Fruit
When living in a foreign country you quickly learn that there is more fruit, we can eat than apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, and pineapple. When living in Iran you would learn to eat, pomegranates, dates, loquats, and persimmons. In Kenya you would learn to eat passion fruit, mangoes, papaya, jack fruit and dragon fruit. If you lived in southeast Asia, you would have grown up eating durian fruit. If you visit southeast Asia, you may be tempted to try the fruit, but the smell is so awful they forbid the fruit to be taken inside most public spaces. The smell of durian fruit is that of limburger cheese on steroids. My mother loved limburger cheese. When she ate it, I left the house for hours.
Countries are known for their certain fruits. Christians are known for the fruit they produce in their lives. One of the characteristics of a Christian is they produce certain types of fruit. Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are listed as fruits of the Holy Spirit. Those fruits are what identifies someone to be a follower of Jesus. You don’t find these fruits among those who lack the Holy Spirit. What is amazing is that ALL those fruits are being produced from just one tree, the Spirit filled Christian. Meditate on that for a moment.
“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” Matthew 7:16 NIV
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