Category: Spiritual

Children of God Are Trees of Righteousness (Part One)

Psalm 92:12-13

Psalm 92 is a song that was sung at the time of the morning sacrifice in Temple services on the Sabbath. Verses 12-15 testify to the prosperity of the righteous.

Here the author compares believers to the palm tree and the cedar in Lebanon. “¹²The righteous will flourish like the date palm [long-lived, upright and useful]; they will grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic and stable]” (v.12, AMP). The palm tree lives long, and we will too by obeying and respecting our parents; this pleases God. We casually say, “God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.” But have we really considered the magnitude of its meaning? We will never tell all of God’s goodness, but we can always have praise on our lips and in our hearts.

Like the palm tree we are to stand upright in the Lord all day every day; let the world see Christ Jesus in us. Our character must be reflective of His. Because we are His children, we are His heirs, and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, sharing His spiritual blessing, inheritance, and, if we share in His suffering, we may share in His glory (Romans 8:16-17, paraphrased). We will sometimes suffer in this old sinful world for righteousness sake; yet we are still blessed if we remain in Christ Jesus; it is the only way to be useful in the body of Christ. Further study reveals that the palm grows straight up. We should be straight up honest and just in our dealings with one another. It has no branches and is green and flourishing year round and grows to a vast size. It also produces dates, a very sweet, luscious, kind of fruit; is a most beautiful tree, and it is a very useful treasure to the inhabitants of those hot places where they grow. Don’t forget the fruit of kindness. It goes a long way in reaching out to others just as Jesus does for us each and every day.  When you consider all the features of the palm tree, it most appropriately symbolizes the flourishing state of the righteous. 

 “He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” The cedars in Lebanon grow very large, with branches having a great span. They flourish for ages, and they, too, are always green. The cedars in Lebanon, as well as the palm trees, are examples of characteristics of a truly righteous person – upright, stable, and continuously producing the fruit of love because God judges us by what’s in our heart. In spite of the storms of life or even droughts that we have endured, weare trees of righteousness, and our strength comes from trusting God.

“¹³Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” Along the way, we may stumble and fall for a season, but God the Father is right there with His arms stretched wide open waiting to receive us back to Himself. Thank God for His enduring mercy. Stay connected to God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ for without Him we can do nothing. We need His life-sustaining words; “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6).  Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will grow up and flourish like the palm and cedar trees.

Luke 15:3-7

Now all the publicans, or tax collectors, and sinners drew close to Jesus to hear him (v. 1, paraphrased). The Jewish tax collectors were despised by their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters because they collected taxes for the Roman government. These were despised and even classified with harlots and those that were called sinners, yet they demonstrated an attitude of humility. They had a desire to hear what the Lord had to say.

The Pharisees and the scribes were the religious leaders; it seems that they would have been the first and most eager to draw near to Jesus to hear the message of salvation!  Oh, no!  What did the Pharisees and scribes do?  They murmured and complained about Jesus among themselves because they were offended and jealous, saying that he accepts and welcomes sinners and eats with them. These self-righteous, prideful, and judgmental leaders felt that Jesus should not hangout with these so-called “unfit” people.

Jesus responds to the Pharisees and the scribes’ murmuring, telling three parables which illustrate God’s work in salvation – seeking and rejoicing when the lost is found. The first parable is about one lost sheep out of a hundred that foolishly wander away (15:4).  It contrasts the love of God with the exclusiveness of the Pharisees.

“³ So He told them this parable: ⁴ What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost, [searching] until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing” (AMP).

By nature the sheep is a prey animal and is a most helpless and vulnerable creature. It will wander aimlessly, exposing itself to the danger of being attacked by its predators, and worst of all, it doesn’t have the instinct to find its way home or to seek safety. However, in the spiritual realm, Luke uses the lost sheep to represent one of God’s children who has gone astray. Just like the lost sheep in the natural realm, the lost, or backslidden child of God wanders aimlessly, exposing himself or herself to the danger of being attacked by the devil. Out of God’s protection the lost soul is defenseless against the wiles of the devil. 

The shepherd is persistent; he never gives up. He continues searching for the lost sheep until he finds it. With this same persistence God the Father, the Great Shepherd of the sheep goes after the lost soul until he finds it. God is love, his love is everlasting, and his search for the lost soul is everlasting. For he “will have all men to be saved” (1Timothy 2:4a).

 ^“6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. ⁷I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repented, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”

God seeks the lost and rejoices when one is found.

Romans 13:11

Have you ever completed a task, and some smarty pants goes, “It’s about time; you should’ve had it done a long time ago?” Most likely it’s been said to you, you’ve heard it being said to someone else, or you’ve said it to someone yourself. Here Paul uses the phrase “it’s high time” in his letter to the Roman church. According to Farlex Dictionary of Idioms, one meaning of “it’s high time” is it is the appropriate time (that something happens); it is long overdue (that something happens). In verse eleven the phrase it’s high time signifies a state of urgency. Yes, it is long overdue for us the church to be concerned for our souls and our eternal destination. Not only that, there is much work to be done. The light of Jesus shines in us; darkness has been dispelled, and yet sometimes we have to be stirred to action.

