Fruit on the Bottom

Yogurt is a favorite breakfast food for me. It’s not necessarily the taste of it, but the fruit on the bottom. I get disappointed when I accidentally purchase the wrong brand, and it’s already mixed up. That is my favorite part… digging that spoon to the bottom and bringing all those chunks of fruit to […]

Yogurt is a favorite breakfast food for me. It’s not necessarily the taste of it, but the fruit on the bottom. I get disappointed when I accidentally purchase the wrong brand, and it’s already mixed up. That is my favorite part… digging that spoon to the bottom and bringing all those chunks of fruit to the top. Then, I stir it up real good and watch that fruit change the entire color of the yogurt. I want to see the fruit and taste the fruit.
Blueberry and Blackberry are my favorites, because the color is so obvious. Tyler enjoys peach yogurt so I decided to try it. It is not nearly as much fun, because the color of the fruit simply blends into the white yogurt.
The most disappointing yogurt moment ever was when I bought a bunch of blueberry, but someone had snuck in a plain vanilla. I didn’t realize it, but when I peeled the top back, dug that spoon into the bottom and brought it to the top of the container – THERE WAS NOTHING. I dug some more…still nothing. I looked at the label to see what the problem was, and then it hit me. It was vanilla. Vanilla doesn’t have fruit chunks. It doesn’t have a different color. Vanilla is just there.
Christians are to be full of fruit, God’s fruit. He wants to continue molding us to be even more like Him. When He digs into our hearts, He expects to see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. His desire for us is to pull out a bunch of awesomeness, awesome God-filled fruit. Not to be stuck on the bottom or hidden inside, but to be made known.
“In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world–just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” (Col 1:6-14 NIV)

Kidmin 101

This past Sunday night, I shared five core values that our Children’s Ministry is founded on. These values are what helps keep each event, activity, and class in line with our overall mission. The core values are: 1. Know: Our children will learn to know God and the...

Faith On a Shelf

I have this hat that my dad brought back to me from a business trip to Atlanta when I was 9 or 10 years old. You can see that I’ve worn it a lot. In fact, I wore it to just about everywhere I went during the summer when I was a kid. Church camps, grandparents’ house,...

“Jesus Loves Me”

After being led in this song by two of our young men Sunday night, I was reminded of a quotation from Karl Barth. On April 23, 1962, Karl Barth (the renown 20th Century Swiss-German, neo-orthodox theologian) spoke at Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University...

That’s Not a Candle

Several years ago, there was story shared about a woman from Connecticut whose power had gone out during a storm. She left her house to go to a local hardware store to purchase some flashlights, but the store was closed. She returned home and found what she thought...

The Post-Christian Problem

I attended the New Day Conference in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at the end of last week with a small group from Riverchase. It was a good conference and I left encouraged about the opportunities we have to fulfill the call of Christ to make disciples. On Friday evening,...

Josiah’s Reform

In the thirty-one years of his rule, King Josiah proved to be a faithful man of God and a great king of Judah. He served God from the beginning as a young king and grew into a greater understanding of God’s will and a determination to follow that will. He made a...

You Are What You Eat

You Are What You Eat You’ve heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” Simply defined, it means that you should eat healthy if you want to be healthy. This phrase can trace its roots back to the early 1800’s. It came from the 1826 work The Physiology of Taste, in which...

It Is Well

Above the piano in our house is a large wood sign with the phrase, “it is well with my soul” on it. Kimberly and I purchased it during a season of our life together where we were not completely sure what the future had in store for our little family. Since then, the...

Do Over

  I messed up on recording my recent radio programs. The sound quality was so bad Mark could not run them on the air. So, I deleted them and recorded them again.   I sure wish I could do that in real life with all the other mistakes I make. Just delete them...

Don’t Believe Your Preacher

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. (2 John 1:9 ESV) Here is the test. The “teaching of Christ” is, of course, the very word of God. So, if your...