Make the tree good...
Over the last few months, I have found the need to keep pressing my life into Christ. My problem is stagnation. I let that stagnation begin to take root in my life and it began to corrode my relationships. Now, I had no clue that it was happening; all I knew was that things seemed to be getting harder for ME. I would hear myself saying things like, 'I didn't like that at all," or "I don't feel like this person is getting what they are supposed to do." My attitude was quickly becoming one of get out of my way, I can do it better.
I didn't realize that this was a bad thing until just recently. The veil was shattered when I caught myself thinking, "How is it that I can be smarter than this person." The fact that the person was an authority figure in my life, the fact that these thoughts COULD HAVE BEEN true is not the problem. The problem for me is that I forgot one of the most basic things in Christianity. Romans tells us that all authority is put there by God. Essentially, when we question those people in our lives that God has put in authority over us, we are questioning God HIMSELF! What a dreadful thought, huh?
For those of you reading, It may help you to understand some context. I was becoming increasingly frustrated with Church. Frustrated with what I saw as a disconnect. Frustrated with the fact that I felt was the worst two years of my life, and struck with the prospect of change, I still felt bad. What do I do? Do I do leave and begin church hopping to find the "RIGHT ONE FOR ME?" or do I stick with it and allow God to change me.
My problem is further compounded by loved ones telling me, "Maybe God is telling you that its time to go?" or, "Even Jesus moved on and told his disciples to."
The thing that is the tipping point for me, the crux, is what my father in law said. I told him about a video I just re-watched from Dr. John Cross at the C3 conference last year. IT was all about how God wants to take the bitter waters in our lives and turn them sweet. (Based on Exodus 15). My father in law said three separate times that day, "Don't allow yourself to become bitter."
In truth, I feel like I was already there in some places in my life. I didn't want to be involved in certain aspects of Church because I felt like I could do it better. Then today, in reading Matthew 12, it hit me...
Jesus goes through this weird piece in Matthew 12. It starts out with Jesus and his disciples walking through a field and eating grain as they went. Now the Pharisees saw this and because they felt they couldn't do this, according to old testament Law. So they try to trap Jesus, asking him if its lawful to perform work on the sabbath. Not understanding two basic things about Jesus. 1. He was not working, he was allowing his Divine nature do the work. IN essence he was being worked THROUGH, but the physical work wasn't coming from him. and 2. He was in fact the very same God that made the rule in the first place.
Now, he could have gotten upset and said, "I know how to do this better," but he didn't instead he heals the man, breaking all the supposed rules. Then he says the thing that is hitting me the hardest right now...
Matthew 12:33-37
33"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
Pastors for years have used this verse to tell you "be careful what you say," and rightfully so, we have to be careful what we say... But the whole emphasis that Jesus has is not that. It was confusing for me because he is talking about making the body good. The principle in this teaching is "If you work on yourself, everything else will work out." Or in modern terms, "The only thing you can change is you."
Jesus adds, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him..." He is telling the pharisees that they should NOT talk about what Jesus is doing, but instead examine their own lives to see if they are bitter, or angry.
So where does that leave me? Why after months of anger, bitterness, resentment, yearning for change and feeling like I am "mis-treated" by my peers and leaders above me, I realized that I am bitter and this bitterness is seizing up the engine of my spiritual life. The change God is calling me to make is not leaving church, or stopping ministry, but changing myself. Allowing my tree to become good so that the fruit of my life will be good.
Its time to put away complaints, the traps of gossip, the ease of arrogance, and the lies of looking down on others. Instead its time to realize who I am in Christ. I am the head and not the tail, I am called to SERVE, not to be served. That is my power, that is what will bring out a revolution in my life...
Jesus I pray that you would infuse me with your humility. I pray, in the words of Paul, that my "attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, and being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Philippians 2:5-11
So my solution: Humble myself and allow God to make my tree Good. In the process, Watch as the fruit of my life sparks change in the lives of the many other people I see!
I didn't realize that this was a bad thing until just recently. The veil was shattered when I caught myself thinking, "How is it that I can be smarter than this person." The fact that the person was an authority figure in my life, the fact that these thoughts COULD HAVE BEEN true is not the problem. The problem for me is that I forgot one of the most basic things in Christianity. Romans tells us that all authority is put there by God. Essentially, when we question those people in our lives that God has put in authority over us, we are questioning God HIMSELF! What a dreadful thought, huh?
For those of you reading, It may help you to understand some context. I was becoming increasingly frustrated with Church. Frustrated with what I saw as a disconnect. Frustrated with the fact that I felt was the worst two years of my life, and struck with the prospect of change, I still felt bad. What do I do? Do I do leave and begin church hopping to find the "RIGHT ONE FOR ME?" or do I stick with it and allow God to change me.
My problem is further compounded by loved ones telling me, "Maybe God is telling you that its time to go?" or, "Even Jesus moved on and told his disciples to."
The thing that is the tipping point for me, the crux, is what my father in law said. I told him about a video I just re-watched from Dr. John Cross at the C3 conference last year. IT was all about how God wants to take the bitter waters in our lives and turn them sweet. (Based on Exodus 15). My father in law said three separate times that day, "Don't allow yourself to become bitter."
In truth, I feel like I was already there in some places in my life. I didn't want to be involved in certain aspects of Church because I felt like I could do it better. Then today, in reading Matthew 12, it hit me...
Jesus goes through this weird piece in Matthew 12. It starts out with Jesus and his disciples walking through a field and eating grain as they went. Now the Pharisees saw this and because they felt they couldn't do this, according to old testament Law. So they try to trap Jesus, asking him if its lawful to perform work on the sabbath. Not understanding two basic things about Jesus. 1. He was not working, he was allowing his Divine nature do the work. IN essence he was being worked THROUGH, but the physical work wasn't coming from him. and 2. He was in fact the very same God that made the rule in the first place.
Now, he could have gotten upset and said, "I know how to do this better," but he didn't instead he heals the man, breaking all the supposed rules. Then he says the thing that is hitting me the hardest right now...
Matthew 12:33-37
33"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
Pastors for years have used this verse to tell you "be careful what you say," and rightfully so, we have to be careful what we say... But the whole emphasis that Jesus has is not that. It was confusing for me because he is talking about making the body good. The principle in this teaching is "If you work on yourself, everything else will work out." Or in modern terms, "The only thing you can change is you."
Jesus adds, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him..." He is telling the pharisees that they should NOT talk about what Jesus is doing, but instead examine their own lives to see if they are bitter, or angry.
So where does that leave me? Why after months of anger, bitterness, resentment, yearning for change and feeling like I am "mis-treated" by my peers and leaders above me, I realized that I am bitter and this bitterness is seizing up the engine of my spiritual life. The change God is calling me to make is not leaving church, or stopping ministry, but changing myself. Allowing my tree to become good so that the fruit of my life will be good.
Its time to put away complaints, the traps of gossip, the ease of arrogance, and the lies of looking down on others. Instead its time to realize who I am in Christ. I am the head and not the tail, I am called to SERVE, not to be served. That is my power, that is what will bring out a revolution in my life...
Jesus I pray that you would infuse me with your humility. I pray, in the words of Paul, that my "attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, and being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Philippians 2:5-11
So my solution: Humble myself and allow God to make my tree Good. In the process, Watch as the fruit of my life sparks change in the lives of the many other people I see!
Very well said : )
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