RTW 2023

Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’

Luke 13:7

God’s thoughts on barrenness.

• God expects fruit.
• God expects the right kind of fruit. (An apple tree true won’t yield oranges.)
• God knows that fruit production takes time. (Sanctification is a process.)
• God knows that fruit trees need to be cared and nurtured.
• God knows when it is time cast down an unyielding tree.

This is the fruit God is looking for:

• But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law that can bring a charge].
  Galatians 5:22-23 (AMPC)

William Barclay drew several wise points of application from this:

• Uselessness invites disaster.
• If something only takes, it cannot survive.
• God gives second chances.
• There is a final chance.

The world is living on borrowed time. Jesus will return.

• Am I just taking up space in the God’s Garden?
• Don’t be spiritually barren.
• Is it possible to be truly saved and spiritually barren?

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About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple.
Luke 13:1

I wanted to know about these murders. This is what I found out from Enduringword.org:

We don’t have a record in secular history about the specific incident mentioned here. According to Barclay, there is a similar incident before the ministry of Jesus. Pilate wanted to build an aqueduct from the Pools of Solomon to the city of Jerusalem. To pay for it, he demanded money from the temple treasury, money that had been dedicated to God – and this outraged the priests and the people. When the Jews sent a delegation to beg for their money back, Pilate sent into the crowd soldiers dressed as common people, and at a certain signal they took out daggers and attacked the people asking for the money.

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Produce fruit, good fruit. Fruit that nourishes others and delights the Father.