St. John Studies

At this point in our discussion of Pastor Billy Graham’s book The Holy Spirit, we have considered the following fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  It is God’s intention for us to produce this fruit in our lives.

This is what God intends, but do we have to do something? How does this fruit manifest itself in our lives?

These are essential questions and after studying the Holy Spirit so much over the past several months, I can’t leave the book without providing Graham’s answers. 

First of all, one has to give their life to Christ.  If that is a true submission to God, then what happens next?

What happens next is your “walk.”  Christians refer to a life with Christ as a walk for a reason.  It is something that begins and continues throughout life, if a person is interested in becoming “Christ-like.”  Sometimes the walk is not a straight line from point A to point God.  Sometimes the walk stops, it takes a detour or sometimes it seems to reverse directions and go away from God.

Wow, talk about intimidating.  Trying to become Christ-like is hard, overwhelming and even frustrating.  Why?  Because we are trying to become Christ-like in our pitifully weak bodies, tossed and turned by temptations, sidetracked by our laziness and lack of self-discipline and hammered by lack of support from it seems like almost everyone in the world. 

We can’t do this alone.

We need help.

From the “Helper”.

The Helper is a word which represents the Holy Spirit.  Where is this Helper?  It is in all of us who have given our lives to Christ.

When we give our heart to Jesus, God expects us to change.  Pastor Billy Graham calls this process “space for fruit-growing”.  He also describes the process as “displacement.”  To explain, he uses the metaphor of a boat.  “A boat does not sink when it is in the water, but it does sink when the water comes into the boat.  We do not fail to enjoy the fruit of the Spirit because we live in a sea of corruption; we fail to do so because the sea of corruption is in us” [281].  Our goal should be to remove as much of that sea of corruption from our boat as we can.  That is a pretty good explanation.  We do this with aid from the Helper.  When the process begins, over time we may begin to see characteristics in our lives that are different from our past.  Maybe you have lived a sad life and you don’t have much motivation.  Over time you may eventually begin to see joy replace that sadness.  Maybe you have had problems with excessive behaviors; some of those are addictive and harmful.  Over time people may see you as more under control.  Maybe your everyday display of impatience is eventually replaced with a new patient attitude toward life.  

Let’s add another “kink” to this process.  The kind of person that God wants us to be will never be produced with our own effort.  It is that indwelling of the Holy Spirit that helps us tremendously with our effort.  A man told me recently that he has changed so much in his life due to his own willpower.  I don’t like to think of these types of changes being brought about by willpower even though willpower may help; I like to think they are brought about by Godpower, Godpower delivered to us via the Holy Spirit. 

Another problem is the time it takes to make real changes.  In our culture we are bombarded by commercials saying try a diet food and you will drop 15 pounds in one month.  Rub a solution on your hair and it will begin to grow thicker in two weeks.  We like instant results.  Getting the sea of corruption out of our boat takes time. This kind of change works on God’s time, not ours.  If you want instant fruit, you will be disappointed. Don’t get me wrong.  God is all powerful.  He could make changes in us instantaneously if He chose to, but He would rather display His power over a longer period of time.  God wants to teach us to depend on Him daily.  He requires our time, He requires our trust and He requires our cooperation.  He wants us to really learn how to live our best life here on earth.  He has already provided a prototype in His Son Jesus and He wants us to try to be as Christ-like as we can be.  In this process, God desires for us to get to know Him as much as we desire to be changed.  All of us know what would happen if change happened instantaneously; we would soon forget God.  Look at the Old Testament and the all-powerful acts performed by God and look at how quickly the Israelites forgot God’s acts and fell back into their old ways.  It happened over and over again.

Graham concludes his book with an extensive discussion of the fruit of the Spirit for a reason.  That fruit begins to appear in the Christian’s life when God slowly takes over via the Holy Spirit. 

It all begins with surrender, as our old selves are crucified with Christ and our new selves emerge to display the fruit characteristic of the life of Jesus Christ.

What causes this all to come about?

What Pastor Billy Graham writes about for two-hundred and ninety-five pages…

The Holy Spirit.

This post is going to be a bit different.   Soon I will be through discussing a book that has been wonderful for me.  I have blogged on it since June of 2019 [that’s a bit of a sign that I have liked it].  I am not sure that everyone understands but commenting on a book gives a writer a chance to learn, and learn I have.   I have learned a lot about the idea of the Holy Spirit, its supernatural power to transform human nature, its role in allowing us Christians to be salt and light, its ability to bring about a dramatic revolution in those around us and its usefulness in times of crisis.

As I begin to wind down my study of The Holy Spirit, it is time to commit to a new book and that new book will be Knowing God by J. I. Packer.  This book has a vaunted reputation as a “classic” in the field of Christian living literature, and besides announcing the new book, I want to introduce you to the author, J.I. Packer.

Packer* is believed by many to be second only to C.S. Lewis as one of the most influential theological writers of the 20^th Century.

