July 22, 2004
Sonshine Festival was fun.
Someone just commented on an earlier blog this week that a Sonshine person apologized from the stage about an act that played there that day. I don't know who it was. Maybe they passed gas into the microphone? Speculation is dumb.
I have gotten to the point on this issue where I'm stopping my ad sales push. I've scaled back the mag to 72 pages and moving ahead with writing. Maybe this weekend I'll have a chance to post my Sonshine Festival review. I had such a great time there. I missed my family, though; and my body wished I wasn't going without sleep that much. And I'm told I snored the first night. Now that is a drag.
Len Nash, who was named after Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Lenny Dawson (#16), was there. He loves indie bands.
"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."
I love that passage. It's so simple and it really helps me not to judge people -- or at least not judge them quickly or rashly or with great quickness. To examine fruit, you've got to wait like a farmer. Fruit is not actions, either. Does this passage say that a believer/follower of Christ will not sin? No, it doesn't. Failure, slip-ups, sin, etc is bound to happen because of our frail human-ness. Fruit is kind of the effect of the things we practice. If we practice sin -- then, yeah -- we will bear bad fruit. This message was delivered in the context of people falsely judging Jesus as some sort of sinner or evil person. It appears He tried to get his critics to think about this a little bit, rather than jump to an erroneous accusation.
I desire to practice more quietness and meditation on God's Word. I believe that is a practice that will bear good fruit.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at July 22, 2004 01:57 PM