Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Flowers or Fruit - #8280

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

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The pear trees around our Ministry Headquarters really show off in the Spring! They’re covered with these beautiful white flowers. It’s like an explosion of life and color, but there’s an ugly little secret about those pear trees. They’re called ornamental. They don’t produce any pears, just pretty flowers—like lots of people at church every week.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft. You know, Jesus told a story about a farmer who was looking for figs, not pears, on his trees. But he was very disappointed with one of his fig trees. The Bible says, “He went to look for fruit on it and did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’” (Luke 13:6-7 ).

Honestly, there’s a picture here of some of the folks who go to all the Christian meetings, believe the Christian beliefs and call themselves a Christian. They’ve got a lot of Christianity–they’ve got the flowers–but somehow they’ve missed Christ. It’s possible to have all the outside trappings of knowing Jesus but be all flowers and no fruit; playing the role but missing the reality. That’s why God says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5 ). Jesus said there will be those who come to Him on Judgment Day with their great Christian resumé, only to hear Him say, “I never knew you. Depart from Me.”

This would be a good day to “see whether you are in the faith” to move from believing things about Jesus to really belonging to Him. We’d love to encourage you in that direction with our website. So many people have found help there in being sure they belong to Him. It’s ALifeThatMatters.org.

This radio program references: Luke 13:6-7 ; 2 Corinthians 13:5