#1 How Should I Act?
 

    Wouldn't it be interesting if, when you became a Christian, God said, "My objective is to get you to heaven, so why don't I take you now?@
  One problem with that is that we'd delay becoming Christians as long as possible so we could have as much "fun@ down here as we could, then get saved and be wafted off to heaven.
    God, however, decided not to do it that way. It is down here, with our two big feet squarely planted in the middle of a secular society, that our Christianity is to be lived. Christians have always had to apply themselves to the culture in which they are planted.
    There was a time in my life when I had to determine how I was going to live as a Christian in wartime Britain,. Our culture was quite clearly drawn. There was a unique set of circumstances which I had to confront.
    Later I had to ask myself how a Christian should behave as a Royal Marine, in an entirely different culture. Subsequently I moved to the United States and found myself in a middle-class suburb of old Milwaukee and had to ask, What does it mean to be a Christian in this new culture?
    The easy thing would be to conform to the prevailing culture and put our Christianity on the shelf, but we're not free to do that. We have to examine our culture in the light of Christianity, stand firm on Christian principles and challenge our culture to adapt. That's what it means to be godly.
    Godliness has a spiritual dimension that is essentially practical. It produces things. It's down-to-earth, solid. A life of faith expresses itself in what it does. It can= t just put on a show.
    If you were to come to my house, I would offer you some fruit. I have a beautiful carved dish from the Venezuelan jungle. It's carved in solid, heavy black timber in the shape of a leaf. On it are the brightest, most beautiful apples you ever saw. I would welcome you and invite you to take one.
    I have enormous fun doing that, because for years I've been giving away those apples. The same apples. You see, they're made of the same wood as the dish, and you can't tell it until you try to bite into one.
    You can carve wood to look like fruit, but that's not fruit. Fruit is the natural product of the healthy tree, the external evidence of inward vitality.
    Spiritual fruit is the natural product of a healthy faith, the external evidence of a vital internal life. Our faith motivates us to serve God and others, and to be loving, giving people. We do it for the Lord, and we're rewarded with fulfilled lives.
    Unfortunately, people hell-bent on personal satisfaction won't believe that. "I've had it up to here with giving,@ they say, "and with being driven to exhaustion serving God and serving people. I'm going to please myself from now on.@ A sad commentary on the experience of many Christians is that they decided to go so far and no further. "That's it,@ they say, and they never progress an inch.
    But the fruitful life progressively makes new discoveries of God and enjoys a new devotion to God. It is progress, growth, development.
    If I ever sense that my discovery of God has ground to a halt, if I ever discover that my devotion to God has reached a plateau, then I can be absolutely certain that my life is being filled with things that will never provide fulfillment.
    Do you want to be fulfilled? Then discover for yourself what a life of fruitfulness has to offer. And stay away from wooden apples!
 

A Drink That Satisfies
 

We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus of the love you have for all the saints.
(Colossians 1:4)
 

    Occasionally after one of our church services people will stand in the foyer, look across the crowd, and see a former college classmate. "I don't believe it,@ they'll gasp. "Look at him. I remember what he used to get into when he. . .ha ha ha, hee hee, oh, he's the last person...@
    They make their way across the foyer, compare notes, and discover that the other person was thinking exactly the same thing about them. They discover that even though they were into all kinds of junk way back then, somewhere along the line they came to faith in Christ Jesus, their life was changed, and they've become holy and faithful brethren in Christ.
    It was like that in Colosse. Everybody knew everyone else's background; nevertheless there was a genuine, loving concern for one another.
    In Colosse they had probably known each other since they were knee high to a grasshopper. They'd known everything that everybody had gotten into. There were no secrets. It had a small town mentality, a small town involvement. The gospel had come in, and the most unlikely people had believed.
    Their problems were compounded because some of the churches members were Jews and some were Gentiles, some were slaves and some were slave owners, some were men and some were women. Many in these groups detested each other externally, but they learned to love each other in Christ despite their suspicions and animosities.
    Why? Because the apostle Paul taught that in Christ all these barriers and sociological chasms had been bridged. They could now begin to live as one body. They began to love each other, and outsiders noticed.
  "Something's going on here,@ they said.
  "What's going on,@ the Christians said, "is that God has worked in our lives and has brought us to faith in Christ, and he's encouraging us and enabling us to love the saints.@
    The key to this love is found in the very last expression of Colossians 1:8, where Paul talks about their love "in the Spirit.@
  Let's face it, as a friend of mine used to say, "God must love strange people - he sure made plenty.@
  No doubt you've heard it said that often it's harder to get along with God's people than it is to get along with pagans. Frankly, I've said it. I've got some pagan friends with whom I never have a wrong word. But with some Christians. . .
    The point is that there's every possibility for things going wrong unless the Spirit of God works in our hearts. When we allow the Spirit to work in our hearts, not only can he bring us to faith in Christ, but he can actually bring us to love the saints.
    That's what Paul was so grateful for. He could see it happening in the church at Colosse.
    If the great apostle were alive today, would he see it happening in our churches? If he showed up at this Sunday's services, would he come away grateful to God for the loving attitudes and actions of the people that he saw there?
    Or better yet: If he visited our homes and businesses this week, during the busiest part of the day, would he give thanks for the acts of love he saw Christians bestow upon one another?
    When we respond to our Lord's call for Christians to love one another, this old world will get a glorious taste of the delicacies of heaven. The elixir of love is irresistible.
    Can thirsty souls get a drink from your cup?
    How have you experienced this love? How have you given it?
 

~Stuart Briscoe~