Fruitful Religion

January 24, 2026January 23, 2026Todd R Leave a comment

Before Jesus began His public ministry, John the Baptist announced Jesus’ coming and prepared people for His message. This, of course, generated opposition, and when the Pharisees and Sadducees came out to confront John, he told them to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance…Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”[1]

Since Pharisees and Sadducees were often hypocrites, this is usually interpreted as John telling them to practice good works that flow from an inner righteousness, instead of keeping up a merely external appearance of following God. I agree this is a correct interpretation, but I also think there is more than that to the fruit that John spoke of.

Paul wrote in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Could this also be part of the fruit John wanted his opposition to produce?

Perhaps John was telling the Pharisees and Sadducees that their religion didn’t produce “love, joy, peace”, and the other characteristics listed by Paul. Jesus pointed out the lack of love in the parable of the Good Samaritan, that the religious leaders of His time would rather leave a man dying on the side of the road than break what they saw as legal obligations. But did the Pharisees and others also lack joy and peace? Since they strived to obey God’s law perfectly (but only on the outside) they likely felt constant pressure to live up to God’s perfect standards, instead of peace with their Maker. Their relationships with others, who they saw as inferior to them, were distant and cold at best. “Against these things there is no law,” yet the Pharisees and Sadducees failed to practice them. They not only felt no joy or peace, but they also robbed others of their joy and peace by making them feel unworthy of God’s love. They showed no kindness or patience to others. They were not faithful to God by being gentle with people who were not like them. They did not “bear fruit in keeping with repentance,” as John the Baptist said.

It’s easy to judge the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, since Jesus clearly exposed their inadequacies. However, it’s a difficult challenge to ask ourselves: does our religion bear this fruit for us? Does our practice of Christianity result in not only loving actions toward our neighbors, but also “joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” for ourselves?

Do we experience joy and peace in our relationship with God, or do we feel grief that we can’t live up to His expectations and do we still feel like God is disappointed in us? Do we practice kindness and patience with others? Are we gentle with those enslaved by the brokenness that rules this world? Do we submit ourselves to the control of our God, who tells us to love Him and love our neighbor no matter what?

Fortunately for us, our salvation does not depend on our faithfulness, but on His faithfulness. As 1 John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We can never come to God too late or too often to ask for forgiveness and restoration. His love for His people is steadfast and His faithfulness is without end or limit. He is always willing to bring us back to the path that yields fruit for the Kingdom. Jesus on the cross purchased for us a way to bear fruit!

Therefore, pray that we can all “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” Fruit that brings us joy and peace, and that brings Him glory.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

[1] Matthew 5:8, 10

Cleaning the Conscience

January 23, 2026January 22, 2026Todd R 1 Comment

A great thing about Psalms is that they are written general enough to be used by different people in different ways. Psalm 19 makes a great prayer for anyone and is one of my favorite Psalms. In it, David writes about how creation proclaims the glory of God in ways that everyone everywhere can see and understand. This is what we’d call “general revelation.” Next David writes about the law of God, how it is “perfect,” “pure,” “true,” and several other things. This law also glorifies God, in what we’d call “special revelation,” or things revealed about God mostly through His word.

Then, after a brief interlude, the Psalm ends with verse 14, which says:

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”

What a closing to a prayer!

The Lord, as “my rock and my redeemer,” rules nature (the literal rocks, etc.) and His Word redeems His people. How can our “words” and “meditation” be acceptable to such a God? The answer is first, because He loves us enough to redeem us, and second, because He is transforming us into people who are like Him. In fact, the “interlude” I referred to before (verses 12 and 13) are David’s prayer that God would keep him from sin and make him acceptable in God’s sight. Those verses say:

“Who can discern his errors?
            Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
            let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
            and innocent of great transgression.

David first points out that we can’t find any errors in God, either in what’s revealed by nature or in His law, but on the other hand God knows all of our faults. David knows better than to ask God to show him all of his flaws – that may be overwhelming – but instead David asks for a clear conscience. To get there, David needs a solution for both his “presumptuous sins” – the outward actions that he’s probably aware of – and his “hidden faults” – the inner attitudes and sins that he may not be aware of. To be declared innocent and blameless by God requires being forgiven for sins that we don’t even know about!

Which brings us back to the final verse:

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”

In my reading of this, “the words of my mouth” correspond to the “presumptuous sins,” the sinful outer actions taken in defiance of God, and “the meditation of my heart” corresponds to David’s (and our) “hidden faults.” These sins may be secret to everyone but God but we may feel guilty about them anyway. When praying this prayer, David knows only God can cleanse him (or anyone) beyond just skin deep, and beyond skin deep is what we really need to deal with because Jesus told us “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.”[1] Only by healing the inside can we heal the outside. David asks for relief from guilt so he can live acceptably in both public and private ways, before both men and before God.

We all need routine cleaning of our inner self on a regular basis. A redirection of our conscience toward right and wrong as defined by God. If you feel in need of this, try praying Psalm 19 today.