Packer suffered a child-hood injury at the age of seven.  He was chased from the playground by a bully and ran into the street, only to be hit by a bread truck.  This was a serious injury and it had an impact on his life that was unusual.  Packer eventually recovered from his injury and wanted a bicycle at the age of 11.  Instead of a bike, his parents gave him a typewriter to keep him from going back into the streets.  He took to typing and writing from a very young age.

Packer attributes C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity as the book that stirred his soul the most and when he went to Oxford University in 1944 [where Lewis taught],  he gave his life to Christ after hearing Charles Elliot’s famous hymn “Just As I Am.”

Packer struggled in his early Christian life with what he called “indwelling  sin.” He experienced great frustration over the inability to get past daily sins into the promised victory of a life in Christ.  This robbed him of the joy of his salvation. He was told that he simply needed to re-consecrate himself, over and over again, until such time that he could identify whatever obstacle stood in the way of the fullness of moral victory.  Energetic obedience to the will of God was useless.   He felt this focus on reconsecration held back his Christian growth.

Packer was ordained a deacon in the Church of England and eventually he became a priest.  He got his doctorate in philosophy from Oxford and after several appointments in England he moved to British Columbia, Canada where he lives at Regent College today [age 92].

Packer biographer Sam Storms says of Packer “One of the things, among many, for which I especially admire Packer is his insistence that all theological reflection, to be of value, must issue in holiness of life in which the love of God and his glory are preeminent. Put another way, theology and spirituality are inseparable. For Packer, theology ‘cannot, and should not, be detached or dissociated from the relational activity of trusting, loving, worshiping, obeying, serving, and glorifying God.  One way of judging the quality of theologies [he explains], is to see what sort of devotion they produce.’”

nWhen choosing the next book, I often peek at amazon reviews [as if they really matter].  When I looked at thoughts about Knowing God I was astounded.  Of seven hundred and twenty-six reviews, eighty six percent were five-star.  I can’t say that amazon reviews intrigue me that much but the overwhelming positive response got me curious.

As we leave Pastor Billy Graham and move to Knowing God, I wonder about my response to a book that is described as a “masterpiece”, a “work of Christian literature that deserves the title of contemporary classic” and a man who gets comments like “this man lives what he writes”. 

Chuck Swindoll [popular evangelist, writer, educator and radio preacher says “for years I have been asked to list the top twenty Christian books I have read.  Knowing God has been on my list since the mid-1970s.”

My next book…

J.I. Packer  Knowing God.

From Sam Storms “Ten Things You Should Know about J.I. Packer”.

Self-control.

This is the third fruit in the cluster of inward-turning fruit.  The first cluster of fruit of the Spirit is toward God [love, joy and peace].  The second cluster [patience, kindness and goodness] is toward others.  The last cluster [faithfulness, gentleness and self-control] is toward man himself. 

We know that faithfulness is all about yielding your life to Christ so God can work through your life.  We know that gentleness is modesty, the characteristic of keeping our feelings under control instead of lashing out at others.  Silence in the face of threat; humbleness in the face of arrogance; peacefulness in the face of threat.

Self-control seems to be fruit that can be applied across one’s life in many, many areas. 

Self-control [referred to as temperance in the King James Version] means the ability to rein in the body and mind.

Think about all the areas of life that can cause one trouble.  Too often we focus on the “thou shalt nots” of the Ten Commandments.   Maybe we need to go beyond those and zero in on pride or hatefulness toward our fellow man.  Let’s be honest, we will never get a handle on the many bad things we can do in this life.   Once we stop gossiping, we have a bout of jealousy.  We feel kindness toward others and then pride pops up.  Selfishness gets under control and then we find ourselves dealing with gluttony. 

Jerry Bridges in his book Respectable Sins writes “in the same way that a city without walls was vulnerable to an invading army, so a person without self-control is vulnerable to all types of temptations.”  To use another metaphor, when one problem is fixed, another problem crops up, like an old boat with leaks.  We put our finger in one leak and then we discover another.

Temperance means moderation and not getting this correct “moderate” balance in life can cause problems in legitimate desires and activities, much less sinful desires and activities.   I once had a student who enjoyed playing with her computer; there are lots of fascinating games that one can play.  She did not practice moderation.   She got so entangled into a computer game and other players that she neglected to go to work, she skipped meals, and eventually she lost custody of her daughter because she did not take care of her basic needs.   All she wanted to do was “be a gamer.”

Many think that self-control is akin to will-power and we can point to many people who have accomplished a lot in life through will-power.  Many professional athletes credit their self-discipline as the key to their magnificent skill levels.  For most of us however, will-power is not as powerful as the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.  We need God’s Word and prayer.  Bridges says you might “say that self-control is not control by oneself through one’s own willpower but rather control of oneself through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Self-control needs to be exercised in all areas of our life, but Bridges points to three areas of life where Christians fail to exercise it.  The first is eating and drinking.  Graham agrees as he says that moderation is an unknown word for many Christians when it comes to food and drink.   Too many of us give into our desires.  Before you think this is a picky problem and not very important, just consult statistics about American eating habits and obesity rates.  What we are talking about is eating a small bowl of ice cream instead of the whole container.   One soda is ok once in a while but what about the person who goes through a six pack in one day?   A rare donut is very tasty but how about a daily half dozen over a lifetime?

