“You will know them
by their fruits…..So every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears no
fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad
fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16-20).
Hey Gang: Our Sunday School
Teacher began his lesson by showing us a drawing of how folks grow in
doctrine. Kind of like the question,
“How does one eat a fifty pound piece of Swiss cheese? A bite at a time! His point was learning doctrine, or anything
else for that matter, is a growth process where we progress up the ladder to
the pinnacle of understanding as we learn about or experience the various
attributes of the doctrine.
Years ago I was priviledged to sit under the teaching of an
old country preacher by the name of Judson Cornwall. On one particular night he was teaching
about growth and commitment and used an analogy that has stuck in my brain ever
since. He said, ‘For many folks, growth in the body of Christ is seen as climbing a
tree, and when they reach the first limb they settle in and become comfortable
believing this is the greatest place in God’s Kingdom. They say to self, ‘I
will just stay here and enjoy the security and comfort.’
Suddenly, God shows up
with His chainsaw and lops off the limb -requiring the comfort seeker to move to a
higher limb. Moving was not to his
liking but he moved out of his comfort zone and soon settled in and once again
relaxes into his comfort zone. And then
one day God showed up with His chainsaw and lopped off the limb, requiring him
to repeat the process of moving once again.
His point: We encounter circumstances in our lives, much
like the stepping stone chart in our Sunday School class, that forces us out of
our comfort zones but there is always two exits from the fallen limbs – the
narrow gate or the very wide gate. It is
easy just to slip across to the new limb without using much of our God- given
abilities and settle into the same level of “no progress” as the place we were,
or we can see that God has something very special in mind for us.
One of my most effective teaching tools, when working with
the Village young people, was a book titled Holes in Time by Frank
Constantino. Frank was, what was termed
a very bad “motor- scooter” in the incarceration business. He was totally isolated from the general
prison population and allowed out of his cell for exercise only one hour a
day. The judicial system had thrown the
“book at him” and there was little chance he would ever see the outside world
again.
How many know the world’s ways and God’s ways are vastly
different? How many know that God can do
a mighty rebuilding job of even the toughest motor-scooters in very rapid
fashion. Frank was held in a cell that
had only one small window in the door that allowed the guards to check him on
an hourly basis.
One night, in the wee hours of the morning, suddenly Frank’s
cell was filled with a bright, blinding light- but the light in his cell was
not light coming in through his door window.
After several minutes the light began to dim and Frank went back to bed
but, as soon as he pulled the cover up a voice spoke, “Frank, I have a task for you that is not being completed because you
are here wasting away. You are leaving
“Holes in Time”.
The short version of the story: Frank gave his heart to
Jesus that night and within several years was released from prison BUT, spent
most of his life in various prisons of Georgia ministering to the cons.
Soooo, my friends, Does God need to turn the lights on your
bedroom tonight and remind you that before time began He programmed you to be a
witness for Him? Are you leaving Holes
in Time?
Blessings,
Gramps
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