We've only just begun

Sermon given at Grace UMC 7/5/15

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children-- "My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; ⁶ for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts." ⁷ Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?

Paul Williams wrote the song, “We’ve only Just Begun” which was a huge hit for the Carpenters. It is a song about beginnings, about young love which has the whole future of life ahead of it. The second verse reminds us of this:
Before the risin' sun, we fly
So many roads to choose
We'll start out walkin' and learn to run
And yes, we've just begun
We arrive at this point today with the future in front of us. There are many roads to choose as we move from this point forward. Roads paved with good intentions, roads paved with successful conversions and roads that lead to decline and closure. Our momentum at the moment is good but it needs to be reignited by the passion of the spirit that was in your confession’s to Jesus Christ so many years before. We must relinquish the forces that hold us apart and pull us away from this place. This week I had the pleasure of working with young people at Camp Occohannock. Young people who were there to spend some days exploring and learning. But in the midst of that they were open to the touch of the Holy Spirit. I remember one incident where they attempt to climb a wall with small rock like things used as foot hand holds. This particular day a young woman who was scared of heights was attempting the wall. Her fellow campers were gathered round encouraging her. As you watched them suggest hand holds or foot placements, you could see their bodies moving as if they were on the wall with her. That focus is what we understand in the Body of Christ. When we become one people and we begin to work together as one people to do the task at hand. She made it to the top and rang the Bell. We make rules and policies for the church so that we can become the Body of Christ. Pulling, sharing and working together for one goal, one people and one God.

We have just begun to journey to the place where God reigns supreme. We are part of the Kingdom of God and we share in the love of God that permeates the Kingdom. In the last few weeks I have talked about Grace, about God’s unwavering love, about following Christ, my vision for the future and what God wants from us. Today we begin a new year and a new opportunity to transform not only the church we love but the community we live in. Abraham began a journey on faith to a place he did not know but God had called him to new realities and so he went. So too we are Abraham being called by God to new places and new realities. Some of them may be difficult and others complicated, but with God behind us, there is absolutely nothing that is impossible.

What will it take for us to survive? What are we doing well or what are we doing wrong? What is to become of us? And the number of similar questions worded different ways. There is a problem here. The problem is that those asking the question are hoping that I have a simple answer. The challenge is always how one answers a closed ended question when the answer is complicated and open ended. I am going to attempt to answer this complicated question by starting if you will at the beginning of our churches. The answer in simplest terms is that when we truly become Disciples of Christ; God will direct us to become the instruments of his glory. That seems so simple. I liken it to a story I heard once of a child who came home from Sunday school to tell his father about Moses at the Red Sea. The young man described how the Israelites had put down pontoon bridges for their jeeps to cross on. Then, as Pharaoh approached and his army came over the bridges, they were dynamited and the whole Egyptian army sank in one fell swoop. The father calmly asked the excited son if that was really the way it happened. The child's response was, "No, but if I told you what they really said at church, you sure wouldn't believe it." Paul is trying to focus us on two important truths in this scripture which has as its goal to lead us to becoming more focused on our own lives. And this story reminds us that sometimes complicated questions have simple answers that people will either not believe or chose not to follow.  

We gather today Independence Day. It is a day that celebrates those who laid down their lives so that we can live here in this country with freedom. We are reminded of the heroes, young men and women who fought for that freedom, who gave all they had. Their names now stand in stark contrast on plaques and monuments across the country. But for the families they stand as reminders of lives cut short, futures that went on without them and families that grew up without brothers, sisters, and fathers. We need to celebrate their sacrifice today as we gather in this place. But we also need to realize those who went before us in the church also made sacrifices. Many of the early Christians gave their lives that we might worship freely here in this space and know the truth of Jesus.

We began as a church interestingly enough with a movement that never intended to become a church. William Morgan and a group of students began intentional faith development. So much so that other students began to make fun of them and called them “methodical” as a joke. John Wesley was part of that group and upon Morgan’s untimely death, became the leader. John Wesley and this small group of Methodists begin to expand across England, Wesley travels on mission to Georgia, fails at evangelizing to the Indians and returns home depressed and questioning his call. Then on May 24^th, 1738 while listening to a sermon in Romans, his heart is “strangely warmed” and at that moment he claims his understanding of what God is calling him to do. From there the movement extends across the ocean to America where the flame of a relationship with God burns fiercely among the peoples of America. And then the revolutionary war happens and all things England are despised.