A second area that Bridges feels that Christians need some self-control is our problem with temper.  Some people have short fuses; they become angry and out of control very quickly, sometimes about what some would call small, insignificant things.  Proverbs has several verses devoted to anger: “A man of quick temper acts foolishly” and “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty; better to have self-control than to conquer a city.”  In the New Testament, James encourages us to be “slow to anger.”  Think about the witness of the hot-headed Christian.   We see a father abuse his son with horrible words in a public setting.  Then we see him scream profanities at the umpire at the church league softball game.  As he swerves to cut us off on the freeway and as we read the profane words on his lips, we catch the glance of the fish symbol on back of his car.

The last area of work that needs attention is personal finances.  Google the average American household credit card debt and you will see the average is $7,000.00.  This indicates that most of us are spending beyond our means.  As a nation we are not exercising financial self-control.  If we want new clothes, charge them.  If we want the latest digital devices, charge them.  Go on an expensive vacation; charge it.  One can easily see that this is a problem in the Christian community due to the many Christian ministries devoted to helping Christians get control of their money. 

This is a tough thing to say, but today we see so many areas of life that need self-control.  When we encounter people who are selfish we don’t need to follow their lead.  When apathy seems to be all around us, we don’t need to join that crowd.  When we are tempted to live undisciplined lives because everyone seems to live that lifestyle, do we just do the “stylish” thing?

The answer is no.  Christians don’t have to give into the temptation to lose control.  We are not perfect and to expect us to not make mistakes is asking too much.  Paul taught so much about self-control; he admonishes us to take control in all things, even saying “I buffet my body and make it my slave.” 

That is a tall order and Pastor Graham knows it.   I like his image of the life of the Christian struggling with self-control.  He knows we need to set an example and we are all living in a world that at times seems to toss us like we are in the middle of a raging sea. 

What do we have that others do not?  When we are tempted to lose control, we have an anchor…

That anchor is Jesus Christ.

“Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.”   Matthew 5:5

Do you believe your Bible?  Stop for a minute and read the quote above and truly ask yourself if you really believe the “meek” will inherit the earth…the “meek.”

Many times in my life I have read the Bible but only recently I have been privileged to stop and meditate on God’s Word.  Maybe it is a sign of advanced age.  Maybe it is a longing for a deeper knowledge.  Maybe it is a need to have the Word more strongly embedded in my life.

I don’t know.

But stop and think about Matthew 5:5 in the context of the world today. 

It does not seem to fit, yet gentleness or meekness is a fruit of the Spirit.

What is this gentleness that is referred to?  In the King James Version of the Bible, the word gentleness is referred to as “meekness.”  Some translations substitute the word gentleness for meekness. It comes from the Greek word meaning mild or mildness in dealing with others.  Pastor Graham* writes that in biblical times, gentleness meant far more than it does today.  It meant “tamed, like a wild horse that has been brought under control” [273].  He references Peter who was a man who was the opposite of gentle.  When Peter saw the glory of God in Jesus and became a believer, his rough and tumble energy was used for God, not for his own desires.   Graham also references Moses who was a high-spirited man who needed forty years in the desert to be brought under the control of God.   After those forty years Moses became quite possibly the strongest advocate for God in the Old Testament and quite possibly the most important leader of the Israelites.

But how does gentleness manifest itself in the Christian?  Like much of the fruit of the Spirit, it is not easy to pinpoint how this characteristic looks. 

First of all, it is powerful and strong, not weak.  Graham called gentleness “wildness under control.”  Gentleness is modesty, the opposite of flamboyance and self-indulgence.  The opposite of arrogance and hurtfulness.   As a student of human communication, I especially like how Graham describes gentleness as “a sensitive regard for others and is careful never to be unfeeling for the rights of others” [274].  This is the baseline for polite behavior and is the bedrock for positive feelings toward others in spite of differing perspectives.  In our world, to respond to others with meekness seems to be so “unfashionable.”   If someone is hostile or maybe just different, the common response is to be hateful. 

A few years ago, like many of you, I saw “The Passion of the Christ.”  It was so hard to watch.  Everyone (including me) knew how it was going to end, but that did not prepare me for what I was going to see.   Of course it was “just a movie” but for me it was more than “just a movie.”  It was a contemporary pictorial of my Savior on the screen.  When Jesus was arrested, Simon Peter took his sword and cut off  Malchus’ ear.  Jesus said put up your sword and then proceeded to put the ear back on the man’s head.  Down deep inside I wanted this defensive response, but Jesus only confounded His captors with His gentleness.  He was tried, tortured, and crucified and He responded with gentleness.  Isaiah 53:7 describes the scene so well for the Old Testament:  “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a Lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”

I watched the movie and the brutality was horrifying.  It was so extreme that at times I cried out stop! [I was watching at home alone].  I was confounded that the actor portraying Jesus did not say a word.  I wanted him to, not that it would have done any good.  When it was all over, the strength not to speak was not lost on me.  The movie displayed a Christ who was more powerful than His tormenters.  His gentleness was stronger than cruelty.

