2,3 Mar -- Sudden vs Gradual Conversions
The readings for Fri 2 & Sat 3 March are -- Gen 19:23-21:21; Ps 7:1-8; Prov 1:28-31; Mt 7:13-8:4.
Have you been "converted"? If so, was your conversion like the little by little unfolding of a flower to the sun or more like a sudden leap to the breast of God? (Selwyn Hughes' poetic descriptions in today's devotion.) In other words (Hughes' again), did your conversion take place in a crisis or was it a slow dawning of the fact that you were no longer lost but found?
Leave a brief comment saying whether it was gradual or sudden. If you'd like to leave a longer comment and share how you became a Christian, please do. I'm sure other readers would find that helpful. For me it was gradual. I had a belief in God and an awareness of God from as early as I can remember. Loving Christian parents and a loving Church family were big factors. I was baptised when I was 13 as an outward expression of my faith. How about you?
In today's Matthew reading, Jesus said: "You'll recognize them by their fruit... A good tree can't produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit." Yet he goes on to say that there are some to whom he will announce "I never knew you" , even though they call him Lord, prophesy, drive out demons and perform miracles. Contradictory? Some do seem to produce good fruit for a while but are shown up to be false and living a lie in the long run. There can be an incongruence between the inward and the outward, at least for a time. This is the nature of hypocrisy. I should be quick to examine my own heart and slow to judge others (as in yesterday's reading from Matthew 7:1-5). Only the all-seeing, all-knowing God can see into the hearts of others. We can't.
The point of the parable that follows is often misrepresented (it seems to me). The point is not to build your life on the right foundation ie Jesus, the Rock (though, of course, that's a good thing to do). It's about hearing Jesus' words and acting on them. That's the wise thing to do. Since Jesus speaks the words of his Father, that equates to doing the Father's will (which is what Jesus had been talking about just before in Mt 7:21). Then again, maybe that equates to building your life on the Rock anyway!
posted by Ps John @ 10:51 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
I'd like to pick up on the fruit thing.
Jesus talks knowing a tree by it's fruit (7:15-20). The next passage (21-23) is entitled "Concerning Self-deception" in NRSV, but is about people who claim to be followers of Jesus because they performed certain miracles. I don't agree with the title that it's self-deception necessarily as if you can somehow accidently find yourself not in the kingdom of God. But do the two contradict then? Don't these acts count as fruit? Good fruit can't come from a bad tree, after all.
I think it corresponds to spiritual fruit and spiritual gifts. Reminds me of the arguments I used to have in aus.religion (Usenet newsgroup) with people who claimed the evidence of being a Christian was speaking in tongues. I've always argued that fruits of the spirit is better evidence, if you're going to have evidence at all (after all only God can judge), because they can't be counterfeited. This is why I think it matches with what Jesus says about good/bad trees. The fruits of the spirit talk about attitudes of the heart (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, etc), not performing miraculous works. They are less spectacular and harder to discern, but good fruit are the mark of a true Christian.
I actually read the Matthew passage on Saturday, so I guess people's reading order can vary. So I might as well comment on the becoming a Christian thing. Very similar to John, actually. Grew up in a Christian home, although in the early years we lived in country NSW and I missed out on Sunday School for quite a lot of that because they didn't have it. We would still get in to church regularly. I never doubted the existence of God, really, it was just a reality we lived with. At age 12 (July 1979, I believe) I made a public confession of my faith with a group of others from our youth group, by "confirmation of baptism" as was the tradition of my parents' denomination. Over the next few years I was challenged more by some Christian leaders around me and matured more. Etc, and here we are.
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