By their fruits...

Over the summer I read a book, a bit of a summer holiday filler if I am honest, but not too bad and as it was free on Kindle I can't complain! 

Anyway, the book was called The Witness by Dee Henderson - I can't remember the plotline, but I'm not writing a review so that's okay. Contained in the book is this conversation between two characters:

"The Bible talks a lot about taking care of the poor and the widows, and God doesn’t seem to be that interested in changing the fact the poor just get poorer and the powerful more abusive in societies. God should be the cop walking the block, not a supreme court justice where it takes a decade for a legitimate grievance to get heard.” 

“Maybe Christians are supposed to be doing the work to lift up the poor and oppressed.” 

“Then God inspires very little loyalty to His cause. When was the last time you gave a gift to someone who was poor?” 

The question caught her off guard.

It can be a very uncomfortable feeling when our hypocrisy is exposed. On the one hand we know that we do not express our faith perfectly, and that there are always ways in which we can grow, mature and more fully express our faith. However, at the same time we are given a clear mandate when Jesus says in John 15:16 "... I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit - fruit that will last ..." 

No doubt, for the sake of our own pride, we do not see all the fruit that the Lord is bringing forth from our lives, but as we are also told that "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" Jn 15:8, then some of this fruit will be visible to us and to those around us.

Whilst the character quoted earlier is fictitious the sentiment expressed could quite easily be levelled at any christian or Church who have lost any passion for God and for the causes of justice, mercy, and global evangelisation. 

Let's be people who burn brightly with passion for Christ and whose actions mirror our words, glorify God and point people towards Him, so that we may not be caught off guard by peoples questions!

If the Church is going to make a strong stance against abortion then it should be at the front of the queue when it comes to adoption ...

If we are going to make a stand against global poverty then let us also be outrageously generous with our own giving ...

If the unjust global distribution of food disturbs us then let's not be wasteful gluttons ...

etc. etc. etc.

Press on!