In the end

“Abiding is more than drawing upon resources outside of ourselves. To abide is to commune with our personal, living Lord. Without ceasing, we seek His care and wisdom and strength in the trenches of life. We engage Him in sweet fellowship, expressing to Him our fears and failures and frustrations. We cry out to Him and hear the assurances of His presence and peace and provision, as He reminds us that He is the Vine in whom we have been grafted by grace.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
That's the final excerpt from the book. As I mentioned at the beginning, it has lots of good stuff, but it could use a serious dose of Holy Spirit presence. The approach is very much "Brains on a stick"—this is a serious problem with much of Reformed spirituality. Very organized and methodical. It sounds wonderful on paper, but we aren't logical beings! And that's the rub...

If you add "by the power of the Holy Spirit" or "by the power of the indwelling Jesus" to just about everything being said in the book, you would do well...

Not sure what book I'll start next. I guess we'll find out on Monday, won't we : )
</idle musing>

Abiding

“We need to learn to abide—to rest in, remain, and regard our Lord in all things, at all times. We want to sit at His feet to learn both what He says and the heart by which He says it. We want to grow in submission to Him, dependence upon Him, and delight in Him.”— Vine Ripened Life

That's the opposite of what I want...

“What sort of teacher is grace? Grace does not lead us in some self-help course. On the contrary, grace leads us in Christ-dependence. It teaches us to abide in the Vine. Apart from Christ we can do nothing of our own accord. In Christ we can do all things according to His power that is at work within us.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
Exactly the opposite of what we want, right? We want Christ to empower us so that we can take the credit for our great holiness!

This gospel stuff is so backwards!
</idle musing>

The source

“Earlier in his letter to the Galatians, before taking up the fruit of the Spirit, Paul asks this rhetorical question: 'Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?' (3:3). In Galatians 5:25 he says, 'If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.' Paul is leading us to understand that our Christian maturation and fruitfulness do not happen at any point by self-effort to turn over a new leaf. Rather, we are dependent on the operation of the Holy Spirit.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
If only we would remember that! It is the Holy Spirit, living within us, motivating us, directing us, gently prodding us—OK, sometimes not so gently!—that produces Christian character. The fruit of the Spirit is named that for a reason! It isn't the fruit of my spiritual maturity or my efforts at godly living!
</idle musing>

No artificial anything

“When it comes to the growth of the fruit of the Spirit, we might employ the term grace grown. The fruit produced by grace is natural to new life rather than artificial. Such fruit grows organically at the hand of our Father, by the working of His Spirit, through union with Jesus Christ. To grow organically means to grow necessarily. The fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, and all the rest willgrow as we abide in Christ, the product of God’s workmanship of grace.”— Vine Ripened Life

and it comes before a fall...

“Pride promotes foolish independence. Humility draws deeply upon the grace of God in communion with Him. James says that God opposes the proud—pride pits us against God. But humility opens us to Him for spiritual health and vitality in function. As the plant draws life from the large and brilliant sun, so we find ourselves warmed by God’s presence.”— Vine Ripened Life

Humility

“Humility functions in the fear of the Lord. Such fear makes God large in our eyes. We are completely and continually dependent upon Him. We exist by Him and for Him. We live through Him. In Him we live and move and have our being.

The greater the presence of humility in our hearts, the greater we will see ourselves as debtors to grace and the more in awe of God we will be. James tells us that God 'gives more grace,' asserting that 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble' (4:6). Humility is a conduit of grace.”— Vine Ripened Life

The source

“As with all the fruit of life in Christ, each describes us by virtue of our union with Him, and each makes demands of us in our walk with Him.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
That's a wonderful description of the fruit of the Spirit. It is the result of our union with Jesus, walking by the power of the Holy Spirit—and obeying as a result of that power within us. All God, all the time—and that is why it is possible. By the power of the Holy Spirit living within us.
</idle musing>

Bear your cross

“The cross does not refer to some special burden we bear in life. It speaks to bringing all of life into submission and service to the Father’s will, as did Jesus. The cross shows the extent of that submission.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
Amen! We need to remember that! The life under the cross is all-encompassing, all-consuming. It is designed to kill us so that we might truly be alive.

But too often we reduce "bearing the cross" to some special (usually minor!) incident in our lives...
</idle musing>

Willpower or self-control?

“Willpower is a secular version of self-control. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit for management of self in the strength of Christ. Willpower is seated in the natural man, while self-control is rooted in the Vine and is a product of abiding in it. It enables the believer to wage war against the deeds of the flesh.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
I like that; "rooted in the Vine and is a product of abiding in it." Of course, that means if we stop abiding, the self-control stops flowing. Only as we abide can the life-giving flow of the Holy Spirit sap keep us in self-control.

If only!