Graham writes that “a river under control can be used to generate power.  A fire under control can heat a home.  Meekness is power, strength, spirit and wildness under control” [274].   He further writes that the Christian growth of “meekness, takes place in the heavy atmosphere of hostility.  This kind of poise and inward strength as a growing work of the Holy Spirit does not come on the playground, but on a spiritual battleground.”

What is the result of this growth?   How is gentleness manifested in the Christian life?  When our feelings are ruffled, we do not rise up defensively.  We never put ourselves first; we always put God first.  We should not seek recognition or high regard or even desire to be the voice of authority.  We need to devote ourselves to others and honor others instead of self.

Gentleness may be one of the most tangible signs of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  In the face of hatred, we give back love.  In the face of hostility, we give back gentleness.  When detractors use vile language against us, we give back honest positive regard.

In this world we may never be respected as the “voice” of authority, we may never gain the praises of those in this world, we may never “swing the baton of power” but one day…

If you believe your Bible, the Word of God…

The meek will inherit the earth.

From his book  The Holy Spirit

This is going to sound like a threat.

I write this knowing that some may read this and just stop.  You won’t finish this post.

“Someday all Christians will stand before Jesus Christ to give an account of the works they have done since conversion.  We will be judged not on the basis of how successful we were in the eyes of the world, but on how faithful we were in the place God put us…faithfulness will be the basis on which God renders judgement” [Billy Graham*, 272].

Get right with faithfulness or be damned…

Quite a threat [that is the way some may read these words].

Of all the fruit of the Spirit, faithfulness may be the most vague fruit.  What does faithfulness mean?  What do I have to do to be faithful?  How can I face Jesus and get a positive evaluation based on this concept “faithfulness”?

Here are some answers.

First of all, the reason faithfulness is a “vague” fruit is it is based on our being faithful.  Other fruit of the Spirit may have some outward quality that people can point to but faithfulness is an inner quality.  Paul writes of the inward quality of faithfulness in Philippians 2:13 and 1:6 “It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” And “He who began a work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  Faithfulness is a concentration on being what we can be on the inside, with the idea if you are right with God on the inside, you will be able to produce more fruit on the outside.

Some may question what fruit?  I am weak of body or weak in spirit.  I don’t have what it takes to evangelize like Pastor Graham.  What can I do?  I can’t do God’s work.  I can’t bring people to Christ.  It is not about quantity; it is about quality.  God knows your situation and knows what you are capable of.  For example, I have a friend who is totally blind.  Some would look at his life and say, he can do very little…poor man.  Truly if you make a list of all the things he cannot do, the list would be long.

But he can pray.

He is a faithful intercessor at our church’s Tuesday prayer group.  He prays.

He never complains about what he cannot do.  He just does what he can do.  God gives all of us talents that we can use to further His kingdom.  We either are too busy to use them, or we downplay them or we refuse to use them.  Faithfulness in our Christian walk is what we do with our talents.  In Matthew 25:21 we find the story of the men who are in charge of “talents” and it says if “you are faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things.”  Graham writes “Morality is not so much a matter of magnitude, but of quality.  Right is right, and wrong is wrong, in small things as well as in big things” [269].  Do what you can do to further God’s kingdom; we can all be more faithful. 

We all get frustrated from time to time as we grow at a much slower rate than we wish we could.  God sent His son Jesus to show us how to live a Christian life, and as a professed Christian we are supposed to become as Christ like as we can be.  Faithful obedience can be a very slow process as we wait for the Holy Spirit to remove any “vile habit or developing infection” that our sinful nature inflicts on us.  We should be patient and faithful, because waiting to become like Jesus is worth it, even though mature Christians know that we can’t achieve Christlikeness in our own power and no one can claim perfection in this life anyway.  Running the race is worth it; it is a race fueled by faithfulness and when we stand with God in eternity, we know we will be glorified with Him anyhow.  All we have to do is say “yes” when the Holy Spirit says act.

Lack of faithfulness is actually a sign of spiritual immaturity.  Graham uses an industrial expression to explain how we are supposed to react to God’s calling.  You may have heard of “turn-around time.”  That refers to the time that elapses between the order and the filling of that order.  Many Christians will regret one day the time lag between the point when God showed them His plan for them and their ability to take action.  We must take responsibility for the label Christian.  Some of us want all the privileges of the label but none of the work.  When we are disobedient and refuse to accept the responsibility of being Christian, we are unfaithful.

Being faithful means accepting responsibility; it is a sign that we are spiritually mature and Pastor Graham calls it “one of the most important fruits the Spirit brings to our lives” [270].

Some Christians think about their judgement day and see the threat.  I am not good enough.  I am sure I am going to be eternally damned.  Others see their judgement day in very different light.  My life is my race and I [like Apostle Paul] want to fight the good fight and finish my race.

