Saturday, October 01, 2022

October 1, 2022 … Watch For the Fruit …

Berry Patch Devotions in 2021 - Day 274 


Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...  Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from tom CJ and Friends singing … I Wanna Bear Fruit … joyfully singing of how we Christians should want to bear God’s fruit of the Spirit for all to see God’s character in the way we live.   


Watch out for wolves in sheep's clothing ... 

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Highlight Passage: … Matthew 7:16  [ESV] …  

16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. 

… Jesus shows that true believers in Him will show themselves by their actions.                                   

Highlight Passage (Context): …  Matthew 7:15-20 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus teaches on seeing Christlike fruit in those who truly follow Jesus                                     

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Reference Passage: … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… if we trust in the Lord and lean not on our own feelings, God’s Spirit will lead us in the way we should go.              


Reference Passage: … John 15:1-4 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus teaches His disciples that we will be fruitful in life ONLY IF we abide in Him.  


Reference Passage: …  Ephesians 5:8-9 [ESV] …  

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!  For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. 

… Paul shows how Christians no longer live in the darkness but, being born-again, now follow the Light of Christ.   


Reference Passage: …  Galatians 5:22-23 [ESV] …  

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!  

… Paul teaches the characteristics of Christlikeness - i.e., the “fruit of the Spirit,” which we will see in true, born-again, Christians. 


Reference Passage: … Jude 17-19 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus’ brother Jude teaches truth about false teachers who cause division in the body of Christ and how Christians should avoid following their ways.    

                                                                                

My Devotional JournalToday's Our Daily Bread author, John Blasé … AT THIS LINK  tells of the once popular TV game show, To Tell the Truth, where contestants tried to guess who the true personality was by asking questions of three persons, two of whom were trying to fool the TV host contestants.               


In real life it can be difficult at times to discern the “real-deal,” honest and upright, people from those who are often living like “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (see photo).  But Jesus and His disciples (see Scriptures above), taught that we should be able to discern real - born-again - believers and followers of Christ by their (our) character and actions. 


And the Apostle Paul listed many of those Christlike characteristics as the “Fruit of the Spirit,” … i.e., the behaviors and actions we will see in true, born-again disciples of Christ.  And right now I’m praying that all who’re reading here with me are seeing those fruit (see Galatians 5:22-23) growing and maturing in us as we abide in Christ today and tomorrow.                     


My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for helping Your fruit to grow in me day-by-day-by-day.     

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to do all we can to foster Your fruit, Lord, to grow and develop in us today and tomorrow.    .… Amen


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Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.

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