Wednesday October 26, 2011

The Tippicanoe River in Illinois was a very beautiful river with all kinds of trees growing on it’s banks. The trees’ roots were growing along the river to gain water from the river in order to grow and produce fruit and other byproducts of the nutrients it soaked from the ground. What was interesting when I went into the swamp area is that very little was growing on the banks of the swamps. Many of the trees and bushes had died and there was obviously no fruit being produced.

Ezekiel continues his message about the river of life when he said, “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” (Ezekiel 47:12 NIV). When the river of life (God’s word) is flowing in and through us, fruit will be the byproduct of our gaining nourishment from the bible. Paul talks about this fruit in Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Fruit coming from the river of life involves qualities and characteristics that are useful for building relationships with the Lord and with those we come in contact with.

On this journey we have the opportunity to be fruit bearers by staying plugged into the river of life so that the nourishment we gain from the river will produce fruit in our lives to feed us as we connect with others.