Today we begin to look at the second fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives which is Joy. Joy is a feeling of gladness, happiness, and delight; it is expressed with rejoicing, and is the opposite of gloom and depression! In the natural Joy requires favorable circumstances to be operative; but let’s face […]
As we continue our journey into God’s orchard in Galatians 5:22-23, the first fruit we come to is Love. Love is very characteristic of the Christian life; it is the quality of which Jesus said to His disciples, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” […]
“The fruit of the Spirit is…” Galatians 5:22. What is fruit? It is one’s off-spring, or the product of any plant; the outward manifestations of the life of the plant, or with animate beings of the parents. Likewise the fruit of the Spirit is the outward manifestation of the God-life of the Holy Spirit within […]
In Luke 19:11-27 we understand the people “thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately”, a false assumption that looked for an earthly kingdom overlooking the fact that a spiritual kingdom had to be established first. Jesus being in the vicinity of Jerusalem, Israel’s capitol, was apparently fueling the false expectation among the people that […]
For today’s lesson Jesus turns to the type of agriculture called viticulture, in Luke 20 9-16. The farmer set out what seems to be a perfect vineyard, and then when going to a distant country for an extended time placed it in the care of others with the apparent understanding that he would receive a […]
Once again Jesus draws from agriculture to teach kingdom truth, Luke 8:4-15. The picture is that of a farmer sowing seed in his field apparently the old fashioned way scattering it by hand. The seed is the word of God so it is very good seed of which God says it “shall not return […]
As we continue looking at the parables of Jesus I will again point out that while being taught using a different picture, the main take away from various ones is very similar. With the repetition of truth we see its importance, also with different settings perhaps more will understand, and to be sure it helps […]
From the times of ancient past viticulture (cultivation of grapes) has played an important role in Israel’s history, with their region having very favorable terrain and climate for this crop which was an important contributor to their life. In Matthew 21:28-32 Jesus uses these facts as the focal point of a parable teaching us that […]
With agriculture being an important part of Israeli life Jesus uses it more than once in His teaching about the kingdom of heaven, i.e. kingdom of God. In Matthew 13:24-30, He portrays a farmer that sowed good seed in his “wheat” field; then during the night an enemy came and sowed “tares” (a weed that […]
In Matthew 25:14-30 is one of Jesus “the kingdom of heaven is like” parables. Here He tells the story of a wealthy householder with several servants; calling them, he put them in charge of his affairs while he himself went to a distant country, possibly to conduct some sort of business. They were not all […]