BEARING FRUIT
I will never forget the time I was speaking at a Bible conference in the midwest and enjoying the many gracious people I get to meet on such occasions, when a man and his wife invited me to come and see their family apple orchard. I was delighted to accept and truly loved the experience.
Row after row of apple trees flowed over the gentle hills of their small but fruitful orchard. And while that was a beautiful and amazing sight to me, the backstory of this orchard was even more amazing.
“You know, pastor, at one time these trees used to bear wild apples that were basically useless. So, we decided to have some Red Delicious apple branches shipped here, and while we waited for the delivery, we cut off every branch from every one of them wild apple tree trunks. Then, when the new apple branches arrived, we carefully engrafted them into the old trunks that have been rooted in the soil for years!”
“Wow! That’s amazing! Now, I know you can’t just nail or screw those branches onto the trunks, so how exactly do you engraft them?”
“Oh, well we just cut some gashes into the trunks, insert the freshly cut ends of the branches with some organic material, and use a special wrapping tape to keep
Then I asked, “Okay, but I got to ask, how do you know if it works?”
I’ll never forget his response.
“Well son, if you get apples, it worked. If you don’t get apples, it didn’t work.”
“Ah. Of course. But do all of the branches actually bear fruit?
“Most of them do, but there’s always a few that somehow just don’t make a deep enough connection to the trunk to bear apples, so we just break them off.”
When I heard that, I couldn’t help but think about something Jesus said in John 15. “I am the vine (trunk), you are the branches . . . Those who abide in Me and I in them will bear much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” I love that! And if you want to know what kind of fruit He was talking about, Galatians 5 tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit” is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
So, here is what Lindy and I have been discovering and enjoying over the years in our home, family and life in general about how to cultivate that kind of fruit. And it is not as complicated as you might think.
First, we don’t have to work hard and stress out by trying to be a good person, act nice whether we feel it or not, or try to strictly follow a moral code like most people think. That is a type of religion based on doing good works to hopefully earn love and some kind of salvation as we try to make fruit, rather than bear fruit. That would be like trying to create an orchard by painstakingly creating seemingly real apples with wax and paint and tying them on tree branches with pieces of string. It could indeed look real from afar, but the truth will be found out when people take their first bite! Yikes!
Rather, the secret is to learn to deeply connect with the Lord Himself (salvation and discipleship) in a personal relationship (not a religious system) to bear His fruit.
The more we pray, read His Word, hang with others who are doing the same, and receive His unconditional love for us, the more we will bear His fruit.
Does that take some time? Sure. Just like literal apples growing on a tree. And of course, there are challenges and seasons that come and go as well. But when we stay as deeply connected to Him as best we can, we can experience that He is always there. . . always watching over us. . . and always whispering His wisdom and love for us to draw us even closer to Himself. And the more that happens, the more fruit we will bear in our hearts to share with those around us. That’s His juicy fruit, my friends. Way better than the waxy stuff!
Bearing and sharing His fruit with you, Pastor Mark ([email protected])
Articles, videos and podcasts: markpg.org. Write and share at [email protected]. Hear me every Saturday, 8 a.m. on 91.5 FM.
