THE FRUIT DIET WORTH MORE THAN MONEY

 

THE FRUIT DIET WORTH MORE THAN MONEY

 There was a time when people were desperate to find the right diet. There was the: Atkins diet; The Zone diet; Ketogenic diet; Vegetarian diet; Vegan diet; Weight Watchers diet; South Beach diet; and, the Raw food diet. People went on these diets to lose weight, to gain weight, to become healthier, to improve their mental alertness, to make them happy, to have an excuse to drink blended thick green “health shakes” and to be trendy. I tried a diet once. But after two days I hadn’t lost the kilos it promised so I stopped. There is, however a little known diet that easy enough start and not so hard to end and its effects are beneficial physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, relationally, and spiritually. I’m referring to the Holy Spirit Fruit Diet.
 How different would your life be if you were filled continually with the Holy Spirit? This seems to have been the experience of at least the first Christians. We know that Jesus told His disciples after His resurrection to “receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn. 20:22) which may have been the moment that they were “regenerated” which is a fancy way of saying that they were born again (Jn. 3:3). But then Jesus told His disciples to wait for the outpouring of the Spirit (Lk. 24:39; Acts 1:4) which was yet to come. The effect on the disciples when this happened was dramatic — especially in the Simon Peter (Acts 2:14). He went from being a cowering timid fearful backslider to being a bold courageous fearless leader of the Christ’s Church (Acts 2:15-39). Then some days later, as Peter was about to bear witness before the rulers of Judaism, he was filled afresh with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:8). When Peter met again with the other believers to pray, all of them were filled with Holy Spirit again (Acts 4:31). Thus, being filled continually with the Holy Spirit seems to have been the usually experience of the early believers. As the Church grew and spread, the early Christians’ understanding of who the Holy Spirit was and what He wanted to do in each believer and church also grew. They discovered that the Spirit didn’t just fill them to be bold proclaiming witnesses, He also enabled them to bear witness to the power of Christ by how they lived. The apostle Paul called this, the fruit of the Spirit. 

 

THE SPIRIT DIET FOR CHURCHES

When the apostle Paul arrived in Corinth he found people who were very spiritual. They were very aware of the spiritual realm. They had often seen demonic activity (note 1Cor. 10:20-21). They were very aware of angels and other heavenly beings (note 1Cor. 4:9; 6:3; 11:10; 13:1; 2Cor. 11:14). Thus, when Christian leaders such as the apostle Peter and Apollos, and Paul had ministered in Corinth there was much spiritual activity, including “signs and wonders” (2Cor. 12:12), miracles and healings (1Cor. 12:9, 28-30). Paul wrote to the Corinthians about how the ministry of the gifts of the Spirit were given to bless the whole church (1Cor. 12:1-11) and should only be used to do so. But before he wrote to the Corinthians about the Holy Spirit’s gifts, he wrote to the Galatians about the Holy Spirit’s fruit.

 

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT DIET FOR A BELIEVER

What does a ‘spiritual’ person look like? After Paul and his team had evangelised Galatia, reports soon came to him that Judaizers (Jewish Christians who believed that salvation was the result of faith in Christ plus keeping the laws of Moses which included circumcision for men) had come to these Galatian converts and told them that they weren’t really saved unless they also became Jewish. (A Gentile could become a proselyte to Judaism if they did the religious works required in the laws of Moses.) Paul was dismayed. He wrote a letter to them explaining that what these Judaizers had told them was wrong. He grounded his reasoning in the work of the Holy Spirit among them and especially within each of them. This work of the Holy Spirit, Paul reasoned, was proof of God having given them the gift of salvation and did not require their own religious efforts (“works of the law” or the efforts of “the flesh”).

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Galatians 3:2-3

Paul reminded the Galatians that their new life in Christ was the result of the Holy Spirit giving them the gift of faith (Gal. 2:20) and then a spiritual diet that produced “fruit” (Gal. 5:22-24).