“It is disturbing to hear the vitriolic invective leveled against governmental leaders in public discourse. Scathing verbal muggings and personal character assassinations are commonplace, accepted, and even expected. Issues on which people differ soon reach the level of personal assault.

This acrimony is not limited to the secular realm. Rancor finds itself on the lips of Christians who join in the rhetoric. Such mean-spiritedness infects the discourse of the church itself when its members engage in gossip and personal attack.

Life in the Vine promotes a different approach for us as children of God. In the passage we saw earlier, the apostle calls us “to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men” (Titus 3:1–2). We are to be courteous, not contentious, and gentle, not abusive.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
If only that were true of us! We can't even say with I John 3:18 that we love in word (Τεκνία, μὴ ἀγαπῶμεν λόγῳ μηδὲ τῇ γλώσσῃ ἀλλὰ ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ/ Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth)! Lord, may we be known as people who love in word as well as in deed!
</idle musing>

Grab the scalpel

“A gentle approach would not be condescending or accusatory. It would come seeing itself cut from the same cloth. Like a surgeon who takes care to set a broken limb, painful firmness may be needed, but the infliction of unnecessary pain would be avoided. So the skillful physician of the soul ministers by speaking the truth in love and attending in gentle perseverance.”— Vine Ripened Life

The unpicked player

“How many times have you confessed your sin of not being gentle with others to God? We confess our lack of love or lack of kindness, but rarely do we admit before God our deficiency in gentleness. It just doesn’t make the list. If it does, it’s like the boy left standing after all the others have been picked for one side or the other in a pickup basketball game. It’s recognized because it has to be, but it doesn’t really have anything to contribute.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
Ouch! Guilty as charged : (
</idle musing>

But which self?

“What does faithfulness look like in our lives? It starts with being faithful to ourselves. At first blush that sounds like something out of pop psychology: “Be true to yourself.” But God’s call to us is to be true to who we are in Christ, true to our redeemed selves. We are to take on the characteristics of the Vine in which we find our life and new identity.”— Vine Ripened Life

Hand me those tights and a cape please

“Paul is not bidding us to put on tights and a cape and embark on a quest of good works. He is describing ordinary life lived for Jesus Christ, life expressive of the Vine into which we have been grafted by God’s grace. As such, our lives are fragrant to God, ourselves, and others with the aroma of grace.”— Vine Ripened Life

Ad fontes

No, we gain goodness by emptying ourselves of any goodness that we think dwells within us and finding our goodness in God alone. That is no small task. As C. H. Spurgeon said in his inimitable way in a sermon on the Beatitudes: “Our imaginary goodness is harder to conquer than our actual sin.” Christ is our goodness.— Vine Ripened Life

Grit those teeth

“The gospel is the generator to patience. Without its redemptive influence, our efforts at patience can amount to little more than gritting our teeth. We grin and bear it. Without the gospel, our effort will take on more of a negative feel than positive. That’s what makes patience more than a social grace. It is a trait cultivated more by sanctification than socialization. It flows from a Christ-centered hope. It follows a Christ-centered model.”— Vine Ripened Life

Patience, my friend

“Like regulated blood pressure is an indicator of good health, patience with strangers, our spouse, and our children is a telltale sign of how well the other fruit of the Spirit are developing in our lives. If our patience is lacking, we can be sure the other fruit are underdeveloped.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
A woman once asked Watchman Nee to pray for patience for her. He refused, saying rather that he would pray that she would have Jesus in her. He told her that patience is simply more of Jesus...more of Jesus, more patience. Less patience, the less we are allowing Jesus (through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit) to control us.
</idle musing>

Get out of the way!

“Impatience is full of self. Patience is low on self. Impatience is fueled by pride. Patience is driven by the application of love.

Patience seems to be the cocktail to all the other fruit of the Spirit, with love as the base and the other fruit lending the various flavors of grace.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
Impatient? Who's impatient? Not I! Just hurry up, would ya! I'm in a hurry to do what I want and you're in my way! So move over or I'll run you down! But, impatient? No way! I just don't like incompetence! (And I define incompetence as anything that doesn't make things go the way I want them to!
</idle musing>

Malware to the soul

“My word-processing program’s thesaurus offerings serve as an exegetical expositor of the perils of impatience and, conversely, the importance of patience. My cursor hovers over impatient and the following are suggested as synonyms: annoyed, edgy, irritated, intolerant, exasperated, aggravated, irked, and piqued. These alternatives do a good job displaying the danger of impatience. It is malware to the soul.”— Vine Ripened Life

<idle musing>
"Malware to the soul" I like that; it's a very good description of what impatience is. I find that when I get impatient I tend to dehumanize the person I'm impatient with. Once they are dehumanized, you don't even realize when you say mean things to them or act in unloving and hurtful things. Definitely "malware to the soul..."
</idle musing>