Wax Fruit

                                                                            Wax Fruit            

       …your faith is devoid of truth and is fruitless… I Cor.15:14 (AMP)

• Artificial . . .

• Replica. . .

• Imitation. . .

          Don’t eat that! It’s wax. With all the new scientific discoveries and advancements, it makes one question what’s real and what’s fake. Did she grow it, or did she buy it? Can he, or can’t he? Hmmm!

        On the other hand, the fruit of the Spirit is not as easy to mimic. It’s listed in Galatians 5:22-23 as: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, and temperance. This is our Christian trademark, our branding. It’s the first thing people see, and take note of about us.

      A few writings ago I touched on wax fruit. This week I would like to explore this topic more because it’s so important. I define someone as having spiritual wax fruit when they are not authentic in their Christian walk. They say they are Christian, but godly characteristics are missing. I’m beginning to see that the quality of our fruit is a guide to show us, and everybody else, if we are genuine or not. It says in Matthew 7:15-20 that we will know them by their fruit.

       If we’re not paying attention, our fruit can accumulate a hard waxy build up. We can tell when this happens when we start to notice that we’re not as kind or generous as we once were. Or, we begin to notice that an unforgiving heart has replaced one of love. It takes a first-class, topnotch anxiety attack to put our peace, temperance, and longsuffering fruit to the test. Can it sustain the pressure? Will pressure cause it to break open showing that it’s hollow—void of any godly substance?

        To make sure our fruit stays supple under pressure, we have to stay in the presence of the “Son.” Wax will collect if we don’t. However, wax will melt off in the Son. For instance, I don’t think it’s possible to live a life around all that “Love” and keep a waxy cold heart. 

        If the heart remains cold, something is not right. Because the more we are in Jesus’ presence, meaning the more we model our lives after Him, the more we will become like Him, and God is Love.

© 2014                  

                                See You Next Week on Paulette Talks Faith.                 

                                     

Flying High!

                                         Flying High!

Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and Source of our faith…

Hebrews 12:2 (AMP)

• In the spotlight. . .

• Highly successful. . .

• Living high on the hog. . . 

     

It’s wonderful up here on cloud nine; on top of the world, smelling the roses. Did you see me set the world on fire? It’s remarkable that no one had to help me. I did it all by myself. Me. . . I did it! I set my mind on the prize and went after it with gusto, because I’m so brilliant and magnificent. Uh-Oh!

                                      

         The manifestation of answered prayers is great, but we have to remember that the glory belongs to God. We can’t do anything without Him. It’s encouraging to hear the testimonies of those who weathered the storm, and came out victorious. It lets the world know that if God did it for one, He will do it for others. We become walking billboards showing God’s goodness.      

However, the enemy sees what is going on, and he doesn’t like it. So, he has some billboards that will discredit us. If we’re not watchful, the devil will cause us to have amnesia. He wants us to forget that the glory belongs to God. He wants us to boast and brag that we did all this on our own because we’re so great, smart, and powerful. In Romans 12:3 it says that we shouldn’t think more highly of ourselves than we should. Public figures should especially keep that in mind.

If we ever find ourselves flying so high that we begin to showcase an arrogant, pompous, high affluent nothing can touch me attitude, our heads could get bigger and bigger, and bigger and bigger, like balloons. We might be flying high, but all it takes is for God to stick a pin in it. Kaput!

© 2014                

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                   See You Next Week on Paulette Talks Faith.                 

     

We Have Noooo Idea!

                                    We Have Noooo Idea!

                           For we walk by faith, not by sight. II Corinthians 5:7

        • Luck. . .

      • Coincidence. . .  

        • Fluke. . .

            

  We have no idea of all the unseen calamities, mishaps, tragedies, and blows that God protects us from every day. If we could see in the spirit world, it would look like a slapstick comedy skit. As we happily go about our day; angels are catching falling objects, kicking stuff out the way, smashing meteoroids, battling demons, neutralizing bombs, stopping collisions, protecting families, killing germs, and hiding us from dangerous psychopaths. Whew! The list goes on and on. If we could only see the unseen, we would know that it takes a whole lot to keep even one of us safe.

                                               

                                              We Have Noooo Idea!  

  However, not only does God protect us from disasters, but He also arranges for us to run across sweet delightful blessings. Subtle Divine connections and favors. Understated acts of kindness. Discreet encouraging gestures. Inconspicuous opened doors of opportunity. Many times we take these things for granted as we go about our day. We should never believe the devil’s illegal suggestion that we are just lucky.     

Since God has provided for our protection for all the things we don’t know about, we should know by faith that He is just as concerned and responsive to our personal prayer requests.

         Throughout the day, we should periodically stop and tell God thank you for  all the seen and unseen blessings. He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). He loves us so much that He has us engraved on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16). God is the One sustaining us. God is working on our behalf all the time.

                                            We Have Noooo Idea!

© 2014                   

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                 See You Next Week on Paulette Talks Faith