In 1771 Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke are sent over to provide leadership to this growing movement within our country. By 1773 the cries for sacramental authority have grown so fierce that Wesley appoints Coke and Asbury as ministers with the authority to ordain new ministers. By 1784 this movement becomes a church. There were some important and significant things about this early church that set it apart from other churches in the world. Women were included in worship from the start centered on the understanding of Paul’s ministry and the role of Mary Magdalene and Mother Mary in the early church. And African American’s were a part of our weekly worship, with the church ordaining a female African American in 1790. This early movement was focused on two important foundational blocks. One, that inclusion means something. Each week classes would gather and hold each other accountable to discipleship. They would share with one another the answers to three questions:

How is it with my soul?

Where have I stumbled this week?

Where have the fruits of my faith been evident?

Continued inclusion in the group meant that over the long journey members had stories to tell each other about the status if you will of their relationship with God, how that relationship had shown itself in their daily lives and when they stumbled, that they shared that, expected accountability of it and received forgiveness.

And the second thing was that the group had a responsibility to witness and share their faith with others with the goal of growing their community. These two things were not optional for early Methodist and should not be optional for us today.  Maybe that is part of the answer to the question we ask. We need to return to a time when our discipleship of evident, active and accountable. The other interesting part of this is that the weekly meetings were not the central part of their lives, discipleship was.

The foundation of early Methodism was a focused on biblical truths. The first truth is that original sin is our disobedience to God. Nothing more, nothing less! The second is that Grace is given by God because God knows that we fail at being obedient because of our natures. That is not an acceptable reason or excuse, but Grace allows us forgiveness in spite of ourselves. Third that we have "free will" to accept or reject God’s gift of Grace. And finally, these things, original sin, Grace and free will become self-evident to us when we strive to become disciples of Jesus Christ. In that journey we will build our relationship with God. We build that relationship with God through our daily disciplines of bible reading, prayer, being involved and active in our community of believers and reaching out to the world to share this love of God. And it is that journey that each of us must be on or we are wasting our time being here this morning. Early Methodism permeated this area of Virginia. And this brings us to the history of Grace.

Grace began as Parksley Methodist Church in 1892 and Dr. J.E.T. Ewell was its first pastor. On October 30^th, 1908 the frame church burned but the spirit of the church remained and so a new church was built, the cornerstone laid on October 13, 1910 and completed in 1912. By the way, Andrew Carnegie donated one half the money for the organ, $1250, which was installed in the church in 1912. And the church thrived and grew as the center of its community, sharing the love of God with all that would come. In 1974 the church discovered that its beloved sanctuary was literally falling apart. Did that stop them or slow them down, no. With God’s assistance they built the current sanctuary and dedicated it on December 12^th of 1976. Some say to me that to get back to the church they remember we need to go to one service. Really? Did you know that the Chapel service began in 1993 under the direction of Rev. O.H. Burton? It is as much a part of our tradition now 22 years later. All along this path we have been moving on the journey to share the Kingdom of God with the communities we live in and serve.

We have to decide what course we are going to take. Are we going to stand united in the manner of early Methodist, working towards perfection individually and collectively, holding each other accountable to become true Disciples of Christ? Are we as individuals in a focused intentional relationship with God? Are we working together to bring the “good news” of the Gospel to the community around us as our ancestors did before us. For the last one hundred and twenty three years this church has stood here at the crossroads of Bennett Street and Wilson Avenue. Where it goes from here rests on our shoulders. Where will we go? What miracles of faith will be performed here for the next one hundred and twenty three years? How many lives will be changed? The answer is up to you and me? What path will we choose? 

A Vision from the Mountaintop

Sermon given at Grace UMC 6/28/15

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Scripture Reading

^NRS  Deuteronomy 34:1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the LORD showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, ² all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, ³ the Negeb, and the Plain-- that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees-- as far as Zoar. ⁴ The LORD said to him, "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants'; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there." ⁵ Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the LORD's command. ⁶ He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. ⁷ Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated. ⁸ The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.

I read a story recently about a little league coach who reminisced about his childhood years playing baseball in little league. He remember back how during his first year, his coach had called together the entire baseball team for a picnic, and he asked the team, "Who here wants to eventually play major league baseball." Every single hand went up, as every child there dreamed about playing in a major league stadium and hitting the game winning hit. That boy grew up to become a little league coach himself, and the week before opening day his first year of coaching he did the same thing. He had a team picnic, and he asked the team, "Who here wants to grow up and play in the major leagues?" Not one hand went up on a team of twelve kids. He said he could see in their eyes that not one kid on his team believed that he had what it took to become a major league baseball player.

Bonnie and I have returned from Annual Conference this year ready to begin a new year here at Grace. Today we start our fifth year and there is much to tell and much to look forward to. We are standing on the mountaintop looking out into the Promised Land. But we cannot do it alone. We need to be a family of folks with a shared vision of what the future holds. Our focus this year will be to continue the vision I have had for this church the last four years, making members disciples. What is interesting to me and affirming is that it is also the conference vision for this year. What does it mean to be a disciple? It means following Jesus in His teaching, His example and His love. I also learned at Annual Conference that my gift is the gift of irritation. My purpose is to provoke you into being better, being more intentional and being faithful to following Christ and Changing Lives for Christ.