¶ If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
          Galatians 5:25

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit produces in each believer. This is why, when a church of these Spirit-transformed Christ-followers assembles, it just might be more similar to a ‘bowl of fruit salad’ than we had realised! While the health benefits of the previously mentioned fad diets might be questionable (and expensive!) there is no other diet that can compare with the body-mind-soul health benefits of the Holy Spirit’s fruit diet. You can start this free diet at anytime with just one prayer and a yielded heart. It really is a diet that is worth more than money!

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

THE REAL FIGHT

 Fights can destroy a marriage. Fights can destroy a family. Fights can destroy a church. But not fighting can also destroy a marriage, a family, or a church. Thus, there are many things we shouldn’t fight about, but there are many things we should fight for!

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
First Timothy 6:12

An essential part of my preparation of a couple for marriage is teaching them the difference between fighting and arguing. When I tell a couple that I want to teach them how to argue, they often laugh! But when I describe the difference between fighting and arguing they realise that it’s no laughing matter. The kind of fighting that many couples engage in has a very harmful objective – to hurt. I hate this kind of fighting. It hurts people, weakens marriages, and damages children. When a couple has been harmed by fighting, it’s time for them to fight for their marriage. This takes love, care, listening, repentance, reparation, and as I wrote in last week’s pastoral blog, forbearance. This highlights the difference between fighting about and fighting for. I wish more people fought for the right things. 

¶ For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 1:3

Over the past few weeks as I’ve spent time with various people, I’ve had several of them describe their struggles as a spiritual battle. Many of these folk have discerned that what they are dealing with is not a ‘flesh and blood’ fight but a demonic attack  (Eph. 6:12). They are often right. How we should fight under these circumstances is not as obvious as many have been led to believe though. Years ago I read a book by John Dawson who argued that the means in which Scripture taught believers to engage in spiritual warfare was not by focussing on demonic forces – not even talking to them – but by refocussing on Christ in worship and worshipful service of others. In summary, the kind of service of others which Dawson prescribed was an opposite spirit to how we sense the enemy might be attacking us. In an almost counter-intuitive reasoning, Dawson called for people to fight by giving away the very thing they wanted most! If the Enemy is discouraging you, fight by beginning to encourage others! If the Enemy is luring you into pride, fight by humbling yourself and promoting others!  

Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
He is my steadfast love and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield and He in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me
Psalm 144:1-2

How should you be fighting? How should we as a church be fighting? Certainly not with each other about things that don’t really matter! We should, like the Apostle Paul, learn to fight in prayer for each other, our community, and those who have not yet opened their hearts to Christ’s offer of love and forgiveness. 

The Apostle Paul urged his colleague Timothy to fight the good fight. The prize of this fight, Paul wrote, was to lay hold of eternal life. This informs us that the Christian life is a call to fight. We have to fight spiritual laziness with spiritual iscipline. We have to fight unfruitfulness with the cultivation of spiritual fruit mentioned in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). We don’t often think of ‘joy’ or ‘peace’ as something we have to fight for, but for those who have battled stress and anxiety while longing for joy and peace, the battle is real.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Second Corinthians 10:3-6

The toughest fight you’ll ever have will never be with another person. According to Second Corinthians 10:5, our greatest fight will take place in our minds. While our Enemy will mercilessly try to drag us into despair, depression, and darkness, our fight will always be to intentionally control our thoughts by focussing on whatever is true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praise-worthy. 

¶ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:8

Our greatest fight is not with demons or devils. Rather, it is internal. We must fight to bear the kind of fruit the Holy Spirit produces with our cooperation – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But by developing the fruit of self-control we can commit our minds to not think about those things which darken our minds and choose to dwell on those things which fill our minds with wonder and praise for God.  

May God help us to fight for the right things in the right way – prayer, service, and acts of God’s love. 

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.Second Timothy 4:7

Keep up the good fight! 

Pastor Andrew

WATER!

