Fruitful Fridays, Part 4 Love

We continue our series on the Fruits of the Spirit today. Read part 1 here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here. Our main text for Fruitful Fridays will be Galatians 5:13-26 (ESV). 

Today we begin our discussion of love, the first characteristic Paul mentions. The fruit of the Spirit is a singular word, so each characteristic is not a separate fruit unto itself; rather, they all work together.  

While I don't have my study work done on this topic, I do have something to offer today. Know that a more studied post is in the works. We've been busy with neighborhood needs, ironically. God never fails to give me an object lesson on whatever topic he wants me to explore. 

Today I want to discuss what love has come to mean in my life, as a fifteen-year Christian.

Love does not come from us, but from God. That's paramount to understand. We are called to love much, but only because the Spirit in us does the loving. Our role is to yield to the Spirit. To walk with Him and stick with Him, not choosing our own path.

Love is nothing if not inconvenient. It's a near-constant denial of self. If you're not willing to inconvenience yourself, you're probably not a good lover.

• Live is reading to your kids when you'd like to check your e-mail.
• Love is buying cheaper make-up so you have more money to give away.
• Love is making a lunch for your husband to take to work.
• Love is peeling and slicing apples for your children's lunches, even though it's time consuming.
• Love is raking your neighbor's leaves since you're already out there.
• Love is noticing needs outside your home and not just feeling sad about them, but meeting them.
• Love is holding and rocking that cranky child, rather than putting a movie in.
• Love is sitting at the table for all your meals so you can pray together, read some Scripture, connect.
• Love is not buying your child a cell phone so you'll always know where he is. Love is being with him.
• Love is pausing when your husband gets home, to hug him, to tell him thank you for his hard work.
• Love is sponsoring a child and spending time writing to and praying for that child and his family.
• Love is praying for all the needs you see, but don't have the means to meet yourself.
• Love is writing cards to lonely people, sick people, discouraged people.
• Love is getting up in the middle of the night to change that bed lovingly, to soothe those fears.
• Love is nursing and cuddling your baby enough, instead of using a bouncy seat or playpen or binky each time.
• Love is biting that naggy tongue when discussing something with your husband.
• Love is taking the time to talk with your children about how Jesus would respond to their dilemma.
• Love is having the kids write more to Grandma and Grandpa.
• Love is holding your blessings loosely so you can dedicate them to God with an open hand.
• Love is forgiving your husband for his transgressions, rather than keeping notes.
• Love is sitting down and praying with the child driving you nuts.
• Love is getting to church on time, rather than stressing over your appearance.
• Love is serving at church, rather than sitting and relaxing there.
• Love is giving your child's good sneakers to the child whose sneakers have holes. Your child's dirty yard sneakers are better than sneakers with holes. Sneakers can be laundered, after all.
• Love is going through your closets to see what is truly needed, and giving the rest to the family with too little.
• Love is keeping a gratitude list so you can say thanks to God. So you can live that thanks.
• Love is not taking more manna than you need, so that the next family will have enough manna.
• Love is looking to Scripture to find enough, rather than using your pocket book to find enough.

Most of all, to love is to give. Your heart, your time, your resources. When you've begun giving more than receiving, meeting others' needs before indulging your wants, than you're loving as Jesus would. 

The only thing that truly satisfies? Your Heavenly Father. Fill up with Him and then love others with the overflow. Without that fill-up you'll look to the world for satisfaction. And in the process, you'll only love yourself.

The hardest love is that which squeezes our belt, for this love requires the most faith. I close today with more 60-second radio spots produced by Dr. Brian Kluth, pastor. Find these spots and more on givewithjoy.org

Nancy was a single mother with young children. Her ex-husband sent her only a small amount of grocery money every week--so small it couldn’t even feed 1 person, much less her family of 4. But Nancy decided to begin giving to God from her little bit of grocery money and trust Him to provide. Shortly after, she got a job with a cookbook company. The company paid Nancy to go grocery shopping and prepare meals so they could take photographs for their cookbooks. When they were done taking pictures, Nancy could keep the food she had purchased and prepared. Isn’t that an amazing story of God’s goodness? Nancy learned that even if you’re poor, you still need to learn to give from whatever you have.

