The Fruit of the Spirit IS...

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

I attended Faith Presbyterian this morning and the sermon was on the latter part of Galatians 5 where Paul has been speaking about our freedom and liberty in Christ and how it is not a license to sin but the empowerment to love others, and he then transitions into the works of the flesh vs. the fruit of the spirit. I picked up on a few things that stuck with me throughout the day.

First of all, I love how the passage in all the translations I have seen, reads, "The fruit of the Spirit is," not "are." This may seem slight and a trivial English quark, but I believe it is very intentional and very profound. Nicholas Cage in National Treasure 2 comments on the same profundity when he says something to the effect of, "before the Civil War when one would talk about the United States he would say, 'The United States ARE doing...", where after the same person would say, 'The United State IS doing...'" It is an issue of unity and completion. We cannot pick and choose fruit, saying, "Well, I am good at faithfulness and joy, and you are good at peace and self-control." The fruit of the Spirit is a package deal. If you have the Spirit, you will have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, AND self-control. They are all intrinsically and intricately tied together in and through the Spirit. They are His nature and so become our nature when we are united to Christ.

Secondly, "Against such things there is no law." I don't care what you do. As long as you are loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled... cut loose, run free, do whatever you want, for the fruit is the fulfillment of the law. To truly live out the fruit of the Spirit is to have perfected the law of loving God with our entire being and to then love others as ourselves. If this is the case and the fruit of the Spirit is the fulfillment of the law, then we must remember the dual purpose of the law: to show us the character of God and the way we are meant to live being made in his image, and to show us that it is impossible to obtain on our own. The law was given to show us what we are supposed to do and why (because it is God's nature) and as a microscope to hold up to our lives to show how far short we fall of that mark. A right understanding of the law leads us to the posture of Paul in Romans 7 where he cries out, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" The law has to be fulfilled outside of ourselves, we are powerless to restrain is ocean of guilt, shame, and justice. "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Christ took on the wrath of our rotting fruit and gave us his own sweet fruit as a free gift of his grace.

All this keeps us humble yet gives us hope. We cannot achieve the fruit of the spirit on our own, nor perfectly in this life. There is no way that we can live by the Spirit without the Spirit. Our growth in the Spirit is a dying growth; a dying to ourselves and a deeper daily dependence on his power. But he is at work... and one day, when the thin veil of this life is torn, we will be freed from the nature that still holds us to the sweet allure of sin, and we will find eternal delight in creating beautiful fruit, to give to our bountiful God, and to those around us.

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Tagging for Jesus

On Thursday night I went with some of the ministry team to paint a big RUF mural on the 34th Street wall. Using old house paint and pink spray paint, we made our mark on Gainesville. I still have a little pink paint on my toes. I never knew how fun it could be to paint huge RUF logos on street walls after midnight... just might have to do it again!

Type rest of the post here

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To Florida I Have Come!

Alli, Dad, and I entering Mississippi ~ Tropical storm Claudette from our motel room ~ Dad and I on Panama City Beach the next morning


A lot has happened in the last week. On Friday I left the mountains of Colorado and journeyed to the beaches of Florida. I pulled into Gainesville on Monday afternoon, had a RUF ministry team retreat on Tuesday and Wednesday, passed out fliers on campus Thursday, played capture the flag last night, and am going to a RUF dessert/pool party tonight. I have unpacked and settled into my new apartment with my awesome roommates, and started to figure out Gainesville. I have not figured out humidity yet, but I have discovered that one use is all you can get out of a t-shirt before it goes into the dirty clothes. A lot of things are different, many are the same, and Christ is still Lord over all.

Several people have asked what exactly I am doing here as an intern, and I usually have responded, "meeting new students, building relationships, and helping RUF at UF to better reach students with Christ." The reality of this last week is that I have no idea what I am doing here. I feel like a freshman myself, moving to a new city, new campus, trying to fit in. The students on leadership here are amazing; they could do my job so much better than I can. They know the town, the students, the campus and are organized, outgoing, and fun. Yesterday I was late to set up for capture the flag because I got lost, then couldn't find the supplies we needed in Walmart. I was stressing out, running around trying to find caution tape like the world depended on it. Then as I was rushing out to get to campus I got stuck in a traffic jam, getting frustrated and feeling quite inadequate. I was getting all worked up, and had to take a deep breath to calm myself and ground myself in the reality that my justification is not in how well I perform as an intern, or in how cool people think I am, or even in wanting to succeed, but my worth and identity is rooted and flourishes in Christ.

