The taste of summer--a tomato picked off the vine, maybe a sprinkle of salt, maybe not, straight into my mouth, still warm from the sun. In pursuit of this taste of summer I buy tomato plants every summer, hoping to grow that perfect tomato. I usually wind up with two or three very expensive tomatoes, the results of that investment. This summer though I have had more than two or three, with more than that almost ready to pick.
Two of my tomato plants look pretty ordinary, but they are producing. The third though looks spectacular, thick and bushy and almost six feet high. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it! There's only one problem--there has not been a single blossom, not a single tomato, all summer. No fruit at all.
As I've watched that tomato plant I've remembered a song that my junior Sunday school teacher, Miss Dottie, made me and my fellow students at Calvary Baptist Church in Wheaton memorize and sing every Sunday. It was called "Nothing but Leaves".
The Master is seeking a harvest in lives He's redeemed by His blood;
He seeks for the fruit of the Spirit And works that will glorify God.
He looks for His likeness reflected in lives that are yielded and true;
He's looking for zeal in the winning of souls He's entrusted to you.
Nothing but leaves for the Master
Oh how His loving heart grieves when instead of the fruit He is seeking,
We offer Him nothing but leaves.
The song is referring back to the story found in the Gospels, Matthew 21 and Mark 11. Jesus and His disciples were on their way to Jerusalem. Jesus was hungry and saw a fig tree growing ahead next to the road. He examined the tree, looking for fruit to satisfy His hunger, but but found nothing. I never understood His next actions, since Scripture says it was not the season for fruit. Jesus searched for fruit, found none, so cursed the tree, saying it would never bear fruit again. The tree withered, then died. I have learned that even though it was not the season for figs, often there would be figs hidden within the green leaves, after most of the figs were gone. Jesus was giving His disciples and us a picture, a picture of fruitlessness.
Let's look at the two kinds of fruit that Christians are expected to produce in their lives. Could we be considered fruitless? The first fruit is the fruit of the Spirit, described in Galatians 5:22 and 23. "The fruit of the the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self control." The song describes this as "His likeness reflected." I found this question in a discussion about the song. "What aspect of the fruit of the Spirit do you have most trouble producing?" I didn't have to think very long before I could answer this question. I suspect you don't have trouble identifying your elusive characteristic.
The other kind of fruit is found in our influence on other people's lives, perhaps in leading them to salvation or perhaps in encouraging growth. John 15:13 commands us to love one another, just as He loves us. We could change our worlds with that kind of fruit.
In verses two and three of John fifteen Jesus tells us that the Father prunes the vine (us) so that we will bring forth fruit. He has to cut out what prevents us from being fruitful. We only bear fruit when we are attached to the vine. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." Most of the time that pruning is painful since something must be cut out. I have tried to prune my tomato plant, hoping to make it fruitful, but I don't have the wisdom of a master gardener like the Father. My tomato is still not producing.
So, do you want to be the tomato plant with lots of leaves and no tomatoes? Or do you want to have abundant fruit, both in the Fruit of the Spirit and in the lives of others? Do you want the best possible harvest? Abide in Him. Choose an abundant harvest.
~~Faith Himes Lamb
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