The Ninth Day of Christmas
On the ninth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…nine fruit of the Spirit.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control: the nine-flavored fruit is fragrant evidence of the presence and work of the God’s own Spirit in our lives. It describes a living still-life of everything our hearts and our world long for!
On the other hand the “evident” deeds of our fallen, corrupted old nature (sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy), sound like a portrait of every evil villain ever conceived.
When Jesus came into our world as a baby, He brought with Him both the promise of beauty and fruitfulness, and the means by which to make it a reality. He Himself is the embodiment of that lovely list of winsome character traits, and it is through Him — His Spirit — that we are transformed into His likeness, and bear fruit like His!
Lean into Him and stay attached to Him to bear more fruit! He wants this!
On the ninth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me: nine fruit of the Spirit,
His pow’rful Name, seven-fold Spirit, six days of nature, five healing wounds, four gospels, three witnesses, old and new birth, and Himself wrapped in human flesh!
Merry Christmas!
Christmas ’15
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