HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 56
page A54
Character continued
What does the Bible mean when it says my life is to produce “good fruit”?
• PSA L M 1 :3 | They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.
• I SA I A H 5 :4 | What more could I have done for my vineyard?
The Bible often uses metaphors of trees and vines to paint a picture of how people should
be useful and productive. As God’s follower you are to live a life that bears the healthy fruit
of righteousness, justice, kindness, love, and truth—all important and productive means
of growing God’s Kingdom on earth. These good deeds served to others will leave a
wonderful taste in their mouths for God and his way of living.
• MAT T H E W 1 3 :2 3 | “The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and
understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as
much as had been planted!” (See note on page 874.)
• L U K E 6 :4 4 -4 5 | “A tree is identified by its fruit. . . . A good person produces good things
from the treasury of a good heart.”
Just as an apple can look good on the outside but be full of worms, so the fruit God
desires in you is not the external appearance of goodness but the internal authenticity
of a heart that truly wants to love and serve him. Having false pretenses or pretending to
be spiritual shows a rotten core which cannot be productive. A good heart is the key to
producing good deeds.
C
PROMISES FROM GOD
• J A ME S 1 :4 | When your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete,
needing nothing.
HelpFinder
• 1 T I MOT H Y 4 :1 2 , 1 6 | Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live,
in your love, your faith, and your purity. . . . Stay true to what is right for the sake of your
own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
Choices See Decisions
Church See also Mercy & Grace; Presence Of God; Serving; Unity &
Teamwork; Worship
The church is often under criticism because it is made up of imperfect human beings.
But that’s just the point. God established the church as a place of community where both
believers in Jesus and nonbelievers are welcomed, where God’s truth is taught, and
where everyone can find support, encouragement, and unconditional love. Even though
Satan tries to attack the church, Jesus promises us that the church will not be overcome.
Despite what we hear on the news, the church is still God’s house: a place of community,
worship, and support for believers, a place to learn about who God is and how his followers can live out the principles of the Christian faith. God will always use the church
as his divine instrument to proclaim his message of salvation and to overcome evil
with good.
What is the purpose of the church? Do I really need the church?
• A C T S 2 :4 7 | And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
The church is a gathering place for those who are saved by faith in Christ.
• 1 C O R I NT H I A NS 3 :1 6 -1 7 | Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of
God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? . . . For God’s temple is holy, and you are that
temple.
The church is not the physical building, but the believers who gather inside it. Together,
with other Christians, you learn how, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to truly change for
good and influence others because of your changed life.