Good morning, Samara.
I woke to about an inch of snow on the ground—and it’s snowing right now. I hope I can make it out to your dad’s shop today to pick up some sign printing he did for me.
This is kind of a special morning in other ways. We just gave a response of YES to an invitation we received just last Friday to fill in for 3 months in Vanuatu—March through May—covering a school term at JBI (Joy Bible Institute) in the capitol of Port Vila. Not sure how everything is going to play out, but here we go!—another round of adventure!
You don’t have to go to Vanuatu to engage in adventure. Just living to please God everyday is an adventure. Please hang in there, Samara, and keep it up—and see where it takes you. GUARANTEE: IT WILL GROW A TREE OF LIFE!
Blessings on your day.
Love, Tua.
We are returning here to the ideas of CAUSE AND EFFECT and SOWING AND REAPING. It only makes sense that every person who lives is a CAUSE that produces EFFECTS. Furthermore, every person is a SOWER that produces FRUIT. So the person who uses sound judgment as demonstrated by seeking God with a heart-level desire to be RIGHT before Him (That’s what righteousness is, you know)—that person will be on a course of developing a LIFE that produces the God-pleasing FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT (Galatians 5:24ff) that progresses onward and upward to ETERNAL LIFE.
Just to make sure we understand how important is “The fruit of the righteous,” we should also understand how dismal is the fruit of the unrighteous. To get an earful on that, please read Galatians 5:19-21. It’s not pretty.
“He who wins souls is wise.” My own view is that there is something automatic here. That is, if a person honestly and sincerely chooses to seek God, love Him, and please Him, that is the clear demonstration of WISDOM. And that kind of WISDOM wins souls—without necessarily trying to—just like the words of Jesus we read yesterday says—giving support to the old proverb that ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. This kind of WISDOM is LIGHT that cannot be hid. So, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
Make no mistake about it, Samara—that is the main reason you are here.