For “there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me at that day.”*

Hallelujah!

From his book  The Holy Spirit

From   2 Timothy 4:7, 8

When you become a Christian, you may sometimes begin to change certain aspects of your life [at least that is expected].  One thing you might do is begin to hang out with other Christians.  You may begin to pick up their expressions and wonder what they mean. 

One such expression I often heard in the beginning of my walk was “I am not as good as I want to be, but I am better than I was yesterday.”

Over the years I have begun to understand what that means.

It refers to the faithfulness that God expects of us when we become one of His children. 

Billy Graham calls faithfulness an inward fruit of the Spirit.  “The Spirit works in us that He might work through us.”

When a person becomes a Christian, God expects us to change…inwardly.

Sadly, becoming a Christian is “it” for many.  They have a moment when they make the decision to become a follower and they feel they don’t need to worry about anything beyond that.   That is “the moment” in their lives when they feel the most connected to God and beyond that, they ride [so to speak] on that moment.  They love to say things like “once saved, always saved.”  They don’t realize that God has so much more for them if they would just continue on in their growth; God expects them to be faithful from the point of conversion to the time of death. In short, they don’t understand God’s expectation of Christian growth [i.e. working toward spiritual maturity].

Becoming a Christian also means yielding your life to Christ.  Faithfulness means fidelity according to Pastor Graham* and fidelity means being true to someone or something; of course, in this context it means being true to Jesus.  I have myself experienced the “partial yielding” of my life to Christ.   It is almost as if I am holding out certain aspects of my life that I really want to indulge in but I know down deep in my heart that God is not happy that I have not given those aspects up for Him.  In truth, He wants all of me and it is the most important job of my life to learn how to yield as much of me to Him as I can.  All I can do is wrestle with this and learn how to give more of me in the future.

Graham says “faithfulness is not a faith exercised by the Christian, but rather to faithfulness or fidelity produced by the Holy Spirit in a yielded Christian life.”  If a person grows beyond their conversion or I can yield more of my life to Christ, it will be because the Holy Spirit is working through me to develop the fruit of faithfulness. It is not me having faith as much as me experiencing faith in my walk with Christ.

Where do we get the idea that this is a growing fruit?  Matthew 25:21 says “You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”  Graham writes “Morality is not so much a matter of magnitude, but of quality.   Right is right, and wrong is wrong, in small things as well as big things.”  The Disciple Peter has harsh words for Christians who cannot turn from the “world’s ways” in 2 Peter 2: 21, 22:  “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they had known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.  But it happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that washed to her wallowing in the mire.”  I read this as Peter admonishing us to get right with Jesus and turn from our old ways; don’t return to the bad habits that we have had.  He is advocating for our growth.

Now I have already admitted that I have a ways to go.  We all do.   Pastor Graham says “even if we could become totally mature Christians I am not sure that we would be conscious of it. Who of us can claim total perfection in this life?”That is a good point.  None of us will ever be able to claim total perfection because we don’t have what it takes to reach that.  All we can do as Christians is try to live better lives.  We know we will fall, but when we do, don’t listen to the voices that say “you don’t have to worry about it; you are saved and that is good enough.”  Don’t listen to those voices that say “You don’t have to yield everything to Him.  You can hold some back.”

Listen to this voice…

Get back up and walk with God again. 

How many times? 

As many times as it takes…

Until you are free…

from Billy Graham’s book The Holy Spirit

The Greek word translated “goodness,” agathosune, is defined as “uprightness of heart and life.” Agathosune is goodness for the benefit of others, not goodness simply for the sake of being virtuous.  This sounds pretty “high and mighty” but when you turn to the word ‘good’ in the language of Scripture, it literally means ‘to be like God’” [Graham, 266].

Yes, it means to be like God…

Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit and you might think of it as an ordinary word but in the context of Jesus’ teaching and the working of the Holy Spirit, we should not  take it for granted. 

Many might think that of course a Christian should be good, that goodness should be second nature for a follower of Jesus Christ.    “Where we had harbored selfishness, cruelty, rebelliousness, and spite, we now possess love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Everything in the list reflects the character of God, and goodness is one that relates directly to morality.”* In fact, goodness according to Pastor Graham represents the highest in moral and ethical values.

The Apostle Paul writes “For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth” [Ephesians 5:9].  He also writes “To the end also we pray for you always for that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you” [2 Thessalonians 1:11, 12].

The kind of goodness that is the fruit of the Spirit is a special goodness.  Graham uses an example in his book that means a lot to me.  I had an experience as a country kid growing up in a small school [grades 1 through 8 in the same building].  I rode to my school in a little panel bus with about seven other kids.   Every day we went over country roads and we passed by a freshwater spring.  Today this would never happen, but when I was a kid, things were a bit more relaxed I guess.  Often the bus driver would stop the bus in the afternoon and all of us would share a dipper and we would get a drink from the spring.  In Graham’s example in his book, he writes of spring water that was on his property; he had a technician come and test the water.  The technician said “it’s the purest water I’ve ever found.”  In my recollection, the water we drank from the spring on our bus route had a special taste, maybe the purest tasting water I have ever tasted.

