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Written by Kim Solis, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Oregon

As I sit at my desk in Keizer, Oregon, looking out at the barren winter landscape, contemplating this blog post on the process of bearing fruit, I am munching on a special treat produced by bushes in my own back yard: frozen blueberries - sweet and satisfying, a reminder of the abundant late summer harvest. It’s funny, I am a terrible gardener, yet these bushes produce the most delicious berries. Why? I know there are external factors that affect plant growth — rain levels, sun, temperatures— but I also know that I haven’t done anything to control those factors except turn on the sprinkler system so they would survive in the summer heat. My bushes bear fruit simply because it’s what healthy blueberry bushes do.

When I apply this to my own process of bearing fruit, I am struck by two thoughts and verses.

1. Our theme verse for this year

John 15:8 says that when we bear fruit, we are giving glory to God and showing ourselves to be His disciples.

I would not know what kind of bushes were in my yard if not for the fruit they bear. One year, I cut them back too much for the winter, and they didn’t produce any fruit the next summer. I thought I had killed them, but thankfully, the year after that, they produced even more abundantly than ever, and the berries were even larger and sweeter than before. That is a whole other analogy to draw from, but the point is clear – fruit lets us know the kind of plant and the state of its health.

I invite you to analyze just what kind of fruit you are producing and what it says about your relationship with God. Can people tell you are a disciple by your fruit?

2. The Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13

When I moved into this house nearly four years ago, there were also two empty garden beds waiting for seed to be sown. I have tried corn, squash, tomatoes, peppers, and now blackberries and raspberries. I have seen plants grow and wither, weeds sprout and flourish, crops sickly and abundant, and the words of the parable have become images in my mind, proven by my own garden. Some seeds bear fruit, and some do not.

While the fate of my harvest has largely been due to my diligence or lack thereof, 1 Corinthians 3:7 makes it clear that, when speaking of spiritual fruit, “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (ESV).

So, if I do not actually control the growth, what then is my role in the production of fruit for the Kingdom?

I am simply the sower, scattering seed as I go along my way… as I go to school, as I go to work, as I interact with those around me. Like a dandelion head, white and fuzzy, caught by a breeze.

Seeds are simply the product of the fruit that already exists; the part that is dispersed in hopes it will take root and bring forth another plant. When the Word of God takes root in our hearts, it produces the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and when this fruit matures, it overflows into the lives of those around us through our Christ-like actions, sowing itself in the soil of their hearts. Our fruit is not our zeal, our obedience, our sinlessness, or our knowledge, but rather the way we act and interact with others.

What fruit is evident in your life, words, and actions?

What seeds are you sowing in the hearts of those around you?

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Written by Jocelynn Goff, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries

“Lead Me to Some Soul Today” is a song I grew up singing at church. I can still hear the Downtown church of Christ in Kansas City, MO, back in the mid 1960’s singing this. We started meeting in an old grocery store on a neighborhood street. We would sing this song, pray for souls, and then go door to door, inviting them to come to church, asking if they’d like a personal Bible study, and what needs they had. I remember many being curious at first, and after seeing the truth, they committed to become a Christian.

This is having the same heart as God and partnering with Him in His desire as we see in 1 Timothy 2:3b-4 “…God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (NIV). It was also the apostle Paul’s desire, as we see in Romans 10:1, “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” This was important to God and to the apostle Paul, so it should be our prayer as well.

Then the question is, how do we accomplish this? Prayer is first, and then a realization that there are many ways to be a witness for Christ living in us. A personal example of this is with our neighbor, Jackie.

Jackie lived across the street from us in Baton Rouge, LA. Shortly after we moved into our house, I went across the street to meet our neighbor and invite her to the neighborhood ladies’ Bible study on Thursdays. She blew cigarette smoke in my face and said she wasn’t interested. She said to come back when school started, as her son would be at school and she’d have more time. I thought she was the most disinterested person I’d ever met. However, I dutifully went each of the next several years at the beginning of the school year. Each time, she blew cigarette smoke in my face and found different excuses. The next year, I decided I was not a glutton for punishment (I have a strong dislike for cigarette smoke), and besides, she wasn’t interested. I had given up on her and started praying for another neighbor.

However, that was the year she came to my house! She asked me if we still had the neighborhood ladies’ Bible study. I replied yes, and then she ran back home. The next day she came back and said she’d like to know more about where I go to church, but not right then. We arranged for her to come back the next day and we’d have a conversation. Prayers covered this unexpected openness. The next morning came, and we sat at the kitchen table. I had just taken a sip of iced tea and was opening my mouth to begin speaking when in the door came some friends from church who said, “Hi, I’m hungry. Feed me.”

It was our friend Edith with her 2-year-old son, and a screaming baby, along with an engaged couple. Edith was our Puerto Rican friend who, along with her husband, we’d studied the Bible with a year earlier. As part of the Kingdom relationship, our families shared dinner every Monday night as we prayed together, continued Bible study, and twice took our two families on summer vacations together. I was glad to see Edith, but this was bad timing in my opinion. My thought was, “God, do You know what You’re doing? My neighbor was finally interested, and here you have our friends troop in for a meal.” I offered different sandwich choices and whispered to Edith, “I’m trying to study the Bible with my neighbor. Can you take the sandwiches and leave soon?” They did leave soon, but so did Jackie. I thought this was a failure. However, as Isaiah 55:8 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”

I thought Jackie was not interested when, in fact, she was very open and searching. She had applied for numerous Bible correspondence courses. Also, unknown to me, she and her family had frequently observed us from their kitchen window. They saw us leave for church, have brothers and sisters over for dinner, and host volleyball games. They saw the Kingdom in action when our house flooded. Then that day when we were supposed to have our first Bible study, she witnessed the relationships in Christ in each others’ homes. She admitted she’d never experienced anything like the family of God living in relationship with Him and each other. She was hungry to know more and know Him. We studied further, and she did become a Christian. Yes, it started with knocking on her door, but it was so much more because of living out faith in front of her.

Are you prayerfully living out the song, “Lead Me to Some Soul Today,” and seeking to have the same desire as God and Paul to have all people come to know the truth? May God bless all of us as we remain in Him to bear fruit.