Frost And Fruit

The Christian Worker’s Magazine tells about a young man who decided to grow peaches. He went all out, investing everything he had to develop an orchard. But disaster struck one spring when a heavy frost wiped out most of the peach blossoms. When Sunday came, he wasn’t in church. The next week he was absent again. And the same thing was true the following Lord’s day. His pastor became concerned and went to visit him. The young man exclaimed, “I am not going to church anymore! Do you think I can worship a God who cares so little for me that He will let a frost kill all my peaches?”

The pastor replied, “God loves you better than He does for your peaches. He knows that while peaches do better without frosts, it is impossible to grow the best men without frosts. God’s objective is to grow men—not peaches. God chastens His children because He loves them. Reproof is one proof of God’s love (Anonymous).

SAVED AND KEPT BY GRACE

We cannot earn new life in heaven by works or human worth; it is trusting Christ and what he did that brings to us, new birth.

We are saved by God’s mercy, not by our merit—By Christ’s dying, not by our doing.

DEATH’S INTRUSION (JOB 38:17)

Life indeed is fragile, and death has a way of intruding when least expected, at the most untimely, unsuitable, and unsettling times.

The answer to the question put to Job, “Have the gates of death been shown to you?” had to wait for the triumphant resurrection of Christ. He answered the question for all of us. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25-26).

TEMPTATION

Along life’s road are obstacles. Our choice becomes a test; help us, O Lord, to know Your way that we may choose what is best. Every Temptation is an occasion to trust God (Our Daily Bread, April 1, 1993).

DEPRESSION

When the devil would oppress you bringing doubt and anxious care, God’s strong arm can lift and save you from depression’s subtle snare. The devil can’t keep you down if you let the Lord lift you up (Our Daily Bread, June 20, 1991).

THE FATE OF THE WICKED

Verse 5 and 6 of Psalm 11 contrast God’s dealings with believers, “the righteous,” and unbelievers, “the wicked.” It should encourage the saved and frighten the unsaved.

Notice:

For the Righteous For the Wicked

Trial Judgment

Benefit Loss

Temporary Pain Lasting torment

Spiritual growth Destruction

Two classes of people:

Those who are the Lord’s, and those who are not His

(Psalm of Victory)

THE CHRISTIAN'S RELATIONSHIP TO GOD

Now that God has acted in His love to turn aside His anger, we have been justified by Him, redeemed for Him and reconciled to Him. And our reconciliation includes the concepts of“ access’ and ‘nearness,’ which are aspects of our dynamic knowledge of God or eternal life (John 17:3).

1. Boldness—“parresia,” which means outspokenness, frankness, the plainness of speech both in our witness to the world and in our prayers to God. Through Christ, we are now able to approach God with freedom and confidence. This freedom of access and this outspokenness of address to God in prayer are not incompatible with humility, for they are due entirely to Christ’s merit, not ours. His blood has cleansed our conscience in a way that was impossible in the Old Testament days, and God has promised to remember our sins no more. So now we look to the future with assurance, not fear (Eph. 3:12; Heb. 4:16; 10:16).
2. Love—We love because He first loved us. Previously we were

afraid of Him but now love has driven out fear (1 John 4:18-19; 2 Cor. 5:14-15).

3. Joy---The return of the exiles from Babylonia to Jerusalem. Their

mouths were filled with laughter and their tongues with songs of joy.

That is exactly what God has done for us through His Son and our Lord Jesus Christ.