: Joseph Hutchison
: Nine Fruits of the Vine and Five Little Foxes Short Christian Essays that Feed the Soul
: BookBaby
: 9781667889696
: 1
: CHF 10.40
:
: Philosophie, Religion
: English
: 174
: kein Kopierschutz
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
The first section of this book is made up of nine chapters - the Nine Fruits of the Vine. You will recognize them by name as the Fruits of the Spirit in the Bible: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These fruits have everything to do with the soul. Over time, even a lifetime, these fruits of the vine find their way to everything we are and everything we do. The second section is made up of five chapters - the Five Little Foxes. These are the little varmints that impede and upend the good in life - the good that we could be to God, to others, and to ourselves. These little foxes have everything to do with the heart. The foxes will scamper out of the heart when the soul is nourished and healthy.

1

Love

Fruit of the Vine

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor asyourself.

Jesus the Christ, the Lover of Our Soul (Luke 10:27)

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of thesoul.

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa (354–430 A.D.)

The Love of God is a fruit we must pluck from the vine. It is the greatest of all the Fruits of the Spirit. The Love of God is relationship driven. When we love God, we get much from our relationship with Him: security, belonging, purpose, comfort, and assurance, to mention a few of His blessings. We also have responsibilities when we’re in love with God – not unlike our relationships with people – such as honoring moral and ethical commitments and trying to meet expectations. In the Book of John, Jesus speaks of our role when it comes to love in a spiritual context. He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” This does not mean God expects us to be perfect or anything near it. That is unachievable. It means we are trying to be what we should be and who God wants us to be because we are in love withHim.

Marriage and the Love of God

The love between husband and wife is one of the ways we learn something about the Love of God. Marriage is not a 50-50 proposition. Marriage is not about percentages. It is about wholeheartedly giving ourselves to another person and that person giving themselves in the same way to us, if the marriage is what it should be. There is no scorekeeping. God certainly gives us more than we give Him. But we also should give Him a good part of ourselves. Hopefully, more than less. We give and take, but we never keep score withGod.

We give of ourselves with the expectation that we will receive, but we also accept what God gives us in the end. We should never think, God I’ve done this for you, so I expect you to do this for me. Many have learned in matters of romance that gifts will not earn the love the giver expects if the recipient does not have feelings of love with or without the gift; beautiful watches or diamond necklaces are only tokens of love that can neither force nor earn love. In romance, real love is not earned. It is the same way with God. We do not earn His love; He gives His love. God does not earn our love; we give our love. We love God because we love Him, not because of what He does for us or what we do for Him. We do because we love. God does because He loves. In Scripture, we are the Bride of Christ. We love God in somewhat the same way we fall in love with someone and then want to marry them. We vow to love and cherish the person we love and wed. And think of it, all these nuptial promises without the officiate handing off a scorecard.

The Love of God and the Soul

As noted, the marriage relationship is a