since you asked
My buddy asked about a subject I get to frequently. I wanted to put it here as well.
It is all about abiding.
Now here’s what I need: Your comments on “root vs. fruit” sins- pride & idolatry, I believe, were those you called “root” sins.
I like the thoughts, and have referred to them. Now I need to flesh them out (no pun intended).
I use root and fruit in nearly every counseling session.
I was close, but not quite there. Pride and idolatry are in the root system--under the surface, but the tap root to beat all tap roots is belief/misbelief. Faith alone!
Example:
It is all about abiding.
Now here’s what I need: Your comments on “root vs. fruit” sins- pride & idolatry, I believe, were those you called “root” sins.
I like the thoughts, and have referred to them. Now I need to flesh them out (no pun intended).
I use root and fruit in nearly every counseling session.
I was close, but not quite there. Pride and idolatry are in the root system--under the surface, but the tap root to beat all tap roots is belief/misbelief. Faith alone!
Example:
- Faith root: I don't believe what God really says about me. I don't believe he is trustworthy. I don't believe the Gospel. I believe the enemy's questions "Did God really say? How could he love you?" more than the Father's promises "I will never leave you, I baptize you, I forgive you, I love you, given and shed for you..."
- This feeds a self-oriented "I am the authority of my life--I am the Lord" kind of idolatry. Our creed is, "I believe I am the creator of my life--I hold my destiny in my hand, I believe that what I do (my performance) will identify who I am. I can fix myself." The problem is not unbelief, but total misbelief. PRIDE!
- This feeds living a lie. It manifests in fantasy, libertinism, legalism.
- This manifests in porno/masturbation, work addiction, substance addiction, intimacy addiction, video game addiction, pick your favorite.
- The problem in the church is that we focus on the fruit and fruit pruning (sin management), and don't deal with the real problem (misbelief). I now appreciate focusing on fruit for a minute, for the sake of following it down the tree to where it is coming from.
- Accountability is helpful (needful even), but it is just pruning. Only confession can kill, and absolution make alive. My true identity needs to be fed by dying and rising in Jesus daily. Out of all the last will & testaments Jesus could have left, I think its important that he left food--bread and wine--his presence. Everyone is hungry, the question is what are you being fed? When I hear and believe that God is "for me" in Jesus, and has given the Holy Spirit to fill and re-fill me, I am abiding in him, and he in me, and the fruit that bears is pleasant.
Comments
In considering "roots & fruits", I was mulling over which of the 10 commandments were applicable in the discussion. Are some dealing with roots and others with fruits? As I was considering the commandment as written in Exodus 20:8-11:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
This commandment starts with "Remember". It is the only one that starts with "Remember". As I pondered on it and "roots & fruits" I was reminded me of Psalm 1:
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
"Remember the Sabbath". I heard one person translate "Sabbath" as "Stop Day". When we don't remember the "Stop Day". When we don't remember that we are fragile and need to STOP. When we don't remember that we need to STOP, that we need to SABBATH, we become more like the "chaff the wind drives away" than "like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers."