Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 24 - One of the reasons He's so eager to answer our prayers: it brings us joy to see Him answer.
If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.
If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.
Questions You Have:
- "I have never lead anyone to Christ. I'm as unfruitful as anyone could be. If I understand the passage correctly, making disciples for Christ is the gauge by which one's fruitfulness is measured. Have I already been cut off? Am I fooled into thinking I am in His will? My children are as far from God as anyone could be and the turn-around in my life has had no effect on them at all. As it is said, 'the proofs in the pudding'. Right now my pudding stinks." - First of all, I think it is a good thing for us to assess our lives regularly to see if we're living out what we say we believe. On the question of a fruitful life, some things to remember: 1. There is internal fruit and external fruit. Internal is my life experiencing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23-24) and looking more like the life of Christ (more love, more joy, more peace, etc.). External fruit is being a part of seeing someone saved. This is not just praying the sinner's prayer with them, but also being those who help move them closer to God. We need to see both kinds of fruit. 2. Obviously, it's a great thing to be able to lead someone to Christ, but the more common every day experience is pointing people toward Christ with our actions and words. For example, it might be that a wife lives out a faithful, loving Christian life in front of her unsaved husband and one morning he comes forward at an altar call and gets saved. The wife had the greater impact, although the pastor got to bring the harvest. So ask: am I regularly pointing people to Christ? 3. There is no greater thrill than having the privilege of leading someone to Christ. I would pray for God to open up doors in your life where you can get to do that.
- "I think a lot of us wonder how we can tell if we're bearing fruit. It is pretty obvious if we actually lead someone to Christ, but we don't always know whether or not we played a role in that since we may only plant a seed. For that matter, how do we know for sure if we're even planting seeds?" - As with the question above, this is an issue that we struggle with. I had an experience a few years ago where a friend posted a thing on Facebook where she tagged different people who had played various roles in her life. She tagged me as "someone who changed your life." The thing was, she came to my church but I really didn't think she was paying any attention. You just don't always know when you're having an impact and when you're not. Because of that, I think our focus needs to be on obeying the teaching of Christ and presume that doing that will, as He promised in John 15:5, bring about great fruitfulness. This John 15 passage indicates that God's in charge of bringing the fruitfulness; we're in charge of being obedient to the teaching of Christ.
Questions You Have:
- "I have never lead anyone to Christ. I'm as unfruitful as anyone could be. If I understand the passage correctly, making disciples for Christ is the gauge by which one's fruitfulness is measured. Have I already been cut off? Am I fooled into thinking I am in His will? My children are as far from God as anyone could be and the turn-around in my life has had no effect on them at all. As it is said, 'the proofs in the pudding'. Right now my pudding stinks." - First of all, I think it is a good thing for us to assess our lives regularly to see if we're living out what we say we believe. On the question of a fruitful life, some things to remember: 1. There is internal fruit and external fruit. Internal is my life experiencing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23-24) and looking more like the life of Christ (more love, more joy, more peace, etc.). External fruit is being a part of seeing someone saved. This is not just praying the sinner's prayer with them, but also being those who help move them closer to God. We need to see both kinds of fruit. 2. Obviously, it's a great thing to be able to lead someone to Christ, but the more common every day experience is pointing people toward Christ with our actions and words. For example, it might be that a wife lives out a faithful, loving Christian life in front of her unsaved husband and one morning he comes forward at an altar call and gets saved. The wife had the greater impact, although the pastor got to bring the harvest. So ask: am I regularly pointing people to Christ? 3. There is no greater thrill than having the privilege of leading someone to Christ. I would pray for God to open up doors in your life where you can get to do that.
- "I think a lot of us wonder how we can tell if we're bearing fruit. It is pretty obvious if we actually lead someone to Christ, but we don't always know whether or not we played a role in that since we may only plant a seed. For that matter, how do we know for sure if we're even planting seeds?" - As with the question above, this is an issue that we struggle with. I had an experience a few years ago where a friend posted a thing on Facebook where she tagged different people who had played various roles in her life. She tagged me as "someone who changed your life." The thing was, she came to my church but I really didn't think she was paying any attention. You just don't always know when you're having an impact and when you're not. Because of that, I think our focus needs to be on obeying the teaching of Christ and presume that doing that will, as He promised in John 15:5, bring about great fruitfulness. This John 15 passage indicates that God's in charge of bringing the fruitfulness; we're in charge of being obedient to the teaching of Christ.
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