My friend Peter from North Carolina has a blog and one time I read an entry about how the kingdom of God, our Lord, is like a tree. (Peter also told me that he befriended me so he could be a character in one of my stories.) I think that is beautiful because trees are beautiful and if a tree had God in it it’d be really beautiful. Trees are beautiful. They grow in all sorts of ways to get the sunshine and capture the glorious sun. They distort and contort and are beautiful from every angle. They have different colors and leaves that fall sometimes and sometimes not.
It’s funny that he should say that because I think God likes trees a lot or something. Jesus loves botany. It’s everywhere in the Bible. Like here:
Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in YHWH, and whose trust is in YHWH. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.”
So that’s a beautiful verse and talks about what Peter talks about. Here is why it is beautiful: because it’s not me or my water. If it were up to me I would be screwed in the drought. Remember what Josh the Quarterback says: when you read the Bible always keep Jesus in mind. So that’s what I try to do. And in the context of this verse it’s like this: We are a like tree if we stay close, if we trust, in God. And if we stay by God in the desert-like times we don’t even have to worry. It will hurt and it will be hard but deep down inside of us the Spirit will say, “It’s going to be fine.” Jesus loves botany. Jesus wants us to be big tall trees that bear lots of fruit so that Daddy gets the glory.
John 15:4 says, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”
I like fruit. I like Jesus, too. And Jesus likes fruit. Here’s the beautiful part: if we aren’t in Jesus we can’t do anything. Isn’t that beautiful? I have to be reminded daily that it’s not me doing anything. It’s all Jesus. Literally, if Jesus weren’t Jesus we’d be nothing. Me and Josh the Quarterback talked about this yesterday, or two days ago I can’t remember. But Hebrews 1:3 says, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the Word of His power.” If Jesus weren’t holding everything up, it’d all fall apart. So on one level, we can’t do anything without Christ because if it were: World — Christ . . . the answer would = chaos. Hell.
In another sense, and I touched about this briefly in the last entry, it goes like this: if I do something out of my own, or for my own benefit, then it glorifies me. Even if I do a moral or ethical act, but have not Christ’s love, it is nothing. Like Paul said in his first letter to the Corinthians, “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrendered my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” Hunter! Pay attention bucko! Gosh that seems so obvious. If I do all this and all that for poor people but don’t do it for God’s glory, don’t do it with love, it is nothing! Nothing. nothing
Josh the Playwright is in the UK but before he went to the UK we went to mass together and I really like mass. It is such a good compliment to evangelical worship, and so very (obviously) different. One thing I really liked about it was how much scripture is read to you. There is a little sermon thingy but much of the mass is the Bible speaking for itself, and not that sermons or interpretations are bad or anything, but there’s something to say about just having the Bible read to you. Like for instance this problem right here, that we are talking about. If I do all this shit for the poor but don’t love Jesus, it’s nothing. Paul says that rather clearly and I don’t really have to sermonize anything for you to understand what he means.
My favorite book of the Bible is Hosea. You might know this already. I read Hosea over and over and over again. It’s so beautiful because Israel and Judah mess up and betray God and then He says He is angry but then all He does is love them. I identify with Israel because I realize that every day I betray God. I commit adultery every day, and I think adultery is a big deal: “If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” –Leviticus 20:10
God told Hosea that Israel was committing adultery in Hosea chapter one, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”
Crap, having read what was just said in Leviticus, what are the ramifications for those who commit “flagrant harlotry” . . . death if I read that verse right. Gulp . . .
Thank goodness for Jesus, because when we keep Him in mind we realize that He will always love us and come back to us. I will leave you with more botany, and keep Jesus in mind, and keep the fact that you and I are adulterers in mind (oh and really do think about Jesus because think about how prophetic this passage is):
“I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like the lily, and he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His shoots will sprout, and his beauty will be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. Those who live in his shadow will again raise grain, and they will blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress; from Me comes your fruit.” –Hosea 14:4-8
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