We talk often of our brokenness and how Christ's power is most clearly seen in our weaknesses, but I forget that feeling weak and broken actually hurts. The natural inclination of my heart is to turn in on itself to escape the pain, but by his grace I am learning to open myself to him in my hurt, loneliness, and sin; to feel his cleansing and supporting hand. I pray that I may offer this to others, that they would not see my strength but Christ's power at work. For without him, I am just a fake, running around trying to gain popularity points. With him, I can truly love others and find peace in any situation.

I have felt very welcomed and encouraged thus far, and though it seems overwhelming at times, know that I will find a place here. It is wonderful to see that wherever I go, no matter how different it is, Christ is still there. He is at work. In me, on campus, in RUF, everywhere I look he is creating a kingdom and a people for himself!

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Divine Humility

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! - Luke 15:17

We seem to always be ignoring or pushing against reality. No matter how much we claim to understand Truth, we live as we see fit. I find it fascinating that the catalyst for the prodigal son's repentance was an epiphany: a coming to himself, or coming to his senses. He had been living for himself, living within his own set parameters of how the world functionally operated. It was not logic, nor great exposition, nor high philosophy that led him to repentance; it was an awareness of how things actually were. He was able to step back, take a good look at his surroundings, and realize the reality of the situation: his brokenness.

If the catalyst for his repentance was an understanding of the reality of his brokenness, then the catalyst for that understanding was his pain and suffering. Christianity is not about living in prosperity or having the most comfortable lives we can now, it is about the mending of the broken relationship we have with our Father. Quite honestly health, wealth, and prosperity most often keep us far away and calloused to that relationship. The prodigal would have never repented, never crawled back to his Father if his money had not run out. His sufferings were not worth comparing to the glory of being reunited to his Dad.

I recently stumbled upon a few notes that I had taken when reading through C.S. Lewis' 'The Business of Heaven.' In the September 27th entry entitled, 'Divine Humility,' Lewis explains a possible answer as to why there is pain and misfortune in the lives of so many, "decent, inoffensive, and worthy people." Lewis argues that perhaps God, knowing their modest prosperity and happiness will eventually fall away from them, leaving them wretched because they did not learn to know him, troubles them, warning of their insufficiency, before their end destruction falls upon them. He causes them to see their need and makes this life less sweet in their eyes. Therefore, because of their trials they turn to God in repentance.

Lewis calls this divine humility because, "It is a poor thing to strike our colours to God when the ship is going down under us; a poor thing to come to him as a last resort, to offer up 'our own' when it is not worth keeping." God could and justly should demand that we give him our all from the beginning, but he works in our lives, breaking us down till we come to him with nothing left. When he should be receiving our hearts, full and unspoiled, he lovingly runs to us and robes us when our hearts are mangled beyond recognition. God stoops down, tenderly bringing rest in his arms; the humility of such condescension and love is life changing.

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Reflections on My Usefullness

Last week I was in Atlanta, GA for RUF staff training. It was a great time of fellowship, instruction, and a reminder about why and how we do ministry. On Monday night of training, Rod Mays, the coordinator of RUF gave the opening address in which he, at one point, spoke on Philippians 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Our joy and passion in this life should be to live for Christ, and therefore death is a much greater joy because we finally get to be with and live with our object of desire... Christ himself.

Thinking about this passage, I remembered an excerpt from The Valley of Vision, and was able to track it down again. From the prayer entitled Covenant, the author prays, "Suffer not my life to extend beyond my usefulness."

The only reason to remain on this earth is to proclaim to sinners, Christ. All other things I will have and be able to do abundantly more and better in Heaven: to worship, work, play, fellowship, and glory in Christ. The only useful thing that I cannot do more perfectly in Glory is to lead a sinner before the throne of my gracious Savior. Therefore, life is only worth living here as long as I am still of value to reaching the lost with the gospel.

I am not saying that life is worthless unless I am leading someone to Christ or that it is without purpose, far from it. Rather, I am agreeing with Paul that to die is gain... there is greater joy and life and understanding of purpose when freed from sin, and that living here in this time and space should be a continual proclamation of that good news, that hope. I pray that God use me mightily in the service of that gospel, and take me home quickly when I have completed all that he has for me.

"I pray that you light these idle sticks of my life that I might burn for you. I ask not for a long life, but a full one, like you Lord Jesus." - Jim Eliot

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