BBD 12.15.05 Ornaments on Your Tree
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
The old website is at http://www.theburningbush.org
Several devotional booklets are now available for free download in PDF
format at the new site. Just click on the "Free Book Downloads" link.
Join the Burning Bush Prayer Group! Send and receive prayer requests and be
a part of a great ministry. More than 400 (currently 496) wonderful people
make up this group. To join send an email to: BBPG-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please sign the GuestMap at The Burning Bush website. You can plant your
country's flag on the map and leave a message. You can find it on the front
page at http://www.theburningbush.org
The Burning Bush Devotional
Welcome to the 284 new subscribers since November 1, 2005!!
12.15.05
Ornaments on Your Tree
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. - Galatians 5:22-23.
In the 1850s, Charles Dickens described a Christmas tree of that time as
being decorated with miniature furniture, dolls, costume jewelry, tiny
musical instruments, toy guns, swords, fruit and candy. If you fast forward
to the 21st Century and do a search on Google, you will find 2,110,000
results for a search for "Christmas ornaments." You can find so many
different kinds of Christmas ornaments it would be impossible to list them
all. For the governmental minded there is available the Whitehouse 2005
James A. Garfield ornament or the Whitehouse Cameo ornament. Perhaps you are
an avid watcher of the news, then you might like to have the Fox News
ornament on your Christmas tree. The ornament proclaims that it is "fair and
balanced." Whatever your interest may be, I am sure that there is a
Christmas tree ornament for you.
The Bible uses the tree at times as a metaphor for people. Here are some of
the Scriptures where this is found: Psalm 1; Psalm 104:16; Matthew 3:10-11;
and, Matthew 7:16-20. With this in mind, and since it is the Christmas
season - what kind of ornaments should we have on our Christian tree?
In the book of Proverbs we are told that, we should have the ornament of
wisdom (Proverbs 1:7-9 and 4:7-9). In 1 Peter 3:3-4 we are told that we
should have the ornament (KJV) of a meek (or gentle) and quiet spirit.
Some of the early decorations of Christmas trees were different kinds of
fruit. Nowadays you may still see some fruit on Christmas trees but usually
they are plastic or ceramic instead of the real thing. On our Christian
tree, the tree of our life, we want some fruit hanging from the branches as
well. The apostle Paul gives us a list of the fruit we should have in
Galatians, it is the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, longsuffering
(or patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control." What a beautifully trimmed tree it would be to have all of
the fruit of the Spirit hanging from its branches!
If someone were looking at your life as if it were a tree, what would they
see? Would they see wisdom wrapped around your life in a beautiful sweep?
Would they see like snow a covering of a gentle and quiet spirit? Would
there be for all to see all the various fruit of the spirit from love to
self-control hanging in just the right places from your branches?
During this Christmas season whenever you see a Christmas tree use it to
remind you of your own personal Christian tree. Is your tree trimmed with
all the beautiful ornaments of the Spirit? Or, are there some ornaments
missing from your branches?
What better time than Christmas to commit yourself to growing in the Lord?
Grow in the Lord so that next year and every year your tree will become more
and more beautiful.
Copyright © 2005. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
The Crossmap Christian Search and Portal is a wonderful resource. I would
like to encourage you to visit this great site at ww.crossmap.com. Crossmap
has added the Burning Bush Devotionals to their site. You may visit
Crossmap's sister website, the online version of the Christian Post at
http://www.christianpost.com.
If you have a Christian website you are invited to add the link to my free
links at the Burning Bush website. The Bravenet free links is near the
bottom of the front page http://www.theburningbush.org.
If you enjoy the devotional please recommend it to your friends. They may
subscribe by sending a blank email to
burningbushdevo-subscribe@welovegod.org
Streaming Videos of our services including my sermons are posted at:
http://www.theburningbush.org/fbcswvideo.html
There is now a webpage available at associate.com where the devotionals are
archived associate.com/groups/burningbushdevo. There is a complete
archive at the Burning Bush website and the address for the archive is
http://www.theburningbush.org/33.html.
You may subscribe to the pure text group by sending a blank email to
burningbushdevo-subscribe@welovegod.org and you can unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushdevo-unsubscribe@welovegod.org
You may subscribe to the html text group by sending a blank email to
burningbushhtml-subscribe@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-unsubscribe@welovegod.org
Subscribe to the Burning Bush Prayer Group. Send and receive prayer requests
to over 400 members. Send a blank email to: BBPG-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe to the Burning Bush Inspirational Group. Send and receive
inspirational material to over 100 members. Send a blank email to:
bbinspire-subscribe@welovegod.org
Subscribe to the Burning Bush Restoration and Recovery Group for those with
addictions or recovering from addictions. Receive devotionals and
inspirational material directed toward those with addictions. Send and
receive prayer requests. Over 200 members. Send a blank email to:
tbbrr-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe to the Intercede Life Group and pray for and help in practical
ways those who need help. To subscribe send a blank email to
interclife-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.