Fruit of the Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

            Almost every Christian has read the fruit of the Spirit and quite a few have them memorized. Many people (including myself) will just rattle them off, not giving them a second thought. We see the words, and we go, “Okay, that’s great, I need to love people,” without thinking about what that even means. I hope that through this article, by preaching to myself a little, I can shed some light on some of the difficulties and complexities of the process and products of sanctification.

                 But first; a quick definition, because I love definitions;

            Sanctification: Sanctification is the process by which redeemed Christians become more like Christ.

Basically, once we become Christians (once we are redeemed from our sins) we are made more like Christ (sanctified) until He returns (when we are glorified). Sanctification is a process. You don’t wake up one day and BAM you're sanctified. It is a long, hard, time consuming trek, one that is completely impossible in our own strength.

            So the first one on the list is Love (speaking of things that are impossible in our own strength). The Greek word for love used in this verse is ‘agape’. ‘Agape’ love is used when the Bible is referring to unconditional love, like that demonstrated by Christ on the cross. Obviously we can’t love people like Christ loved us. This is why it is called the ‘fruit of the Spirit’. When one becomes a follower of Christ they are “marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” (Eph. 1:13). The fruit of the Spirit is a direct by-product of salvation; it shows that you begun the process of sanctification. Sanctification is more than the Holy Spirit working in us; we have to work as well, just because we can’t do it in our own strength doesn’t mean we get a pass from trying. In Matthew 7:7-12 Jesus talks about seeking and finding. He says that if sinful people give when asked “how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” God will give us the fruit, but we have to ask Him and actually (for lack of a better word) want to bring glory to Him through the gift we are asking of Him.

            Next we have joy, one of the greatest gifts God has given to those saved. Joy does not refer merely to happiness; but to a satisfaction, a contentment, that your circumstances can’t effect. It is being able to say; “. . . for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)”

            Peace is similar to joy, but encompasses other aspects and refers more to our interactions. Peace, first of all, refers to the peace we find with God after our salvation and redemption. After we have battled Him, our salvation finally puts us at peace with Him. It also tells us that Christians are peaceful, not prone to spats with others.

            Patience has a lot to do with how we deal with trials and tribulations. Patience lets us continue on through the hard times, with a stead fast and long term view of things.

            Kindness, I actually prefer a few other translations which put Gentleness here instead of Kindness. Kindness refers to your disposition. To the kind, loving and gentle disposition that Christians are supposed to have. Not weak or frightened, but strong and humble. A paradox of sorts.

            Goodness is the general nature of a Christian. Just being a good man or a good woman, making the right decisions, being the kind of person that a mother would want her kids to look up to. Being the fruit of the Spirit embodied in a person.

            Faithfulness is both having faith and being worthy of it, meaning that a man (or woman) should be honest and trustworthy; in addition to being faithful in his (or her) obligations and duties. Also, he (or she) trusts in God, and has faith in Him to fulfill His promises.

  Gentleness is meekness and humility, both a quiet Spirit and a humble disposition, again a paradox, as elsewhere we are called to be bold. Bold humility is not a contradiction, but merely unattainable by our sinful human nature.

            Self-Control is the ability to put off self. To control the desires of the flesh for the better desires of the Spirit. Self-control is more than just you physical self; it is your whole being, your “heart, soul, mind and strength.”

            Like I said before, we can’t be all (or any of these) consistently on my own. We can focus on Self-control but we will quickly lose sight of Faithfulness; or simply fail. But that failure is still inexcusable. Only with the Spirit can we have its fruit. What about you? What fruits do you struggle the most with?

     Leaping Lizard

Justin Gummi

           Hi, and I hope you’re just gummy! My name is Justin Gummi because of my infamous aforesaid greeting that I include in various friendly letters. Plain. Simple. Besides my pet obsession with gummi bears, I enjoy other things as well. I play any instrument involving a Keyboard with semiquaver tuning, or six-string, fretted instruments tuned to E, A,D,G,B, and E, ascending. Other music I enjoy producing are vocals and mild percussion. Telling Jokes is one of my pastimes, laughing at them included.

My other hobby is Graphic design. I tend to use computerized drawing and layout programs, though I sometimes resort to a physical drawing table with good ol’ ink, graphite, rulers, erasers and White-Out. 

On top of all this I love my family, hanging out with my brothers and sisters in Christ , and water-skiing, tubing, waveboarding and swimming with my grandparents. Things I don’t like include mushrooms, zucchini, and Sugarland. The culmination of my hopes and dreams, aspirations and prayers, strivings and goals, is to Glorify God, my Creator, Redeemer, and Lord.

Justin Gummi

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7)

Another update (because the last one isn't up to date anymore)

      Well, here we are, God has blessed us with a great team of writers this semester. Good news first; we are publishing twice a week now!! Mondays and Thursdays will both have new articles every week for you guys to read, think about, and hopefully enjoy. I’d like to introduce our writers real quick, but they will be putting up an ‘about me’ over the next few weeks. First, if you have just joined us, you can check out my bio and our mission statement here and Haiku’s bio here. We (Haiku and I) will both be publishing on Mondays. Joining us on Monday will be Klipsie. On Thursdays we will have three new writers publishing their articles; Justin Gummi, Chipper and Haron. I feel confident you will enjoy contemplating their articles.

