Love (Organic Christianity - The Spirit Cultivated Life)

    Going organic.  It's an idea that has captured the attention of many.  Some scoff at it.  Others are willing to go out of their way and expend a little more in order to incorporate it into their way of living.  For them the process is more valuable than the processed.

    This week Pastor Jon begins our series on Organic Christianity - the Spirit Cultivated Life. 

    This is not about another brand to chose from among many competitive options for discriminating consumers in God's supermarket of products, but rather a look at the very heart of how God's Spirit cultivates the soil of our lives, and grows us into the kind of people God dreams for us to be.

    It is not the work of great Christian marketing and packaging, but that of real organic gardening. 

    It is not something that is about manufacturing products to sell, but one that cultivates the kind of life that results in fruit to share.

    If you would like to listen again (or perhaps for the first time) to Pastor Jon's first sermon in this series, click here.

Parallel Organic Gardening Passage

John 15 (TNIV)

   1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me

    5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

    9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other. . .

    26"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

Galatians 5:16-20 (TNIV)

 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever  you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

What God Grows . . .

Questions to reflect upon:

    Do you find a difference between (1) focusing on the list of "the fruits of the Spirit" and (2) the kind of life and growing conditions out of which fruit naturally grows?

    As you think about the first fruit on the list (Love), are you thinking about something that is more a noun or a verb?  Why would that matter?

    Reflect on these passages that talk about Love:

• John 3:16-17

• 1 John 4:8

• 1 John 4:16

• 1 Corinthians 1:1-8

• Philippians 1:6

What insights / perspectives to you find here?

What is it like to experience the life of the Spirit within me?

"In a moment of naked honesty, ask yourself, 'Do I wholeheartedly trust that God likes me?'(Not loves me, because theologically God can't do otherwise.)  'And do I trust that God likes me, not after I clean up my act and eliminate every trace of sin, selfishness, dishonesty, and degraded love; not after I develop a disciplined prayer life and spend ten years in Calcutta with Mother Teresa's missionaries; but in this moment, right now, with here, with all my faults and weaknesses?'  If you answer without hesitation, 'Oh yes, God does like me; in fact, he's very fond of me,' you're living in the wisdom of accepted tenderness."  - Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Accepted Tenderness.  (HarperSanFrancisco:  HarperSan Francisco, 2002) 17.

An Ancient Gardening Song

Psalm 1 (TNIV)

    1 Blessed is the man

       who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

       or stand in the way of sinners

       or sit in the seat of mockers.

    2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

       and on his law he meditates day and night.

    3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

       which yields its fruit in season

       and whose leaf does not wither.

       Whatever he does prospers.

    4 Not so the wicked!

       They are like chaff

       that the wind blows away.

    5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

       nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

    6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,

       but the way of the wicked will perish.

19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

    22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.