and finally the good soil produced a crop in abundance – some a hundred, some sixty and some thirty times what was sown.

The lesson here in agricultural terms is easy; make sure you plant in the good soil.  But Jesus wasn’t really trying to teach a farming lesson.  He had a larger picture in mind.  This was the first of the “kingdom parables” (“The kingdom of heaven is like …”) and the lesson is about producing fruit for the kingdom of God.

But as I see it, there are two lessons here: first, if you are striving to help others come to see the good news of Jesus Christ; you must take some time to prepare the soil.  Are you being a good example to those around you?  Are you gentle and kind when presenting a biblical thought?  Are you a humble servant of your Savior?  These attitudes, and others, are important when considering a good harvest.

But secondly, there is another aspect to this parable.  When you hear a message about Jesus Christ or when you open your bible to do your own reading or studying, how do you accept what you hear or read?  It really doesn’t matters how long you have been involved with the word of God, because seeds may be planted every day within your heart.  And these every day seeds planted within you may find your heart as hard as a walking path or as shallow as rocky soil.  Today’s lesson might be entangled in the thorns and briars of a busy life.  But if you have prepared your own heart to receive the word of God, perhaps a harvest of joy, peace, righteousness or holiness will reap one hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  Good news indeed!!