While ministering in Africa, I met a Christian worker who raised his 6 children on $10 a month. He told me the story of how children in his village were going blind because of a disease that could be prevented with medicine that only cost 50 cents. He began to pray and ask God to send a rich person to their village to help give the money for the medicine, but no one ever came. As he kept praying, the Lord told him he should give the money to buy the medicine. But with 6 children and only a $10 a month salary, he couldn’t see how he could do this. But he and his family prayed and decided that every month they would buy the medicine to help one child. When I last spoke with him, he'd been doing this for 7 years and had saved 84 children from going blind. And his family saw God meet all of their needs.

After my 40-Day Spiritual Journey to a More Generous Life book became an unexpected bestseller, I was contacted by NBC to do a TV news story. When the TV reporter interviewed me, she asked, “So, you think God wants everyone rich?” I said, “No, I don’t believe that.” She was a little surprised by my answer and then asked, “Well, what do you believe?” I responded, “I believe that everyone needs to learn to become more generous with whatever God has given them.” She then asked, “Well, didn’t your book becoming a bestseller make you rich?” I replied, “No, it helped me become more generous!” The truth is--every one of us in America is rich when you compare us to the rest of the world. What each of us needs to learn is how to become more generous with whatever God entrusts to us.

Follow Up On Neighbor's Need

I found a coat for my little neighbor girl from the freecycle network in my area. Yippee! My heart was warmed by the response from the freecycle ladies. Thank you, Terra, for telling me about freecycle some time ago.

Winter Coat and Prayer Request for Neighbor Family

A neighbor of ours with four children just had their only car repossessed. As a result, as of Friday, the father lost his job. He had frequent absences after they went down to one car, and then to no vehicle. We've been shuttling two of their children to school. This morning I noticed that the kindergartner girl (age 6 last August) had only a thin spring jacket on. She said she doesn't have a winter coat.

As a regular thrift store customer--getting all of our clothes there--I can tell you that due to the economy there are fewer and fewer jackets and shoes and mittens available (more people are using thrift stores). So the odds of my finding her one are fairly slim. In Ohio where we are, coats are needed now.

If you have a used coat and other winter gear/clothes for a slim, average-height six-year-old girl, could you send items to me cash on delivery? Thank you!

christine4431(at)ymail(dot)com

And please pray for this family? The mother brings in the only income right now, and she has a low-wage job.

Dear Christine (from Divya)

Dearest Auntie Christine,

Greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I've received your letters. Very glad to read your letters and it was so peaceful as you sent the word of God in all the letters. It was so blessings to me and to our family. 

Thank you for sending me all your pictures and also for your love and prayers. Here the weather is cool and raining. I like rainy season. Sometimes I like to play in the rain. 

I felt happy to hear about your children's school holiday and also to hear about homeschooling. Homeschool is a nice system. Here we have to go to school everyday and we will be tired sometimes. In India we do not have homeschooling.

Happy summer holidays to all your children. I love the bird picture along with the family picture and was inspired by all the drawing colours.

To Peter: I love you too. You are my inspiration for my gardening.

To Beth: I love you too. Thank you for the lovely pictures.

To Paul: You too are so sweet, cute, I love you too. Thank you for the cute picture. God will bless you to be a teacher as per your dream and your heart's desire.

To Mary: I love your name. Your name is so cute. Uncle your father is happy and also lucky as you and Peter help in the garden. 

So happy to hear about all your vegetables growing. I'll start growing vegetables in the pots. Here near our school and our home there are colorful butterflies. 

I hope all your children will enjoy their vacation and in VBS this year.

Beth: Once again thank you for all your colourful drawings of rainbow and I enjoyed the cute small house. It is so beautiful.

Ending this letter with much thanks and love for all the Bible verses for the Word of God, as this Word of God are so blessings to my life and also for the family. Please send me more of the Bible verses. Waiting for your next letter.

