“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 lessons 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? One bite at a time! His point: 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 that 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; when one reaches the first
limb, they settle in and become comfortable. Believing this is the greatest
place in God’s Kingdom, they plan to just stay here and enjoy the security and
comfort.
But, 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 and moved him
out of his comfort zone, but he soon settles in and once gain relaxes into his
comfort zone. And then one day God shows
up with His chainsaw and lops off this limb requiring him to repeat the process
of moving once again.
The point Judson was making is that we encounter
circumstances in our lives, much like the stepping stone chart in our Sunday
School Class, that force 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 on, 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 only one hour a day for exercise.
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? And, how many know that God
can do a mighty rebuilding job in very rapid fashion, even with the toughest
motor scooters. 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 lite nor was there 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 to 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 the prisons of Georgia ministering to the cons in the
various prisons.
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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