Are you noticing a theme beginning to develop in this Fruit of the Spirit series?  You can’t miss it: Every fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) find their source and origin in our Creator Redeemer God.  It should be obvious.  These realities are fruit of the Spirit!  

And you know what – this is a relief!  To generate these qualities ourselves and in our own power/ability leads to an exhausting pursuit, one that leads to failure after failure.  We simply need to receive these things in the name of Jesus as God’s good gifts to us.  Then we simply live out what God has given us.  In Jesus name, we are made good.  And out of God’s goodness we live into the Fruit of the Spirit.

I said ‘simply’ but it isn’t a simple, easy thing to do.  Why?  Because there is another reality – a reality of sin and selfishness that fights daily against these things.  Consider some of the things we have been exploring: impermanence, self-help, self-sufficiency, productivity, and fragmentation. These realities often war with faithfulness, goodness, kindness, patience, and peace.  

This week, we will explore the fruit of Gentleness.  Title for the message this Sunday: Cultivating Gentleness in the Midst of Aggression.  One of our texts for Sunday’s message is from James 1:19-21.  A closely related word to gentleness is meekness.  This leads me to Jesus words from the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  God’s Kingdom is often the opposite of the world’s kingdom when it comes to things like power and position.  The fruit of the Spirit of gentleness will quickly bring us to the notion of humility.  

See you Sunday,  

Pastor Mark