Your Loving,
Divya


Would you like your own Compassion child to love and exchange letters with? The love it will bring to your heart, the sunshine it will bring to your life, are indescribable. God makes sure these relationships are very special. You and Compassion work together to rescue children and families from the hopelessness of poverty, by giving them Life Abundant in Jesus Christ. Please, give your family the best Christmas present ever this year: The gift of a child to love.

Click here to begin. It's only $38 per month.

May I send gifts to my child? (answer from compassion.com)

Yes. Compassion encourages sponsors to give additional monetary gifts to their sponsored children for special occasions, to address specific needs, or simply as an act of love. These gifts are another effective way for you to reinforce your care and commitment to your child.

One hundred percent of all individual child gift amounts go to that child. Local child development center workers purchase gifts on behalf of our sponsors and make certain that these funds are used appropriately. As a guideline, we ask that sponsors keep these contributions between $10 and $100 for each child and limit their gift giving to twice a year.

You may also send a gift to your sponsored child's family. With your monetary gift of $25 to $1,000 (with a $1,000 maximum per year), the child development center staff will buy items your child's family needs, such as new beds, livestock and food supplies. We will work closely with the family to determine the greatest need and then purchase items accordingly. One hundred percent of all family gift amounts go to that child's family.

Read more here at the child sponsorship fact page.

Fruitful Fridays: Part 3, Acts of the Flesh

^{We continue our series on the Fruits of the Spirit today. Read part 1 here. Part 2 here. Our main text for Fruitful Fridays will be Galatians 5:13-26. Today we will get to a small section only, 5:19-21. And God willing, this Friday we will study love, the first characteristic in Paul's list of spiritual fruit.} 

^{I've learned to say God-willing, because sometimes the Spirit leads me to focus only on my family, and sometimes on neighborhood needs, and sometimes on writing. Maybe that has something to do with why my Monday post showed up on a Saturday, and my Friday post showed up on Monday?}

^{Galatians 5:19-21}

 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The Galatian churches, as we learned, were a mess. Warring factions (primarily the Law teachers) were trying to convince believers to follow the Law. As church members attempted to follow the Law, they ended up participating in sinful acts of the flesh. Primarily but not exclusively, Paul's concern related to their spiritual sins:  hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy. 

It wouldn't do for Paul to impress upon the Galatian churches the need to live by the Spirit, and then proceed to give them a list of sinful acts based on the Law. So he gives us a general list of sinful acts recognized as immoral by all people, including the pagan philosophers of the day.

The first set of sinful acts refer to sexual sins, including immoral sexual relations (sexual immorality) and sexual perversions (impurity, debauchery). In this time period the Roman Empire reveled in sexual perversion and immorality. If one could argue that the fall of the empire partially related to their allowing immorality to progress as it did, what does that say about our society? Sadly, our own culture resembles this period. 

Some in the Galatian churches were participating in these sexual sins, but that wasn't Paul's primary concern in this letter. He listed it first because it's the first sin people think of when acts of the flesh are discussed.

The second set of acts include ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft;. Idolatry includes worshiping the image of other Gods, participating in pagan temple feasts (1 Corinthians 10: 7, 14), and hungering for possessions. Witchcraft (related to the English word pharmacy) referred to making potions used in sorcery and witchcraft, to poison people.

When we analyze the hunger for possessions, we have to consider that this drive is not only about wanting abundant comforts. It's about looking to the world to define us, instead of to God. The world tells us we are what we drive, where we live, what perks we can afford. How many of us want to drive around in a run-down, 25-year-old car without a paint job? What does it say about us if we do? If you listen to the world, it says we're a failure. If you listen to the Word, it says that the last shall be first and that God is especially close to the poor. 

Right Christian living is an upside-down phenomena. Rarely do the world and the Word agree on anything, and perhaps that's never been truer than today, where evil is disguised as good, and good as evil. If you're moral, you are intolerant and that is "bad". If almost anything is acceptable to you, you're tolerant and that is "good".

