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What is Kindness? Some equate kindness with weakness. Others may think little acts of kindness are frivolous and unimportant. What is the spiritual fruit of kindness meant to be? Our world is full of people who cut in line, insult those around them, don’t open doors for old ladies and people with groceries, laugh at others’ misfortunes and try to show their superiority by dragging others down. Yet there are also many people who let others go ahead of them in line, compliment those around them, hurry to open doors for people, sympathize with others’ misfortune and show their humility and willingness to serve others. It’s easy to pick out the people who are showing kindness! Unfortunately, people who base their thinking on a “survival of the fittest” mentality may not see the rationale for true kindness. People like to receive it, but often don’t really see the benefit of being kind. What does God say about kindness? Kindness is listed as a fruit of the...

The Nature of God's Love Sometimes when life gets discouraging, the best thing we can do is remind ourselves of the nature of God's love. One of the most beautiful things the Bible says is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (see Romans 5:8 ). He did not wait for us to deserve His love. He loves us unconditionally. To be honest, that's hard for many of us to comprehend because we are so accustomed to having to earn everything in life. Because of His great, wonderful and intense love for us, God poured His life out for us freely. That is revolutionary love, real, revolutionary love that gives itself away because it can never be satisfied doing anything less. It is God's unconditional love that draws us to Him, His amazing grace that erases our sin, and His powerful sacrifice that makes a way for us to enter His presence. His love will never quit, never give up, and never leave you. Whenever you feel down or depressed, remember...

Fruit of the Spirit: Goodness Goodness starts with God! Psalm 33:4-5 says, “For the word of the LORD is right, and all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD” (emphasis added throughout). God wants the earth to be full of His goodness. What He considers good is clearly spelled out in the Bible. However, since the creation of Adam and Eve, humanity under Satan’s influence has chosen to come up with its own definition of goodness. Think about some of the other words associated with goodness in the Bible, such as truth, righteousness, justice and light. Ephesians 5:8-10 uses some of these synonyms: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.” Most people decide what is right and wrong not based on wh...

Guarding Your Heart Proverbs  4:23  says to guard your heart "for it determines the course of your life" (NLT). Think about that. Whatever's in your heart is eventually going to show up in your everyday life. Whatever's inside will eventually find its way out, where anyone and everyone can see it. That alone makes it extremely important to monitor the things we allow to shape our hearts. I don't want something nasty, sinful, and selfish finding its way out and damaging my relationships with others, and I doubt you do either. A large part of guarding your heart means learning how to control your thoughts, your words, your disposition and your general outlook. What you think usually comes out in what you say. What you say affects how you feel, and that shows up in your overall attitude. In the course of everyday life, this is what determines how you handle your circumstances, whether you'll have peace or fall apart in a stressful situati...

Fruit of the Spirit: Peace One of the greatest human desires is for peace: peace between nations, peace between neighbors and peace within our own minds. Yet our experience confirms the biblical assessment: “The way of peace they have not known” (Romans 3:17; quoted from Isaiah 59:8). Acting in a way that leads to true and lasting peace is not part of our natural human tendencies. Instead, the apostle Paul wrote that our human nature leads to “hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions … murders” ( Galatians 5:20-21 ). In contrast, those who are  baptized  and receive God’s Holy Spirit can have access to a new nature that allows us to grow in the fruit of peace ( verse 22 ). What is peace? The word Paul used for peace was the Greek word  eirene.  This word includes the meaning “peace between individuals, i.e. harmony, concord” ( Thayer’s Greek Lexicon ). Peace includes a calm, ha...

The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. St Andrew's Methodist Church now holds the International Mother's Day Shrine. Her campaign to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War and created Mother's Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her mother by continuing the work she started and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world". In 1908, the U.S. Congress rejected a proposal to make Mother's Day an official holiday, joking that they would also have to proclaim a "Mother-in-law's Day...

Love and Joy  These are two of the fruits that I discussed in previous posts. See links below.  The "fruit" is the product of the Holy Spirit's cultivation of character in a heart.   This love is not a feeling, but a choice. It is the choice to be kind, to sacrifice, to consider another's needs greater than one's own. Joy is the natural reaction to the work of God, whether promised or fulfilled. The Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 are the Life of God flowing from our hearts in abundance. The forces of life and power coming out of our hearts will be in direct proportion to the amount of Word (the Bible) that goes into us. God communicates with us through our spirits (Romans 8:16-17; John 4:23-24). The spirit confirms that we belong to God (John 14:20) and opens or understanding of spiritual things teaching and instructing us (1 Corinthians 2:14-15). When we walk in the Spirit, we allow Him to rule our minds...

"The Fruit of the Holy Spirit – Joy?" The " fruit ofthe Spirit " is what happens when the Holy Spirit indwells a believer. The "fruit" is the product of the Holy Spirit's cultivation of character in a heart.  Galatians 5:22-23  describes what that fruit looks like; the second characteristic listed is joy. The Greek word for  joy  is  chara . Joy is the natural reaction to the work of God, whether promised or fulfilled. Joy expresses God's kingdom—His influence on earth ( Romans 14:17 ). The Spirit’s production of joy can manifest in several different ways: Chara  is closely related to  charis , which means “grace” or “a gift.”  Chara  is the normal response to  charis —we have joy because of God's grace. The next step in the progression is to allow our joy to become an action as we express it, although sometimes joy can be so great it is inexpressible ( 1 Peter 1:8 ). Possessing joy is a choice. We choose whether to val...