Spiritual Fruitopia

"And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47:12

Do any of you remember Fruitopia?  It was a popular fruit drink back in the 90's introduced by the Coca-Cola company to in order to compete with Snapple.  The drinks featured psychedelic logos and colors, along with fun catchy flavor names like Strawberry Passion Awareness, The Grape Beyond, Peaceable Peach, and Lemonade Love and Hope.  Fruitopia is gone now - I'm not sure when it went away, but it serves as a nice introduction to the next discipleship "tree" theme that I'd like to wax eloquent on - and that is fruitfulness.

All trees produce some type of fruit - and by fruit, I do not necessarily mean fruit that we might find in the fruit section at Family Fare or Meijer (see, I'm hip to the West MI grocery stores ;)  Fruit is what a healthy tree produces as a way of spreading seeds in order to reproduce.  A pine tree produces pine cones, a maple tree produces maple keys, an oak tree produces acorns, a plum tree produces plums - you get the idea.  God has blessed each tree with an amazing capacity to create and distribute seeds so that there will always be more trees.  There is a God-designed usefulness to fruitfulness.

Of course, a tree's fruit is more than just the spreading of seeds - a tree's fruit is also useful for providing much of creation (including you and I) with food.  "And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food."  Genesis 2:9  We can feast on all kinds of fruitful goodies like pecans, bananas, pears, and walnuts that will in turn help us grow.  There is this real cool sense of equilibrium and symbiosis that God has designed in His creation.

The prophet Ezekiel looked forward to a time of fruitfulness when the people of God would be rooted and growing from the living water of Jesus.  He paints a beautiful picture of what fruitful discipleship looks like: consistent fruit production without fail, and fruit that is useful for nourishment and healing. 

When we are deeply rooted in Christ's love, plugged into the Church's fellowship, and feasting on His Word we will consistently produce spiritual fruit - the evidence of a growing disciple.  Paul describes the fruit of the christian disciple like this; "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."  Galatians 5:22-23  A good question that I ask myself whenever I take the time to consider whether or not I am growing as a disciple of Christ is this:  Am I growing in kindness?  Am I growing in joy?  Am I growing in self-control?  You get the idea...

And like the fruit of Ezekiel's trees, our spiritual fruit is useful for nourishment and healing within the body of Christ, and dare I say, in our communities as well.  For certainly the unleashing of people who are consistently producing spiritual fruit in increasing measure like love, peace, and goodness is going to positively feed and build the rest of the body of Christ.  How much more healthy and vibrant is the church body that is filled with love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness etc.  Sign me up for that congregation, because that is a congregation in which I will be able to flourish in the way that God always intended me to flourish.  But more than that, spiritual fruitfulness will also induce those outside of the body of Christ inward to sample a little of whatever we're having.  I'm convinced that people are starving for these fruits of the Spirit...they are just not sure where to find it.

So as you endeavor to grow as a fruitful disciple of Christ, I would encourage you to become Spiritual Fruitopia to all you come into contact with:  Maybe "Grape, Grape Joy" or "Gentle Peach" or "Kiwi Kindness" or "Just Plum Patient."  (I'll stop now)

Know this and be encouraged by it - God wants you to grow and bear fruit.  And He wants to use you to help others to grow in their discipleship!  How awesome is that!



Be God's, Pastor Scott