LESSONS FROM AN APPLE TREE

September 4 

Please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work.  

Colossians 1:10

My wife eats apples daily.  Imagine her delight when we moved here and discovered an apple tree in our front yard!  The bad news was that during our first six years here, the tree failed to produce ANY apples to speak of.  In fact, no one could even tell us what kind of apple tree it was.  Everything miraculously changed in 2019 when shockingly out of nowhere the tree yielded a bumper crop of light green tart apples and has continued to do so since with some pruning.  

Just like our apple tree, God is counting on us as believers in Christ to bear much spiritual fruit for His glory.  Fruit is the outward evidence of a plant/tree/person’s inward nature.  Jesus declared, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit… so then, you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:18, 20). 

The Lord desires us to produce good fruit as well as much fruit (John 15:8).  Christ also made it clear that we can never yield much good fruit on our own, saying, “I am the Vine, you are the branches; He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).  To abide in Christ means to remain, continue, stay connected and be at home with Him in a dependent, submissive and obedient relationship.  What kind of fruit is God looking for?  Fruits of character (Galatians 5:22-23), repentance (Luke 3:8), righteousness (Hebrews 12:11), witnessing (Romans 1:13), praise (Hebrews 13:15), doing good/sharing (Hebrews 13:16) and spiritual sacrifice (Philippians 1:21-23). God is still working in and on me.  How about you? 

Bob Kulp