“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good  tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” Matthew 7:17, 17  (NIV) Growing up on an island where there are fruit  trees of nearly every kind, I can remember setting out with  my childhood friends to pick fruit in  the bush. When we climbed a tree, we knew what we were looking for. The trees were there in their luxuriant foliage, but it was their luscious fruit that we were after. Mangoes are my favorite fruit, inviting in their yellow ripe skin, pungent aroma,  and  sweet, juicy…

“Now gentleness with contentment is great gain. For we brought  nothing into this world, and  it is  certain we can carry nothing out, and having  food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”  I Timothy 6:6-8  (NKJV) I think all of us want a settled, contented life, but it seems few people  have it, and most don’t have a clue how to get it. We hear the reports  about people being dissatisfied with their standard of living. Do you think Paul was being too brutally honest with the believers when he said  that if they had food and clothing they should be content?  At any rate, today’s readers of…

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward.” Psalm 127:3 (NKJV) Several words function as synonyms for heritage, among them  “inheritance,”  “gift,” “blessing,” and “reward.”  Most parents would say that all of these synonyms apply to them because they are grateful for their children. A reading of this short Psalm 127 shows that joy and protection are the two blessings that come from having children.  The occasions for joy are many, but in this graduation season,  it’s  easy to see the parents’ joy and  exhilaration  as they attend this milestone event in their children’s life.  And in the area of protection, I…

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV) Experts are everywhere today, especially in this television and publishing era. They talk and write a lot,  telling  us everything, some of  which we already know and some  that we aren’t keen on knowing.. But when we  want something done with a high degree of competence, we usually seek out an expert in that area. I once read about  a set of experts I had never known existed,  perhaps because I never had any need for their services. Yet they are valuable, doing exceptionally competent work. They are art restorers, individuals who can take  a…

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My  strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NKJV) This world does not like weakness.  You will never find even a devout Christian praying, “Lord, make me weak.” We tend to shun both weakness and the people who exhibit it.  The daily twin prayer  request  many of us make  is for “health and strength,”  the two ideas fitting together neatly  into our desire for  the good life. “Strong” and “strength” occur a lot in our prayers. Check on yourself for a week and see how true this is. Weakness is not part of the vocabulary of the work-a-day world either. It’s…

“Wait  on the Lord, Be of good courage And He shall strengthen your heart: Wait, I say, on the Lord!” Psalm 27;14 (NKJV) One reason we enjoy reading the psalms  is that they’re poetry. The New King James Version of Psalm 27  is written in verse form, emphasizing its poetic nature. However, our focus verse is far  more than lovely poetry; it lets us know  that waiting on God is important. Waiting. It’s not  something  we’re good at,  especially when we think we have an urgent need that’s not getting the attention we believe it deserves. There are endless numbers of times and places  where  our ability to wait gets…

“He replied, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the  word of God and obey it.’ ” (Luke 11:28  (NIV) The crowds that followed Jesus were awed by His teachings as He told them things they had never heard before from their religious leaders. I know the feeling of getting a different perspective from  a gifted speaker. It’s easy to become emotionally stirred. One woman in the crowd listening to Jesus speak got so carried  away that she yelled out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you!”  (verse 27). In this  left-handed compliment,  the woman was saying how wonderful Jesus was by praising His mother.  Jesus took…

“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires  of your heart.” Psalm 37:4  (NKJV) Have you ever promised to give someone their heart’s desire? I have never done  it, being totally incapable of  delivering on something like that.  But I  did  view  Psalm 37:4  as a promise to provide the good things I wanted, and  for a long time it was my favorite Bible verse; however,  over time I somehow began to think that I was being too materialistic,  and  so edged away from that text and chose as my favorite, one that made me  feel less greedy. It’s helpful to know that it wasn’t…

“So the Lord said,  If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you.”  Luke 17:6 (NKJV) What we have here  is  Jesus’  response  to His disciples who’d  said to Him, “Increase our faith” (verse 5).  That is a great request, isn’t it?  As usual, Jesus gave an unexpected answer.  He chose to emphasize a little thing, the tiny mustard-seed faith that can be so dynamic that it  produces  something big.  The disciples  may have been feeling inadequate when they asked Jesus to increase their faith.  Often we,…

“Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4 People were amazed when they listened to Jesus.   He was the kind of teacher that got everybody’s attention. Even the officers who were sent by the chief priests to spy on Him went back to them and reported that they had never heard anyone  speak “like this Man” (John 7:40).  Well, what did He do that was so different?  He  made His hearers identify with His teaching by using  metaphors, , analogies,  and parables and made references to nature,…