Wednesday, October 28, 2015
“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” (Matthew 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 privileged 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. God 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 lit, 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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