A Verse and a Thought

[scrivener]

A place to put a daily verse and a quick thought about that verse. Is it a verse that popped into your head sometime today? Is it the verse you're currently memorizing? Did it show up in your devotional? Or did you pay a visit to RandomBible.com to see what the random verse is?

I hit the random verse generator and got:

"For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous; But the way of the wicked shall perish." - Psalms 1:6

I've had problems with a passive-aggressive colleague at work and it has been a struggle to grit my teeth and stick to the high road. It is my professional (and personal, come to think of it) philosophy to keep to the high road, because I don't think anyone ever regrets it. But man...she takes some cheap shots at me sometimes, and it's all I can do not to fire back with some zinger that will put her in her place. So far, I have refrained. This is not to say she's wicked, but I believe a righteous man turns the other cheek, so I will continue to try!

[Pua'i]

Read a chapter of Psalms a day to get right with God,
read a chapter of Proverbs a day to get right with man.

As you wrote this post on the 22nd, how about turning back to Proverbs 22 and see what it says?

[scrivener]

I'm in Galatians for my reading. Today was Galatians 3, and these are the verses I marked.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. (Gal 3:24-25)

I've never read this in KJV; I like the schoolmaster metaphor. Nothing new or revealing in this chapter, except just the reminder that we are saved by grace and not by the law.

[scrivener]

Galatians 5 today. That's the Fruit of the Spirit chapter, and one of the easier to understand in this KJV translation. The question that occurred to me today was whether or not the tree knows if it bears good fruit. How is it supposed to know?

[scrivener]

I read Galatians 6 today, completing that book of the Bible. At first, when I read, "he that soweth of the flesh shall of the flesh reap," I thought, "Cool." I mean, I'm a pretty carnal guy, and pleasures of the flesh are most appealing to me. But then it occurred to me that Paul is referring back to the verses in chapter five, just before the fruits of the spirit. He says that the works of the flesh are uncleanness, fornication, lasciviousness, adultery, and a bunch of other stuff. Nothing in his list of works of the flesh is especially desirable.

I wonder if once the spirit lives in you, those works of the flesh lose their appeal. I mean, I can imagine that there are people who think adultery and lasciviousness are good fruit.

My other question is whether or not the tree is supposed to know what kind of fruit it is bearing. When Jesus cursed the fig tree, it wasn't really the fig tree's fault and I know we're not supposed to take that metaphor too far, but let's say the tree could have done something about its fruit. It would still have to know it was bearing bad fruit before it could do anything. How do we know that the fruit we bear is peace, joy, love, etc.?