We must ask ourselves as we seek both comforts and needs: Am I choosing this car because it's safe, economical, practical, thereby making me a good steward of what God has given? Or am I choosing it because it has status written all over it, despite it being insanely impractical? 

Am I choosing these shoes, boots, coat, jeans, fake nails, because of practicality--will hide spots, will last a long time, will fit my unusual feet, will match many things, will allow me to move comfortably, etc.--or because they'll look hot with my curves or with that one outfit? As women especially, we can think of hair and clothes and accessories as defining us, instead of relying on God and his Word to define us. The world wants us skinny and wearing designer clothes and shoes, complete with designer nails and toes and hair. God wants our beauty to come from within, from a gentle and quiet spirit. On the outside he merely wants us to be clean and healthy and pleasing to our husbands.

I'm torn between hiding my white hairs--at least for the sake of my children, who are young enough to be my grandchildren--and growing old gracefully. I'm still looking at the directions on those store-bought color kits to decide if I can possibly manage to do it without completely embarrassing myself.

And I must confess, I hate driving around in my husband's car, which is as run down as cars come. The van, which is my usual vehicle, is old and very unimpressive with its missing door handles and hubcaps, but it's a step up from my husband's car. Being in my husband's car, I'm reminded of my vanity. I'm also thankful that a few minutes into my drive, the Holy Spirit always speaks to me, telling me that I'm precious to him, no matter my vehicle. 

The next set of sinful acts has to do with relating to others. hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; These are spiritual sins, not immediately evident because they're inward at first, beginning in the heart. 

What drives all of them? Loving the self. Obsession with self. Wanting to be the first, the perceived best, the brightest. Wanting power and position and the admiration of man.

The law is fulfilled by the Spirit within us, and the Spirit drives us to love one another. We can't love if we're driven by a perverted self-focus. We can't love the poor well if we're unwilling to part with possessions and perks. We can't love our husband well if we're too focused on our needs and feelings. We can't love our children well if we're unwilling to up time and personal pursuit. We can't love our women friends well if we're too busy envying them.

The Spirit will speak to us about each of these things and if we listen, we will love well.

Paul says: I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

This sounds as though he's saying we're saved by our works, not by grace, but everything else Paul wrote counters this erroneous view. He defends justification by faith in Christ, not by works of the law (Galatians 2:16). He taught that the evidence of true faith in Christ will be the work of the indwelling Spirit. 

If you have the Spirit, if you are truly born again, you will be convicted of all sin, though not in one full swoop. He strategically works with us, starting where we're at. Where we're the weakest. It may not be a good idea to tell a brand-new Christian to throw away all her skirts that fall above the knee, for example. God may have other things he cares more about in that person's heart at present. You may heap a burden on her she simply doesn't understand. Pray first.

As the Holy Spirit leads you away from sin and self-focus, Satan will pull you toward sin, toward yourself, at the same time. We don't choose God in the sense that we're incapable before our spiritual renewal, of choosing righteousness. God awakens our spirit, gives it life, and then our choice comes into play. We can choose to walk with the Spirit, to fight the daily battle with Satan, or we can choose to give up and continue in our sin. 

We can choose to read our Bibles, pray, worship God, or we can choose to open our Bible only on Sunday and be a "pretend" Christian. We can choose to bow in prayer only when we're desperate. Our walk with Christ begins not when we say a salvation prayer, but when we first hear the Spirit and begin walking with Him. He won't make you godly in a day, but on the first day, you can bet you'll start hearing Him. 

His voice alone, without Bible reading and study, without prayer, without fellowship with other believers, without worship, will yield a slow renewal of your heart. The word "walk" implies action on our part. The Christian walk with the Spirit requires some effort.

If you don't feel a strong pull from the Spirit, ask God to come into your heart and change you. Ask him to forgive you. His pull on your heart, the change in your life, is your evidence of salvation. If there is no evidence, start your true walk with God today and exchange your slavery to sin, for a slavery to love. Exchange turmoil and strife, with a holy peace and joy. Exchange a self-focus with an others-focus.

Friends, we'll leave it there today, but God willing, we'll come together again and study love this Friday.