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In The Garden Daily Devotional
Series: A Walk Through Matthew (Mathew 7)
Jesus The Teacher - Pt 6
"Dirty Bananas"
Pastor Wayne Clabaugh
Scripture Reading: Matthew 7: 15-20
Scripture Text: "Wherefore by their
fruits ye shall know them." Matthew 7: 20 (KJV)
I like Fruit - all kinds of fruit... but my
absolute favorite is Raspberries, Blackberries,
Strawberries and
Blueberries. Osella (my wife), likes pineapple.
One week last month they had a bunch of fruit on
sale and she got me some of each of the kinds I
mentioned above. For the first couple of days -
I thought I was in paradise eating the fruit of
the
kingdom and blessed... blessed... blessed. But
along about the 4th day... WOE! I got hold of
some
raspberries that were sour and overly ripe and
all I can say is I now understand the
terminology of Rev
3:16 where Jesus says to the church at Laodicea
- "So then because thou art lukewarm, and
neither
cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."
Because we have grandchildren running around our
house almost everyday, Osella has put out a
fruit
bowl and when the kids come in asking for a
treat - she directs them to the fruit bowl. The
trick is to
keep the fruit in the bowl "fresh" and "looking
good" - or like my 3 year old granddaughter said
the
other day, "I don't want that banana, it's too
dirty" is the response you will get. now that
banana had just
begun to get spots on the peeling - but she
wasn't about to eat something "dirty". After
making
grandma take it to the kitchen sink and wash it
off, and seeing that the banana still looked the
same -
she decided to have an orange. Well grandma told
her that grandpa likes bananas like that
thinking
she could get her to just try one... but nothing
doing! Yet, when I came back into my office
later - laying
there in my chair were half a dozen bananas. You
guessed it... all dirty! Don't you just love
kids?
It's interesting that Jesus would liken the true
grit of a man by such a delicate thing as fruit.
But He
actually wasn't referring to the time it took
them to rot... He was referring to the fact that
"by the nature
of their seed - many were rotten already. In
other words... the end product - being the taste
and
nutritional value of the fruit, is known by the
fruit its "branches" bear. So too, a good
preacher / teacher
is known by the good doctrine he / she brings,
and a bad one teacher / preacher is known by his
unsound doctrine. So Jesus poses the question:
"Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of
thistles?"
I know a young man who had some fairly decent
upbringing as a child, and his parents tried to
teach
him about God and make sure he was in church,
but he never really took root. After getting himself in
trouble and living most of his younger years
behind bars... he got a steady diet of the
"thorns and
thistle" type Bible teaching from all different
"opinions" of the many faiths represented while
in Jail. To
that I would have to say, "Shame on us ministers
for not doing our job in the prisons to see to
it that the
TRUTH goes forth into those jailhouses."
Now, this young man is "gung-ho" about becoming
a minister of the Gospel "when he is released"
and
he's not looking for a Bible College to attend -
just a pulpit. He knows it all and wants to
set
the record
straight. Now, I am privy to a bit of his theology
through a friend of mine who is close to this
young man, and
let me say, while the heart is right, the
branches he has picked his fruit from is a "bad
seed", and
needs some serious pruning. The problem is -
he'll get out and he will probably be heard by a
few who
don't really know the WORD of God either - yet
they see the intensity in his voice and the
passion in his
delivery and they say, "WOW! This is the voice
of Elijah". Just like many who have gone on
before... it's
even possible that many will "follow him" from
miles around - maybe even people from other
countries
will come to see him, and while the fruit looks
eatable... it has no nutritional value and will
not produce
anything worthwhile. Sooner or later there will
be a scandal and many will fall away because
another "supposed Elijah" has led them astray.
If I can put this in perspective... "dirty
bananas" are merely aged fruit (some times
bruised from too
much handling), yet they yield the taste and
nutritional value that God intended. Even that bruised
peeling has healing qualities for the skin. It
is an amazing fruit.
We're a lot like those bananas and while our
gruff exterior often seems bruised and maybe
even ripe
(old fashioned), if we are Christians - the
fruit of the Spirit will yield many nutritional
values for the true
seeker of the Gospel. Properties like Love, Joy,
Peace, Longsuferring, Meekness, temperance
(ref.,
Gal 5:22, 23)
Be fruitful today and allow the nutritional
value of the Spirit to be "pickable to those you
come in contact
today.
Let's pray.
Father, work in me today to be "fresh fruit" -
anointed every morning with the dew of your WORD
and
power-packed with the message of the Gospel in a
world who is starving for the truth.
In Jesus Name I Pray, Amen.
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