When we think however, of being “awake or to wake up,” weliterally think of being aroused from natural sleep. We’ve probably been vigorously shaken at one time or another and told to wake up; it’s time to get up. Sometimes we have our alarm set to wake us up at a certain time. We may get up right then, or we may reach over and push the snooze button, giving us another 8-9 minutes of sleep. Sometimes we push that snooze button two or three times before we finally drag out of bed. That’s truly a sign of laziness or sleep deprivation. We must have that period of time when our consciousness is suspended so that the body can rest and rejuvenate itself.

We are compelled to realize that it is high time we wake up; the church has been spiritually sleep and inactive far too long. We know what time it is. Wake up and live right “for our salvation is now closer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11b). Jesus is on his way back, and he’s coming as a thief in the night. We don’t have time to waste; Jesus is not coming back for a pretentious   church – one that is loveless and committing evil to her fellow man. He’s coming back for “a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy, set apart for God, and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27, AMP). 

Christians, it is urgent. The clarion has been made. We are not being called to awake from natural sleep. Paul is figuratively calling us to “awake from our state of moral sloth,” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words), or laziness. We are urged to wake up from that sleep because it is used to “characterize unbelievers as spiritually insensitive” (Zondervan KJV Commentary). This sleep is not appropriate for believers; we must wake up now from our spiritual slumber, be alert to the critical time in which we are living, and sensitive to our fellow man. Otherwise, it is impossible for us to fulfill the ministry for which we are called. It’s high time for us to awake from our state of spiritual slumber. We can’t do the work of the Lord while we sleep. Jesus told his disciples on one occasion, “I must work the works of Him who sent me, while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work” (John 9:4).

In verses 7-10 of this chapter, Paul tells the Roman church, “Owe no man anything but to love one another.” It’s high time we get ourselves together and love our fellow man just like Jesus loves us. His death on that old roughed cross at Calvary was the ultimate act of love. He’s not telling us to die for one another, but because of his unselfish act of love for us, he commands us to love one another. Love is “unselfishly seeking the best or higher good for our enemies.” God is not partial toward us, and neither should we be toward each other. So you’ve heard it; you’ve read it; now it is high time to wake out of sleep and put love into practice. How radically refreshing that would be!

But we can only love as commanded, and pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us when we genuinely get malice out of our hearts. Some foolishly say, “Fake it till you make it.” That won’t work because the Bible says that what’s in a man’s heart is what will come forth from his mouth. We may pretend for a moment, but we can’t pretend forever. Just remember that we are commanded to love every day; love has no expiration date. And even though it may not always be reciprocated, it is necessary that we love unselfishly that we may be the children of our Father who is in heaven. Don’t you think it’s time to awake out of sleep? Yes, it is high time for the church to wake up, turn from our evil ways, and love on purpose every day.

John 15:1-8

John 15 is a powerful discourse in which Jesus does all the talking. He is on his way to the Garden of Gethsemane, when he tells his disciples, “I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman, or gardener” (v. 1). Using the analogy of the vine and the branches, Jesus explains to his disciples that there are two types of branches in him – the unfruitful and the fruitful. There are many that decide to follow Christ; these are the branches. Some turn back to their old way of life, loving the things of this world more than Christ. Those are the unfruitful branches. Some continue in the ways of the Lord, setting their affections on things above. Every branch in Christ that does not bear fruit our heavenly Father cuts off. Every branch in him that bears fruit our heavenly Father prunes so that it may be more productive.

My late husband was an outdoorsman. He enjoyed planting vegetable gardens, fruit trees, flowers, and a variety of shrubbery. If there’s any validity to the “green thumb” theory, he certainly had one. In our yard he was the gardener; he cut away and pruned. It seemed sometimes as if he trimmed some bushes nearly bare. Yet they always grew back more fully and more beautiful. So in this analogy of the vine and the branches, Christ illustrates that true believers abide continually in him, the Father prunes us, and because of the Father’s tender loving care, we bring forth an abundance of fruit. That pleases Him.

Christ commands us to abide in him, and he will abide in us. A branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine. It must remain in the vine to be productive. That’s how it is with each child of God. Each of us must remain in Christ Jesus; he is the vine. Outside of him we become fruitless, and the Father cuts us off. As a free-will moral agent, we can choose to abide in Christ or not.Yet we must willingly believe God’s word; it is a benefit to us. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God” (1 John15:4). We need Christ because apart from him, we are lost and spiritually malnourished. The sustenance we need comes from him; therefore, it’s absolutely imperative that we abide in him to live. What can the believer do without Jesus? Jesus gives us the answer in verse 5, “Without me you can do nothing.” If we confess Jesus as the Son of God, and faithfully abide in him, we will live eternally.  

If a believer does not abide under the shadow of the Almighty, which protects him, he or she is vulnerable to Satan and his attacks. Satan will abandon us and leave us to burn in misery, shame, and hopelessness under the weight of the cares of this world. Unfruitful believers are like the prodigal son’s older brother who never left the church, but he was selfish and didn’t have love or compassion for his brother who returned to the church. The Father welcomed his repentant son who “was dead, is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24). Jesus said, “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; men gather them, throw them in the fire, and they are burned” (v.6). That was the attitude of the older son.

Then he goes on to tell his disciples, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you” (v.7). The truth of the matter is we must abide in Christ, the true vine, and his words abide in us. We have the promise that our prayers will be answered. Do you want to glorify the Father? Abide in Christ, and he will prune you, purify you, so that you may bear much fruit. Fruit-bearing believers glorify the Father and are Christ’s disciples. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).