There
is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear
has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in
love. (1 John 4:18 NIV).
Today
Pastor David spoke of the Fruit of the Spirit: But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians: 5-22-23 NIV).
Pastor David called this the Christian’s accountability passage.
He stressed that the fruit of the spirit is acquired though
cultivation over a period of time; full development is the result of
a learning process. That is, we must come to recognize two sides of
vulnerability: we are vulnerable to sin, but it is also possible to
be vulnerable to change brought about by learning. Pastor David
spoke of church members that out of fear are defensive and deny vulnerability to
sin and resist being vulnerable to positive change. The members are
like the hard-shelled candy Tootsie Pops—they are contrarian to the
Methodist motto: Open hearts, open minds, open doors.** Other
church members know that full development of the fruit of the spirit
is a learning process and that we must be vulnerable (amenable) to
change. Rather than hard-shell, these church members are like almond
candy kisses. They are filled with grace (the accessibility of milk
chocolate) yet posses the kernel and core of spirituality and faith
(the almond kernel) through cultivation and growth in the Holy
Spirit. Anyone with any experience in the world will recognize
immediately that this does not apply only to church goers. We have
all seen individuals at work or elsewhere as brittle as Tootsie Pops
or, like almond candy kisses, the embodiment of grace and truth.
Pastor
David gave us an assignment this week—to read every day Psalm 51.
Essential for spiritual accessibility and vulnerability to the Spirit
is 51:17—
The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will
not despise a broken and humbled heart. (Holman Christian Standard
Bible).
**
The Founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote the following:
I
observed, "Love is the fulfilling of the law, the end of the
commandment." It is not only "the first and great"
command, but all the commandments in one. "Whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, if there be any virtue, if there be
any praise," they are all comprised in this one word, love.
John
Wesley "The Circumcision of the Heart" (1 January 1733)
Pastor
David Miller’s sermon found here:
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