Life Bytes: Faith and Fruit

Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?

How so?

If someone was able to be a fly on the wall of your life for a week, what would their impression of you be?

Of course, not one of us is perfect, but Jesus did say we would know a tree by its fruits. A good tree bears good fruits and a bad tree bears bad fruits.

John 15:5-6 (NKLV)

5: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6: If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

Those fruits aren't just words, such as "I'm a Christian," but our actions, which speak volumes about who we really are.

I believe the "actionable life" tells us a lot about our actual faith (or lack of it) and our expectations.

It's very easy (for most of us) to say we "believe in God" but it's apparently far more difficult to not watch demonic junk on Netflix or to idolize material goods.

Sometimes it's almost as if saying "I'm a Christian" is the same as putting on a hat with your favorite sport team's logo on it—as you go about your normal life.

As I said earlier, we are not perfect and we all have our personal battles, but overall if we have been transformed by Jesus Christ then there should be a visible difference to others between our pre-saved selves and our saved-by-the-blood self.

And we should stand out from the crowd (especially in America).

But beyond that, even when a change is there, I'm wondering about the quality of the Godly life we are living.

Is it rich, savory, exciting, purposeful, driven, abundant, wonderful and heavenly-looking?

Or is it the equivalent of stale bread and some salty-old-canned soup on a so-so day? Or worse, it's like that thing in storage you forgot you had.

Who the SON set free is free indeed!

John 8:36 (NKLV)

herefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

Yes, life has its share of challenges (health, finances, persecution, etc), but this is all the more reason to fight hard to keep your eyes on Jesus Christ!

Recently, I started a study into Ephesians, which is a book I enjoy (Ok, I enjoy the whole Bible, but this is one of those books I come back to). As part of my study, I picked up a Bible commentary set by Dr. Vernon McGee.

When reading through his commentary on Ephesians 1:3 about us being blessed in Christ immediately, he shared a couple stories that got me thinking.

Ephesians 1:3 (NKLV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ

In the first story was a man who was the apparent heir to a multi-million dollar estate in England. There was a newspaper ad put out looking for him and they were searching for him in some less-than-desirable areas.

Eventually they found the would-be heir in the Fall—dead in a cold doorway.

And in the second story was a man who, living in poverty, was told that he was heir to a wealthy British nobleman. I guess it was on the news at the time. The man immediately went to a clothing store, ordered their best suit and bought a first class ticket to the UK.

As Dr. McGee put it, these stores show two routes taken in life.

It really makes you think about faith. If you're going to inherit something and just think perhaps it could happen, you're not going to have a high level of care and your actions will bare this out.

On the other hand, if you know you're going to inherit something great and you believe it with all your heart, you will go all out like the second gentleman. Why wouldn't you? You have nothing to lose and you know it.

Often I believe many of us can act as the poor individual in the first story with occasional glimpses of the route of the second individual.

Perhaps it's because our faith really isn't there. Perhaps it's because we believe God is way, way, way over there in some mystical land and one day later we will see Him and deal with all that.

Perhaps it's because we really don't have a relationship with God at all or we just compartmentalize Him.

The things of this world are indeed powerful. The lure of it all. The enjoyable tangibility of it all. And the indoctrination of it all.

But you know what's more powerful? Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.

Simply a spoken word and it would all disappear into the nothingness.

So let me ask you the same questions I ask myself:

1. What route are you on?
2. Can someone else see your fruit?
3. Are you prepared to follow Jesus Christ where ever it takes you?

We say we believe, but do we?

Our lives should speak for us.

And if you're not yet a follower of Jesus Christ, the time to act is right now. Our next breath isn't guaranteed, only our eternal destination. Make yours in the Kingdom of God by visiting this page: Jesus

I pray that both you and I will make any necessary changes so that we bear much fruit.