REFLECTIONS
February 13, 2011
 
 
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Matthew 7:16-17
 
 
Choice Fruit
 
The story is an old one. In fact, it’s the oldest story in the Bible and we have all talked about it many times. It’s the story of how God made a beautiful world and how He placed it in the care of his most precious creation—his children.
He blessed Adam and Eve with a wonderful home to rear their children and to perform their custodial duties. The garden was perfect. The weather was always just right, bubbling springs kept the flowers fresh and nourishment was abundant from trees that produced choice fruit. There was but one commandment and, as one humorist said, “It was a diet.” Adam and Eve had their pick of all the choice fruit, but they were warned not to eat the fruit from one specific tree. To eat from it would poison all of life.
But God gave them a choice and we remember that ole’ Sneaky Snake took full advantage. He persuaded Eve that God was deceiving them and that the forbidden fruit would make them like God; and Eve fell for the lie. But it wasn’t the persuasive words of the villainous serpent that influenced the poor decision. The villain in the story is selfish desire. Eve desired to be like God and she chose her desire above God’s will and the well being of her husband and their children yet to be born.
Choices. Who knows how many of them we will make in our lifetimes. Some of them will be routine like what we prefer for dinner. Some of them will be life changing like choosing a spouse or a career. But regardless of their nature, the choices we make are rooted in the outcomes we seek. And the outcomes we seek always involve choices between selfish desires and God’s will for the well being of another.
Before his arrest in Gethsemane, Jesus had a choice to make and He prayed, "Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." (Mark 14:36) So, He chose God’s will for our well being over his own suffering and pain, and our lives are nourished by the fruit of his choice.
God gives all of us choices to make too. Those rooted in selfish desires are destined to bear bad fruit. Those fixed on God’s will for the well being of others will nourish those around us with choice fruit.
Bad fruit or choice fruit, the decisions are yours and mine.
 
“You are the light of the world.”
RichardÌ

www.reflectingthesavior.org.


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