The “good” Christian exhibiting good fruit pours out goodness, like pure drinking water from a freshwater spring. 

This goodness goes far deeper than just the normal acts that happen from time to time in our lives.  What we are talking about here is love in action.   Goodness springs from a righteous heart and a righteous heart is not acting to please others.  These “good” Christians are acting to please God.   They don’t expect recognition.  They don’t expect rewards.  They don’t desire medals.  This is the kind of good that Christ expects from all Christians and guess what? Many of us fall short. 

In reality, we actually have no other choice than performing good in our lives if we are bona fide Christians.  God and His Son Jesus Christ command it.  

What is the end result of all this.  The end result is the powerful witness that we can have as we do good.  People notice people who do good, especially good that comes from what appears to be a pure heart.  When people notice people doing good, it preaches a strong message to all of us.  Just yesterday, my pastor prayed in her benediction for the people of the church to live lives that exhibit the love of Christ.  She went further and said that our lives may be the only Bible that some people will ever see. I have been reading a book lately entitled Faith and Doubt, by John Ortberg. I think Ortberg may explain best what I am trying to say. When Jesus appeared to His disciples He lived a new kind of life, a life that not only preached goodness but a life where He lived goodness. The more Jesus’ disciples stayed around Him, the more they began to believe that what Jesus offered was attractive. Eventually they began to think, I like His life. I wish I could live like that. “The growth of the disciples looked something like this; first they had faith in Jesus; they began to have the faith of Jesus” [Ortberg, 50].

Will people doubt the good that a Christian does?   Yes.  Some people cannot just accept things at face value.  What is your ulterior motive?  Are you trying to manipulate me?  I guess you are putting a mark in your little black book; I will owe you in the future.  You have an agenda.  Graham writes “Satan can take any human effort and twist it to serve his own purpose, but he cannot touch the spirit that is covered by the blood of Christ and rooted deep in the Holy Spirit.  Only the Spirit can produce the goodness that can stand up under the test” [267].

If goodness is a fruit of the Spirit, our efforts to achieve it with our own strength can never succeed.  This goodness is born of our righteousness, our response to the urgings within us to do the work that God has for us to do here on earth.  It is much deeper than trying to do something for the sake of being virtuous.

When you are in the presence of a truly good Christian, you are in the presence of someone special.  They are not God, but when you receive what they are giving to you, you may feel like they are. They are doing God’s work, and yes some unbelievers may be so impressed that they wonder about your action. They may copy your actions. They may even develop a faith they never had before.

The fruit of goodness is a Christian being like God. 

Graham summarizes by saying patience, kindness and goodness all go together, and “all were beautifully manifested in the life of the One who is the perfect prototype of what you and I should be.  By the power of the Holy Spirit these traits of character become part of our lives that we might remind others of Him” [267].

*From the website gotquestions.org  “What is Goodness?

There it is…

Every time I go down the street…

Just a simple sign that says so much…   

BE  KIND

Someone has felt the need to remind us that being kind today is an important thing.  They feel so strongly that they made a sign and placed it in their front yard.

Maybe it is because our world today is rife with examples of people who are not kind; they are downright cruel.   It seems that every nightly news show has at least one video of someone behaving badly.  Examples are everywhere now since every cell phone has video capability and every cell phone user knows how to upload videos to social media platforms.  Go to those platforms [for example, Facebook] and you will see numerous examples of unkind behavior every day.   It seems that many of us must like the entertainment of watching people exhibit hurtful behavior.

Why make such a big deal about this?

Because the fruit of the Spirit includes the fruit of kindness or gentleness. 

Here’s the deal; if you profess to be a Christian, the fruit of kindness should show in your life.  If it doesn’t, you know you should be working on learning how to show it in the future.  This kind or gentle behavior overcomes what Pastor Graham* calls the “harsh and austere.” Graham states “indeed, gentleness is love enduring.”   

No Christian should be surprised by this because Jesus Christ was truly a gentle person.  Look at the timeframe of His life.  There were no institutions in Jesus’ time that were merciful.  There were no hospitals, no mental institutions, no places for the poor, and no homes for orphans.  We think we live in a cruel world today but today’s world at least has entities that care for those that society labels “the forsaken.”

Think about it; in the middle of a truly unkind world over two thousand years ago, a man was born, a man who performed countless acts of gentleness and kindness.  And that Man said “follow Me.”  That to me means “do as I do”.

Let’s be frank.  People who have some success in their life sometimes seem to find it easy to be hard on those who have had trouble.  There is some deep-seated need to be superior that is at the root of lots of unkind behavior.  It is even less difficult to be unkind to those who are hateful to us but what does Jesus say about those situations?   “Peter [said to Jesus] Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” [Matthew 18: 21-22].  But it also seems to be difficult to be kind to those who are less fortunate, people whose only problem is that they are downtrodden:  “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.”  Many don’t seem to have the heart for helping the poor: “For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me” [from Matthew 25].

