The Christmas Cactus

Luke 13:6He (Jesus) also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.9And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”








One of the things that I have to keep reminding myself is that on any given day anyone can change!  In The Ministry, we work with people.  People are our fields of labor and changed lives are a part of our harvest.  We can't change people and we need to settle that in our hearts but we certainly are co-laborers with Christ.  When Jesus said he would build His Church, He didn't mean alone.  He enlists people to reach, enable and launch other lives.  Regarding the parable above, how does this fit into seeing people change?  It's an easy thing to say, "people have a choice and they must chose to change."  That is true but there is a time when people are immobilized by fears, struggles, disillusionment and hopelessness.  In that condition we may be hard pressed to see the choice happening.  We have a little Christmas cactus.  It's kind of a joke because we can't remember how many years we have carried this thing around.  It would just sit year after year, Christmas after Christmas and take up planter space.  I have started to throw it out more than once.  Then a few months ago I thought, "I'll give this thing one more chance."  I took it out of it's smaller planter, I broke up it's roots( a scary thing) and planted it in new soil in a larger pot, fertilized and watered it.  That was months ago. Well, this morning we went out to move it outside to catch a little rain and what do you know?  It has Christmas blooms!  I was beginning to doubt if it even had blooms in it's DNA!

The world was like that.  It became darker and darker and grew farther and farther away from what God had intended.  Then He sent His Son to earth to stir up and bring new life.  There was a time when a lot of folks had given up on you and me.  We didn't look like we would ever change.  Then the time came and the miracle happened. It's Christmas and there are people around who may be helpless and just need a little digging and shaking and enlarging their arena of life.  I would venture to say that some of you will find a life during this season that IF you will get involved a little, by next Christmas you will see beautiful fruit where it looked hopeless before!

Filling The Gaps In Our Faith

Can we live a complete Christian life without others?  Is the Christian life only about "me and Jesus?"  We want to say yes but that is not what the Scripture teaches.  We are so dependent on others in our maturing relationship with Jesus.  It is a God designed dependency set in place by the Holy Spirit.   Certainly we must have a personal daily relationship with Jesus but a believer who tries to separate from the Body of Christ will never get the spiritual nourishment he or she needs.  Resistance to receiving from the ministry gifts given to the Church produces a malnourished and imbalanced disciple.  (By the way, those from whom we receive aren't perfect either so don't allow that to stop their input into your life.)

I Thess. 3:10 NLT tells us, "night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith."  What a interesting phrase, "to fill the gaps in your faith".  Paul and the others on his team would travel around in a circuit teaching and training the new believers in the Doctrine of Christ and the Church.  There was a lot lacking just as there is today.  We haven't arrived and we aren't perfect in our understanding and experience.  Being disciples or learners is a life long endeavor.  We all have gaps still!  The word "fill" here in the Greek is translated "to complete thoroughly, repair, adjust, fit, frame, mend." Why doesn't God just fill the "gaps" in our faith?  Because He has given spiritual gifts to the Church, His Body to help in this process.  We have used Ephesians 4:11-12 a lot in these blogs but it is certainly a perfect "fit" for here.  The responsibility of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher is to "equip" God's people to do His work.  Again, this word equip means to "complete or perfect". The Apostle Paul even goes so far as to say "imitate me".(1 Cor. 4:16)  In our day we can gain a lot of information from TV, Christian DVDs, conferences and books.  However, we cannot be totally disciplined and equipped without a connection with a real live, walking, breathing spiritual gift that the Lord has placed in our lives.  It requires humility to always be a learner. but it brings exaltation in the end.

Kept By The Power Of God

Eph. 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…

It is still a difficult thing for us to grasp the fact that God helps the Christian from within more than from without.  We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet, we tend to cry out to  God at a distance.  Even our worship at times seems to be directed “out there”.  For that reason we all too often feel as though we are alone and sense a need to get closer to God.  I’m not above these feelings. We all seem to slip back into this Old Covenant pattern from time to time. Our song- writers often write from the same perspective.  The verse above makes it clear that when God works in our lives He does so “according to the power that works in us.” It is not enough that we believe in God, we must believe in the God that is resident within us!  It will change our faith focus and the outcome of our faith as well. The concept of faith is a trusting that we receive by faith in the spirit now, that which will come later in the natural.  We probably have never received much by faith that we didn’t embrace by faith first.  It is all based upon believing in and standing upon the Word of God. (Rom. 10:17) The more faith in the Word is weakened, the more receptivity is undermined. 

I Thess. 2:13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. Now we see clearly from this verse that there is a direct connection with receiving in the heart the message preached as “the Word of God”, and that Word actually “working” in the life of the one believing.  More than just getting the things we ask for in prayer, the greatest fruit of this faith in the God in me is the assurance of our salvation. 

I Peter 1: 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

An Almost Persuaded Generation

Acts 26:28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”

Agrippa was actually saying, you almost persuade me to become a follower and disciple of Jesus. That is what it means to be a Christian as we define the word “Christian” used here.  Yet, the key phrase here is “almost persuade me.”  Our challenge today is to see people around us in daily life transformed into true followers and disciples of Jesus.  It is happening!  I am grateful for that.  It is very encouraging to see a new generation rising up, that have left the past for a future of following the Lord in every area of life.  It is also troubling to see many in churches that show little signs of transformation.  “Transformation” is the fruit that we are looking to see produced in the life of the new Christian.  Transformation means a complete change.  Sometimes I am concerned that I may show more patience than Jesus might.  I know that sounds strange but it also sounds strange that Jesus allowed the rich young ruler to walk away.  I’m not sure many of us would have done that.  There is a place a person has to get to in order to be considered a Christian.  That place is transformation.  It takes confrontation to get to transformation.  A person can’t be transformed without discomfort and pain.  It is difficult for a comfort-centered church to let that happen. 

Now back to Agrippa: he came to a place of information but not transformation.  He was saying that your talking and lecturing is so interesting that it tempts me to follow your teaching and way of life…yet he didn’t.  Lectures and teaching won’t bring transformation.  It might attract crowds who love listening to our lectures and are even fascinated by them.  There is a generation the Scripture tells us that will have a form of godliness but who denies the power of God.  There has to be a power accompanying our words that impacts the heart of the hearer and brings them to a doorway of surrender leading to transformation.  Every true Christian has been there and felt that confrontation that led to transformation.  Let me share another verse with you to ponder.  1 Thess. 1:5 says, “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.”  Paul makes it clear that the gospel that the apostles of that day preached did not come only in a word being heard but it came in a word being felt!  It came in POWER!  Now I know that there were miracles accompanying the Word being preached but here it is clear that the primary power was life challenging and life changing.  That preaching also had the obvious presence of the Holy Spirit, which is the only ONE who can change a person.  The fruit of transformation was the wonderful assurance, the knowing in the heart.  May we be a loving and patient church seeking to win the lost to Jesus.  Yet, may we be Spirit-led enough that we will allow the Holy Spirit to wound those He must in order to become the true Comforter later.