[ampaterry]

Yesterday, we spoke a bit about our diet, and talked about the experts who say we need to eat less meat and more fruit and vegetables. I disagreed with the experts on the ‘meat’ part of that advice, because we need MORE meat in our spiritual diet. Today, I am going to agree with them on part of their advice. We need more fruit in our spiritual diet!

Galatians 5:22-24 (KJV);
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Who can possibly argue against that kind of a diet? Every one of us has a period of indigestion when the love becomes a little cold, and we need to warm it up a bit by closer exposure to the Lord! A time when the joy becomes a little bitter, and needs to be refreshed from the bottomless kettle that Jesus Christ offers to us. Sometimes the peace becomes a bit of heartburn, and we need a soothing drought from the fountain of peace that springs from the Gospel. Of course, we all feel that our longsuffering needs no tune-up, I mean; we sure don’t want to practice that! But often our gentleness and goodness could use a bit of enhancement from walking in the way of the greatest commandments Jesus gave to us; Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, and Love thy neighbor as thyself. The last part of our Fruit diet is Faith. Sometimes it looses a bit of its flavor, and needs to be renewed.
I like to walk outside at night and look up at the stars spread across the sky. I think about the words of an SR71 pilot who turned off the interior lights on a moonless night at an altitude of 84,000 feet and observed the stars. He said just before he turned them back on to start his descent: “I stole one last glance out the window. Despite our speed, we seemed still before the heavens, humbled in the radiance of a much greater power.”
You can magnify the fruit of the spirit that dwells within you by observing the beauty of creation that is all around you -

May God bless each one of you, guys -