In the Bible, Jesus was kind to the people who had the hardest lot in life.  He dealt harshly with hypocritical religious leaders but to everyone else He showed a wonderful, loving kindness. 

Think about the people today who are on the outside of the Christian faith looking in.  They see Christians who cannot summon gentleness in regard to those who need it most.  Maybe an observer of Christianity is a sinner and on the verge of repentance: imagine how turned off they would be when a Christian turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to people who need simple honest, loving compassion. 

At the heart of this problem is the Christian who is judgmental.  At the heart of this problem is the Christian who is legalistic.  At the heart of this problem is the Christian who is cruel…and yet, they still see themselves as a “good” follower of Jesus Christ. 

Then think of the model of Jesus Christ, who was tender, gentle and kind to everyone.  That kind of person is the best recruiter for the faith.  Even little children felt they could approach Jesus without fear.

Today the language of cruelty is everywhere.  In fact, many feel that gentleness is a sign of weakness, but Graham says “they are wrong!”   Graham quotes Charles Hembree who says “In our age of guided missiles and misguided men there is a desperate need for us to learn how to show gentleness.  It seems strange that in an age when men can reach the moon, bounce signals off of far planets, and receive pictures from whirling satellites we have great difficulty communicating tenderness to those about us.”

Graham sees the power of kindness as the greatest tool in the toolkit of the preacher.  A preacher can preach eloquent sermons but if he or she can be kind to people in the congregation, they can really lead the people to Jesus Christ.  “The gentle heart is the broken heart—the heart that weeps over the sins of the bad as well as the sacrifices of the good.”

It is not good to underestimate the power of kindness in a harsh world.  When all around us we see people who are capable of hateful behavior, it speaks volumes when one single person remembers to simply…

BE KIND.

*Pastor Billy Graham from his book The Holy Spirit…

All people need patience, don’t they?

But do we really want to do what we have to do in order to get it?

One of the first things I heard when I was a new “born again” Christian was “don’t pray for patience.   God will put you in situations where you will need to have it and you might not like those situations.”

What is this warning all about?

Testing…“Patience is closely related to testings or trials in the Bible, and that is only logical.  We may be patient in ordinary life, but how do we react when trials come?  It is then that we especially need the fruit of the Spirit—patience” [ Graham*, 259-60].

There you have it…the reason why Christians should think twice about praying for the Holy Spirit fruit of patience.  Patience seems to grow most in hard times.

But let’s think a bit more about those testings or trials.  Can those times be good for us?  What does James mean when he writes “Consider it all joy my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”  Yes, testing or trials can reap good results.  We can have stronger faith, we can find ourselves drawing closer to God, we can be more active Christians, able to help others who are going through trials.

I am not a weight lifter, but I understand the theory behind resistance training.  It is all about the development of strength.   You have to lift weights and tear down your muscles in order for them to recover and grow stronger.  Patience development works the same way.  The more we have regular challenges and recover from those challenges, the more we can have strong faith development.  Regular patience trials help in the day to day frustrations we face and when the major battles come [and they will] we will have enough Holy Spirit God power to endure.

It does not have to work this way; all of this can go the opposite direction.  Trials and testings can erode a person’s heart.  Graham says what many suspect; that sometimes people are attacked by Satan.  Some don’t know enough to recognize this or maybe they refuse to believe that Satan is real.  Some don’t have enough faith to call on God. 

There is a remedy for these attacks.  You can call on God instantly when you feel you are being assaulted.  I have a habit of praying when things go wrong because I know God can handle any situation by giving me strength that I do not have, wisdom that I have never considered, and protection from barbs that come from Satan.  For Pastor Graham, “the best time to pray is the very moment a tense situation or an unspiritual attitude overtakes me.  God the Holy Spirit is always there, ready to help me gain victory in the spiritual battles I face—big or small.”

Don’t wait to pray; do it instantly and spontaneously; do it voluntarily and consciously.  It needs to be a part of your life, an integral part of who you are as a Christian. 

This brings up situations that are so negative that we wonder why they happen.  It has been my experience that searching for a reason for a trial in the midst of a trial is not very helpful.  Graham quotes Charles Hembree about affliction and the fairness of God: “In the full face of affliction it is hard to see any sense to things that befall us and we want to question the fairness of a faithful God.  However, these moments can be the most meaningful in our lives” [261].   When things go a negative direction, it would be best for the Christian to take the words of the Psalmist to heart “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning [Psalm 30:5]. 

It sounds like Godly help in times of weeping will come quickly, but many will tell you that it may not.  At times in my life, it has seemed like God comes to help very slowly, certainly not the next morning when a trial comes at night.  At times like this there is a concept called longsuffering.  Longsuffering is hard to endure but people who can endure for long periods of time and maintain a strong faith in God show the world an awesome witness as they continually turn to God to help them through their time of trouble.  They don’t give up.  Jesus told His disciples “By your perseverance you will win your souls.”  Longsuffering wins souls as people see firsthand the power that blesses the Christian. 