     Alright, bad news (this is old news too): The Comma Queen will not be writing on a consistent basis (if at all) this semester. But (Lord willing) she will be back full time in the Spring or Summer.

I hope that God uses The Thought Box as a tool to touch and teach all of our readers. Please let us know if one of our articles has touched or taught you something, or if you catch something we messed up on (that’s what the comment section is for). I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us and you, our readers, over the next few months!

     Also, you may have noticed a slight change in our header, we added a verse, our key verse for The Thought Box:

Finally Brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - think about such things.

Philippians 4:8

I can't wait to show you all what we have in store for the next few weeks!

    Leaping Lizard

Do Everything for God's Glory

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 
1 Corinthians 10:31

     Many of you probably read last Monday’s article and know that I won’t be writing for the Thought Box much, for this next semester at least.  Hopefully, I’ll still be submitting articles every now and then, when I have the time, but right now, I have a lot of school stuff on my plate, and I’m not sure I’d be able to do any of those things (Thought Box, School, and other activities) as well as I should with so much going on, and I couldn’t commit to writing articles monthly.  I want to do my absolute best with all the opportunities God has provided me – even school.  And that brings me to the topic of this week’s article.

     I remember when my family first started homeschooling – my mom, brother, sister, and I all used to sit around the kitchen table together, working on school.  Being younger like we were, we fairly often complained about how hard our school was and how much of it there was.  We would have much preferred to go outside and play.  Well, obviously, that didn’t go over very well with our teacher who instead made us a sign reading, “Have an Attitude of Gratitude” and hung it on the wall.  In fact, we still have it hung on the wall, though it’s now in a different room.  Well, that helped us stop complaining about it as much as we had been, but we still didn’t understand why we had to do all that tough school work.  Finally, mom came up with a way to explain it.  As kids, our job was to do school and learn so that one day, we could have a real, “grown up” job.  Now I don’t know about you, but as a kid, that really motivated me.  I had a job!  But why did it have to be so hard?, I still complained.  Mom directed me to 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23

     Too often, we ignore these two verses.  In my own life, I’ve observed this error in at least two different ways.  1) I take my opportunities for granted, and rather than go about them joyfully, I end up complaining much of the time.  2) I take advantage of the abundance of opportunities I am privileged to have and pile on so many that I’m not able to do any of them as well as I should.  Neither of those ways are the right way to treat the opportunities God has provided us with, but in this article, I'll be focusing on the first.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17

     Since God is the one who provided us with all the “gifts” of opportunities, doesn’t it make perfect sense that we would praise Him for them and do our greatest at them, as though we’re working for Him as opposed to our teacher or boss?  One problem: those of us who are better off than some other people we might know – or don’t know — often don’t recognize that those opportunities we have are just that!

     Here in America, for instance, we’ve come to view education as a right, and it’s something that everyone does.  Really, we’re just privileged to be able to go to school and learn, but we come to view it as a burden.  Just imagine if you lived in Africa.  Most kids in the rural areas can’t afford to go to school, and those who can count themselves extremely lucky and are thankful for every day they’re able to attend and gain more knowledge.  To those adults reading this, I know this is more a reference to the kids, but there are other areas you can probably relate to.  Maybe you complain about your job, or your house, or your car.  Being as I’m still in highschool, I’m sure you’ll understand if I’m not finding quite the right example.  :)  But find that one thing that you might complain about, and think about if it were suddenly taken away.  It’s such a gift, but too often, we don’t view it as such.

     What would happen if we were to stop complaining about things?  If we were to be joyful while we were going about our duties?  Don’t you think other people would notice?  And if people notice that we’re doing our jobs joyfully, even the not-so-pleasant ones, maybe they’ll ask us why.  And we can tell them that it’s because we’re “working as if for God and not man.”

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15

     The Comma Queen

Image by Leaping Lizard

Just some stuff you should know . . . and an update.

Well, the end of August put ‘The Thought Box’ at the six month mark! God has blessed us to be able to write on such a myriad of subjects over the past half a year. Thanks to all of you for reading, and keeping us going as we read the comments you left, the landmarks we’ve passed (1,500 page views at the end of July), and the things we have thought. It has been a great adventure and I can’t wait to see what the next six months have in store for both the current writing staff and you guys.

            Let’s start with the current staff; Haiku is going to continue writing and giving you the facts plain and simple. The Comma Queen has had a lot of school work added this year and will be backing up to a more advisory role, don’t worry though, the plan is for her to come back either over Christmas break, or the summer.

            This fall I am extremely excited to begin again! I get to introduce not one, not two; but FOUR new writers! We have yet to decide the new rotation, so check back soon for more info on when we will be posting articles; we will still post every Monday; but we may put Thursday back in, doubling your weekly income of Homeschooled Young Adult thoughts. The first Article in the new rotation will be September 17, The Comma Queen’s last article for a while will be next week, so make sure and check back in then as well.

     Leaping Lizard