Hi Folks:

Thanks again for all of your encouraging remarks. It means so much that you find these letters helpful.

We are well. No sickness. Its a busy season with major events going every weekend until the end of May, but we are seeing fruit for our labour and that is encouraging.

We have been studying Moses for the last number of weeks. Truthfully, I didn’t think we would stay with him for more than 4 or 5 weeks, but I kept finding more material.

By now, you’ve probably figured out that On Fire is about faith and character. I believe that being a disciple of Jesus ought to change who we are at our deepest level of being. And so the issues are, How can I trust God more every day?, and How does my character line up with God’s character?

To claim to be a Christian and live differently is to be a hypocrite, and while I know that I do not always live up to the standard I profess, I hope that day by day I reflect more of Jesus’ life and character. While I ride what one friend calls the "idiot trail," I hope that each day I make more room for Christ and leave more of the idiot behind.

We’re going to concentrate a little more specifically on character issues over the next number of weeks. To do this, we’re going to look at the fruit of the Spirit as we find them in Galatians 5:22-23. Each week we’ll look at one of these 9 traits.

Why character? I believe there are two general types of sins: sins of the body and sins of the spirit. Sins of the body are all about, well, the body and what we do with it. They are outward, visible. Sins of the spirit are all about character, who we are in the inside, or as one person has put it, who we are when no one is looking.

In the church we have often concentrated only on the sins of the body. There is a reason for this. Sins of the body are relatively obvious and easy to identify. And, once we get at least a little handle on them, we can rail against them without causing ourselves discomfort, pleased in the knowledge that we have conquered "sin."

There is no question that sins of the body can be serious and have a real hold on us, but I believe that they are sometimes easier to deal with than sins of the spirit. To illustrate the difference, all we have to do is look at lust. In Matthew 5:28, Jesus says, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."* If adultery means only what I do with my body, it is fairly easy to deal with. As long as I do not have a sexual encounter with someone other than Jan, I am innocent. Lust, on the other hand, is a sin of the spirit and much harder to root out. I can easily hide it from others and even deny that it exists in my spirit.

To take another example, I think back to my own experience. I became a Christian as a young teen, and because I lived a pretty clean life, it was fairly easy to "clean up." I remember reading passages like Colossians 3:8 where Paul tells us to watch our language. I took it seriously, and few people have ever heard me swear. That was easy. The harder part was dealing with my mind. It has taken me a lot longer to get rid of the words from my thoughts. I did a good job of installing the filter which strains filthy words from my mouth, but they still slosh around my cranium.

Sins of the spirit have to do with character and I think they may be more difficult to root out. They are harder to recognize and easier to hide from others. We can live good lives, look good to others and still be polluted. That’s the difference between sins of the body and sins of the spirit.

Jesus addressed this in Matthew 23:27-28. "Woe to you...hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."

One summer job I had as a student was at Sunset Campground in Cavendish, PEI. During pre-season clean-up, we ate lunch in the back of the grocery store. After each season, there were always part cases of stock left over. For obvious reasons, the food items could not be restocked in the spring, so we took turns trying them. It didn’t matter to us that most were beyond their shelf life. That just added to the challenge. We never became sick, but I remember one bag of corn chips which proved why they put best before dates on the outside. Yuck. The package looked fine, but inside it was horrible.

That’s what character is all about - who we are on the inside. It doesn’t really matter what we look like on the outside. It’s the inside that counts to God, because ultimately this is what will determine how we handle the sins of the body. How could a Sunday school teacher become addicted to video lottery terminals? It starts in the heart. How could a minister have an affair? Again, it starts with character.

Jesus had a lot to say about the importance of character. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." (Matthew 15:18-19). Every sin of the body starts as a sin of the spirit.

We’re back to the fruit of the spirit now. Every plant starts as a seed of some sort. If I plant grain seeds, I expect to harvest grain. Same with pumpkins. If I plant potatoes, I shouldn’t expect tomatoes or green beans.

To bear the fruit of the Spirit, we need to plant the seed of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Undeveloped character means that we plant weeds but expect apples, pears, and strawberries.

That’s why we’re going to look at the fruit of the spirit over the next number of weeks. To be a follower of Jesus means that I not only make it look good, but that the inside be good. To do this, I need to submit not only my body, but my heart to the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit so that more and more everyday I reflect the image of Jesus.

Hope this helps,

Be On Fire

Troy

ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis. This letter published April 24, 2005. www.onfireletter.com