The Cure for Ben and Jerry’s Part Two
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Gal 5:22-24 (ESV)
After being challenged during our last session by Pastor Tim Shorey, some of the gang from the Families for Christ weekend found themselves in the lobby of Victory Hall on the grounds of America’s Keswick. I was sitting at a table with a good brother in Christ, James Getz, just going over those things happening around us over the weekend. James has earned the nickname “Happy Feet” because of his ability to just get up and dance as if the Holy Spirit has once again filled his soul. When the dancing is done he goes back into this meek, mild-mannered state of comical being that is his trademark. It is a privilege to acknowledge this brother as being a Paul in my life.
James constantly keeps 3x5 notecards in his top shirt pocket and they are covered in notes. James says this helps him remember what is going on but a former Colony administrator, Pastor Mike Woods, has joked in the past that if you what to know what James is thinking you need to read those 3x5 cards. So just out of the blue, James announces that he would like to play a game with us. Now you never can tell with this brother, he just might be pulling a prank on you. But this wasn’t the case on this cool and comfortable Saturday night. He shares his blank 3x5 cards and tells us to write the fruits of the Spirit on them.
My wife rattles them off, I have to open my Bible and look for them and the other couples that were involved did shout out’s while they wrote. The thing to note here is that different translations can result in have too many words for the same fruit. That meant that there were some cards that had ten to eleven fruits of the Spirit instead of nine. Once we got over the translation hump, everyone’s list boiled down to the ESV list of fruit. And they are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control! And we all went and said, “against such things there is no law.” Okay James, what’s next?
Now before I go on I would like you, Brothers (and Sisters…I know of some of you who secretly get F.F’s), to write them down as well. Write them as a list and give yourself some space between them. Now James tells us to circle three fruits that you believe you have down pat. Then he tells us to check off three fruits in which we are struggling with. After this he asks us if we are all done he asks this question…”Why didn’t you circle or check off the other three on your list?” The challenge here is not to do better with what fruit you struggle or not struggle with but why you are not considering the other three. James then says that the next time we all meet let’s discuss how we are doing with those fruits that we didn’t acknowledge.
This was in great contrast to the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that was used to illustrate how idolatry takes up residency in our hearts and causes conflict. Even if we do put down the ice cream and begin to replace it with the fruits of the Spirit, we can still fall short in the maintenance of our heart condition. If “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9 ESV) then maybe what Pastor Shorey said on Saturday night has credence…”Get on your face and come to repentance. Draw near to God and expect grace from Him.” If you have an issue with remembering this simple command, maybe you could write it down on a 3x5 card and keep it in your top shirt pocket. I have a funny feeling that this what James does. – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a regular Freedom Fighter contributor
GPS – God’s Positioning System: Obadiah
Compass Pointers: “So, this is the answer. Every flower and every fruit has a stalk and every stalk has a root, and long before there is any bloom there must be a careful tending of the root and the stalk. This is where the misunderstanding lies---we think that we get the flower and the fragrance and the fruit by some kind of magic, instead of by cultivation.” Who Put Jesus on the Cross? A.W.Tozer
Anchored to the Rock: Prayer is the acid test of devotion. Samuel Chadwick
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