Fruit

Jesus said this recently in Sunday worship:

You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.  John 15:16-17

Three things hit me in this passage. You may find your own insights.

First, Jesus chooses us. I don't know about you, but on many days, I would not choose either of us. We can be selfish, preoccupied, and unreliable. Yet, the truth is, we are choose-able. As is.

Second, our job is to bear lasting fruit. We are to leave behind a yummy life for others as well as ourselves. God wants the world renewed to its Garden of Eden (or New Jerusalem) form. This takes a little sacrifice on our part and a lot of God. But God is up to it. Are we?

Lastly, Jesus wants us to serve each other; to lay down our lives for each other and so become channels of the great fruit God wants to grow in our lives.

How is your fruit crop? What can you do today to make it better, to let God work in and through you?