[1] Matthew 7:17

Letting God Be Your Vision

January 22, 2026January 21, 2026Todd R 1 Comment

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.” – Ecclesiastes 5:1

When recently reading Ecclesiastes I was initially put off by the seeming harshness of this verse. What sort of sacrifice to God is foolish, or even evil? What is this verse of the Bible I believe in telling me to do, or not to do, and how does it point to Christ?

Then I was reminded of Micah 6:6-8:
“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

When Jesus said “it is finished” on the cross, He was saying His sacrifice is enough and it is all we need. We don’t go to church to negotiate with or bargain with God. We cannot impress God. We can offer nothing He does not already have and has not already provided. This is good news!

We only offer ourselves in worship. We “draw near to listen”, to know Him, and to follow Him. Take a listen to one of my favorite hymns today and just be available for whatever He has in store for you. He is enough for you, and for the world.

For God So Loved the World

January 17, 2026January 16, 2026Todd R Leave a comment

If you asked a random non-Christian to cite a Bible verse, not quote, but just cite a chapter and verse, there’s a good chance they’d say John 3:16. It’s as good a summary of the gospel as one verse can provide, and it’s one of the verses I’ve quoted the most on this blog. In response to a reader suggestion, I’ve figured out what Bible verses I’ve used the most and am writing a series about those verses. Today’s post is #3 of the series, covering the verse quoted the 3rd least out of the 10 most quoted:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Reading back over the posts where this verse has appeared, I see three ideas I tried to share: what God’s love means for us, what love has to do with “eternal life”, and what “world” God loves.

The first idea is that we would all be eternally lost if not for God’s love. Since we all fall short of God’s standards, what we deserve is to be banished from God’s presence forever. In His holiness, He can’t be near us, and in His justice, He must judge our sins. However, Romans 5:8 tells us: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Without God’s love we would always be sinners, but because of His love, we have a way back to a right relationship with our God. In one post here, I wrote “Christianity is not judgement, but the only way of escape from it.”

Second, what is this “eternal life” that we can have because God loves us? I’ve written that “If man had not rejected love, Christianity wouldn’t be necessary; but also, if Christianity does not restore mankind to agape love, it’s pointless.” When we are brought back into a right relationship with God, it puts us on an inevitable course toward a new world where we will all love perfectly, as Jesus loved perfectly. Unless heaven is going to be full of loving people, it’s not going to be the perfect place that God is preparing for us. So, “eternal life”, given to us because of God’s love, is our future, perfect selves living with God for eternity. The possibility of this is so amazing that God decided it was worth dying for!

Last, I’ve also written that “when I’m struggling to face the world as I see it, I ask about [John] 3:16, ‘Exactly which world did Jesus love enough to die for?’ The answer is this one. The world He died for is the one where sex, anger, bitter tribalism, and political partisanship sells. The one with a lot of sarcastic, angry, and bitter people. The one with a lot of people who are more like us than we’d usually like to admit.” God didn’t love a world full of His people because without His love, He would have no people. He loved a world full of sinners, as Romans 5:8 told us. If God had decided that this world was hopelessly lost, He wouldn’t have bothered to send Jesus to give it hope.

This is the same world that God calls us to love, and to bring hope in the name of Jesus. While we are in this world, God is already making us like Him, more loving, and in sharing that love with others we share a hope in a world where love is all there is.

So, remember, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Compassion for the Harassed and Helpless

January 15, 2026January 11, 2026Todd R 3 Comments

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” – Matthew 9:35-36

Jesus lived under the greatest empire the world had yet seen, and in a deeply religious Jewish culture developed over centuries. The people had powerful leaders, both political and religious. Why then were the people seemingly without a shepherd to lead them?

The Roman Empire touted widespread peace and prosperity due to the Caesars and their government. But the people still had many unsolved problems and no hope. “Throughout all the cities and villages” were diseased, afflicted and helpless people, and Jesus could help them all in ways the Romans could not or would not.

The Jewish Pharisees, jealous of Jesus’ ability to solve problems they could not, claimed “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.” They rightly described His power as supernatural, but they called it evil. Even as He was performing life-saving miracles, they could not tolerate Him as a rival, and so rejected the people’s only hope.

So, the people remained “harassed and helpless,” not knowing who to trust.

Is your culture also faithless? Your workplace? Your community or household? Jesus encouraged His disciples to see rampant lack of faith as an opportunity to show the crowds the compassion of Jesus: “Then He said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” – Matthew 9:37-38

Today, pray for workers to bring in the harvest. Also, know that God might make you and I those workers. As in Jesus’ day, it is up to individual disciples to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom – through compassionate action and often in spite of what those in charge of other kingdoms might prefer. Harassed and helpless sheep can be frustrating and difficult, but only humble disciples know the problems on the streets of their cities and villages best.

Pray for the compassion of our Great Shepherd who can work miracles. Is there a need He can meet through you today?

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