Pastor Graham says that we need to be careful about this kind of witness, because some may misunderstand it as failure to take action.  Instead of suffering for a length of time, critics think the afflicted person should take action.   Of course there are certainly times when we need to speak out, act out, to have righteous indignation.  Jesus drove out all those who were using the temple for buying and selling.  He should have taken action against the long-standing practice of worldly commerce in a sacred location.   People who actually suffer for a long time don’t choose to suffer; they just endure their pain and keep their faith.

Think about it; all people need patience.  Sometimes life just does not respond to our immediate requests. Life can be complicated and stressful and we find ourselves in many trials and tribulations.  Should we pray for patience?  Why not?  We really won’t be asking for God to send hard times our way like the opening quotation says.   We don’t need to worry about trying times coming because we pray for patience.  Difficult times come for the believer as well as the unbeliever regardless of our prayers.

What good is the Holy Spirit fruit of patience? 

When those hard times come, we will be able to handle them…

Praise God!

*from his book The Holy Spirit

You leave the house a little late and as you travel down the road, you get behind a postal vehicle, making multiple stops on a busy street.  You suddenly get even more behind schedule.

You are tired and you just want to go home and eat dinner but you know you don’t have what you want to eat in the refrigerator.   You stop at the local market for a couple of items and when you get to the check-out line there are five customers in front of you. 

Your wife has a nagging health concern and it worries you a lot.  You pray every day for her to get relief.  Every day you pray the same prayer that she would heal but the answer from God seems to be no.  Her health concern is not going away.

What are we talking about here?  Of course, you know…patience waiting for what we want.

Pastor Billy Graham writes that the spiritual fruit of love, joy and peace speaks to our “Godward” relationship.  The next cluster of fruit [patience, kindness and goodness] has to do with outward relationships.   He opens his discussion with the words “if we are short-tempered, unkind and rude, we lack the second cluster of fruit of the Spirit.  But when the Spirit controls us, He works to transform us so that the buds of patience, kindness and goodness begin to blossom and then to be fruitful” [Graham, 258].

Patience or “long suffering” in the King James Version comes from a Greek work that speaks of how we are steadfast while we are being provoked.  Patient people seem to be able to endure ill treatment without anger or thought of retaliation.  It is an outward fruit because this fruit is seen in how we relate to others.  Obviously when we are irritable, vengeful, resentful or malicious, the Holy Spirit fruit of patience is not in control.

How does patience come about?  Reading between the lines of Graham’s book The Holy Spirit, I think it has a lot to do with perspective taking.  People with patience can empathize with others, having the ability to take someone else’s position.  A self-centered person may scream at the postman in my example above but a person with patience may understand that the postman is merely doing their job.  They must stop to deliver the mail. A self-centered person may scowl and tap their toes in frustration in the check-out line, maybe even expressing frustration at the cashier, but the person with patience sees that the five customers in front of them are really just trying to get home too. They don’t intend to make your life miserable.  They just beat you to the cash registers.  The check-out person is probably doing the best they can to get you out of the store; they are not your barrier to peace.

Patience is closely related to perseverance.  Patient people have the ability to wait for results, when others throw up their hands and express frustration, push to get the results they want, or maybe even give up.

Keep in mind that many feel Americans today live in a culture that is often short on patience.  All around us we see role models of people who just don’t have the ability to wait.  Some of the wealthiest people in our society would rather use their riches to buy what they want than wait for it.  Time conscious people commit road rage violence when someone cuts them off as they try to get to their destination.  Some folks have financial trouble based on the overuse of credit cards.   They don’t want to wait until they have the money for an expensive item.  They want it now and they charge it, not thinking about the impending bill that will eventually come in the mail. 

Patience is a key part of taking on the face of Christ. Too often we admire it in other people but we just can’t find a way to exhibit it ourselves.   The Apostle Paul teaches that we can be “strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness” [Colossians 1: 11].  In other words, we can learn patience if we are willing to learn it from God.  Sometimes we might think we are not getting what we want and it is due to God keeping it from us. That is not true.  Sometimes we might even blame Satan for our troubles, putting our feelings of frustration at his doorstep.

Here is the source of our lack of patience, not God, not Satan, but us.  When we get frustrated or angry and our resentment begins to build, we need to recognize that it is our own selfishness that is to blame.  When we feel a lack of patience, it is our old nature that is coming out, rather than that “new person” who was born again with Jesus.    Some of the first steps to growing in the fruit of patience is recognizing the frustration, owning the frustration and repudiating the frustration, asking God to work with us to grow the fruit of patience.

When it comes to prayer, there is the old saying that God always answers prayer.  Yes, my wife has had a health problem that has nagged her recently and I have been praying for her to have a lessening of her pain, a return to normal health.  As a person who is praying for her, I want her healed right now, but that is not to be.  Then I realize that God is answering my pray.  I really want Him to give me a yes, your wife if healed.   I am frustrated that He is telling me no; she is not healed yet. 

Then my patient self kicks in, and I believe that what He is really saying is “wait.”

I will wait…