I’m busy. But despite my busyness there some things I just have to make time for. Watering is one of them. Even before I managed a plant nursery for a few years I had developed a love for a nicely landscaped garden. If you’ve been one of the many visitors to our home you will have noticed that in the eight years we have lived there we have transformed our barren patch of dirt to a nicely landscaped feature native garden with an ornamental feature weeping Silver Birch tree in the middle of a winding pathway which leads to our front door. On the other side of this pathway is my lawn. It is lush green with a minimal number of weeds. But recently I realised that I’d made a big mistake which has a powerful spiritual application.

¶ He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.

Psalm 1:3

During what has been one of the hottest Summer’s that we’ve ever had, I have consistently watered this garden and lawn with a sprinkler on a timer system. But this is not our only garden feature. Just off my driveway we have a pond surrounded by my beloved man-ferns. Nearby our pond we have two plantings of Kim’s favourite tree, Japanese Maples (perhaps due to her time as an exchange student in Japan), and a large Rhododendron. This area hasn’t received the attention that my front lawn area has because Tasmania’s world-famous normal rainfall levels have been more than adequate for keeping these plants well watered. But last week I noticed that the grass around my pond area wasn’t very green – in fact, it wasn’t anything, except dead!  I then took a closer look at our prized miniature Japanese Maples and I noticed that they had dropped a lot of leaves and some of their small branches had now become dead-wood.

¶ O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalm 63:1

Even before today’s water restrictions were enacted, I decided to begin hand-watering this parched area of my garden. But I noticed that the water wasn’t penetrating the ground. Because I had not kept up a consistent daily watering of this area two things happened: (i) plants and grass began to die of thirst, and (ii) the ground supporting these plants and grass had become resistant to the very thing it needed!

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:13-14

THE VALUE AND COST OF CONSISTENT WATERING

Quite a few years ago we experienced the financial cost of not watering the grass and plants around our house. We had recently moved to Tasmania from Melbourne and had rented out our house there. We had entrusted our house to the management of a local real estate agent. Unfortunately for us, neither the real estate agent or the tenants gave any attention or care to watering the grass and plants around the house. The cost of this only became apparent to us the day the real estate agent rang us to say that one of our external walls had a major crack in it. The lack of watering had caused the ground to become unstable and undermined the foundations of the house. The cost of neglecting to water regularly was many many thousands of dollars!

that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word

Ephesians 5:26

SPIRITUAL WATERING

A close-up of my parched ground around my pond. From a distance it looks like it has a tinge of green – but distant looks can be misleading.

Considering my side-garden in its present state and its now reluctance to absorb the water it so desperately needs, I considered the spiritual parallels. Perhaps some of us too have neglected to regularly water our souls with the water of God’s Word.

“For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd,
and He will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 7:17

Our souls need watering. We are created to drink in the Living Water that God alone is able to give. Each day our soul craves the gentle showering of God’s refreshing living water.  Just like the soil around my small pond, even though we are close to water it does not mean that we are actually being watered. Without regular spiritual watering of our souls the surface of our souls becomes hardened and ironically resistant to living water! It is possible to be a follower of Christ who has become spiritually parched due to a lack of regular watering from God’s Word. The spiritually parched follower of Christ may appear to still have a green tinge, but upon closer examination, they are parched, dried out, and hardened. They have lost their thirst for God and His Living Water, which inevitably leads to a lack of desire to come to the Well (the assembling of their local church). Even when such a parched believer attempt to open their Word and find water for their soul, they are so parched and hardened by the distractions of life that Christ described in Matthew 13 (the cares and pleasures of life, the lusts of the flesh, the distractions of the world) that even this life-giving water which their soul craves cannot initially be absorbed in until they have done what every gardener knows needs doing.

Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the LORD,
that He may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Hosea 10:12

 Despite my parched ground’s resistance to my watering with my trigger-nozzled hose, each night after dinner when I had returned from nightly walk with Poppy, I would shower my plants and ground. Night after night I persisted. Even after a week there was still not much to show for my efforts, but I knew that something was happening where it mattered most – beneath the surface. Sometimes when we are spiritually parched and dried-out we have to persist with our watering and keep doing what our soul needs even though it looks like the surface of our souls is showing very little benefit. Just like persistent watering of a parched lawn, the most important transformation and healing is taking place beneath the surface. In this case, the believer who has neglected the Word of God’s Living Water may read a chapter of Scripture and then intellectually wonder what benefit it was while all along their soul is beginning to reawaken.

And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.”

Revelation 21:6

Tasmania is currently in the grip of a dangerous drought. I suspect that this is a portend of where many who name the Name as their Saviour are at spiritually. Compromise, neglect, distraction, all lead to a spiritual drought. And as we are seeing now, when such conditions prevail the risk of destruction greatly increases. May we at this dangerous time take care to water our souls with the Living Water of God’s Word and soften the grounds of our hearts so that we bear fruit for our Betrothed. No matter how busy we are, let’s water our souls. See you at the Well this Sunday.

Ps. Andrew Corbett

SAFE, LEGAL, AND RARE IS MORALLY INDEFENSIBLE

By Dr. Andrew Corbett, September 7th 2013 It's reported that President Bill Clinton was the first to coin the phrase, "Abortion should be safe, legal and rare." This clever sounding phrase was designed to be a politically safe appeasement for both the 'Pro-Life' and the 'Pro-Choice' camps. Due to the political success of this phrase it has been picked up by other politicians around the world who are also seeking to avoid polarising their electorate. But I consider this phrase absolutely non-sensical and utterly morally indefensible. Here's why. WHAT WE'RE ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT And during Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential race, he reiterated President Bill Clinton's rhetorical quip about safe, legal, and rarebut added the very amusing preface- "That question is above my pay-grade!" This week I was privileged to moderate a public political forum in Launceston, Tasmania, where both major party candidates repeated the mantra about Abortion should be safe, legal and rare. It was neither appropriate nor allowable for me to interrogate the candidates on their glib answer about abortion. But I did wonder how many people in the audience thought, as they thought when Bill Clinton said it and then Barack Obama reiterated it, whether this answer was as equally coherent as it was applaudable? Here's what we're talking about. I have a conviction that- The unjust taking of an innocent human life is wrong. Therefore, the random assassination of a person is morally wrong. And the killing of an unborn child is wrong for exactly the same reason. Because the two forms of killing are morally equal (that is, they are both immoral), should the mantra- Random assassinations of people should be safe, legal and rare similarly apply? When we discuss abortion, we are necessarily talking about the unjust taking of an innocent person's life. Das Recht auf Leben ist die einfachste und grundlegende universelles Menschenrecht - The right to live is the most basic and fundamental universal human right. It is utterly false, incoherent, delusional, and deceptive to claim that an unborn baby is not a human being deserving of this most basic Menschenrecht - human right! Abortion is most commonly initially justified by asserting that it is "an embryo". Here is a picture of embryo, with some accompanying details- A human embryo at 50 days. It is between 13 - 18 millimeters long. The flexure of the head is gradually reduced and the neck is somewhat lengthened. The upper lip is completed and the nose is more prominent. The nostrils are directed forward and the palate is not completely developed. The eyelids are present in the shape of folds above and below the eye, and the different parts of the auricula are distinguishable. It is then justified as morally defensible because it is not a human being yet. In this instance it is most commonly described as a foetus. Here is a picture of a foetus with accompanying details- The body is covered by fine hairs (lanugo) and the deposit of vernix caseosa is considerable. The papillæ of the skin are developed and the free border of the nail projects from the corium of the dermis. Measured from vertex to heels, the total length of the fetus at the end of this month is from 30 to 32 cm. WHAT DETERMINES SOMEONE'S HUMANITY For the sake of all those on lower "pay-grades", here is what the rest of us can tell you about what constitutes a human being. This won't take long. I say this because often politicians wave their hands at the question and laugh it off with a, "Boy! How much time have we got??!" This doesn't require the making of convoluted or technical arguments. A human being is biologically the offspring of a man and a woman which necessarily means they have (human) DNA (unique to them) which is traceable to their parents. This definition is not subject to a person's: [Read Full Article]