David Welch tells the story of Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a dreamer. His crowning vision was EPCOT; Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. He envisioned the perfect city of 20,000 using all of the most modern advances technology. One problem, Walt Disney died before his dream was ever realized. His dream was so big and complex and outside the box that no one else in the Disney Company ever caught the dream and had no idea what to do after Walt was gone. What Walt Disney intended as a living breathing perfect city turned out only to be an entertainment center. Disney’s world would only become a place to visit rather than the community he envisioned to live in.

Jesus also left a blueprint for His church that is just as vast, as marvelous, and as innovative. His vision was to have an expanding community organism that would permeate and transform the whole world. The problem is that as time went on His followers lost His vision. They could not wrap their minds around such a magnificent plan. Rather than a community of loving, passionate follower of Christ dedicated to demonstrating the power of the Christ-transformed life in a dark world, they began to do what they knew best, build buildings and run organizations and develop entertainment centers that would hopefully draw the crowds to hear the story but miss the transforming power of Christ. We are the descendants of that vision and though the vision still exists in our lifetime, we also are more apt to focus on the building, the structures and the organization. We want certain kinds of music or certain kinds of worship or to join the many services into one service; those are the answers you tell me every single day. I read the other day that Christianity is still growing, especially among those who are oppressed and struggling. It is growing not because of worship style or music or even buildings. It is growing because people have begun to embrace a sense of community.

We have spent this week teaching our young people about being a good neighbor. That the message of the Good Samaritan is not a nice story about a nice man, rather it is a proclamation of how we are to act in the world around us. We are to be Good neighbors to all the people of the world, not just those who look like, sound like and act like us. The children get this maybe even better than the adults do. We are to be the vision of Christ, loving each other in a transforming way to change the world.

But the real question is how do we move beyond the barriers? We have barriers whether we realize them or not. Barriers we have erected because of culture, language, prejudice, and our own human existence. Barriers that Jesus wanted us to remove so that we could fully embrace the loving relationship that God. But how do we get there? How do we do what we have been unable to do in over two thousand years? How can we accomplish what our own human existence fights against, leaving our desire to be first and becoming a place of equality? There is only one way to do what we should all desire to do. We desire to become disciples of Jesus learning what He desires for us to learn and doing what He desires us to do. The truth is that we have an almost insurmountable mountain to climb. The biggest obstacle in the way is not society, the courts or even a disagreement on what a particular flag really means. It is our inherent desire to be first, to do what we want when we want and how we want. It is our desire to achieve the things of materialism even if it means climbing over the bodies of those around us.

We can only achieve this great change in our world through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it alone and when we finally realize that we are on the way to achieving the kind of world that Jesus wants us to enjoy and embrace. It is a world where love is the central element of human relationship. Where we find ways to overcome our diversity as difference and use that diversity as gain. We become a family making life together, facing the future together and living in a harmony together that can only come when we place Jesus first, others second and ourselves last. We cannot achieve this success when we have determined that rules for the common good don’t apply to us because we perceive ourselves as special, more important than other members of our family. This only works when we work hard at focusing on the common goal of one people under God, indivisible with liberty for all. That is the mantra of our country and yet we somehow find ourselves too often divided into ideas about what liberty really means. Jesus tells us that liberty is the right to live without fear, without hunger, without discomfort and to share in the abundance that God has given us. Not everyone will share our dream; some of you may even leave here to find a place where you can enjoy your own ego centered focus. But mind what you hear this morning. That is not the dream of Jesus.

We are climbing a mountain. Some days the sky is clear and we can see the peak, the goal and the climbing is easy. There is excitement and energy to achieve the goal. But some days the clouds come and obscure the peak. Those are the days when our journey gets difficult as depression and fatigue set in. But the goal is unchanged. So those days are the days when we need to support each other with greater care and compassion. The ropes we tie around one another are not ropes of bondage but are the safety line of strength that comes when people surround each other with love to lift each up in the tough times. We are climbing that mountain and so far the road has been easy. But the tough times are ahead of us. The reward is a church that is the center of its community, focused on being the source of strength for the community that it serves. The reward is a life filled with joy and love that is shared with those who also share this vision of Jesus.    

So where are we going and how do we get there? Let me answer the last question first. We only can get there through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to be a church fully embracing individual and corporate prayer. Don and I felt your prayers this last week at Annual Conference. But when we begin to prayer together as a church asking God in we can become the church God intended. Bishop Cho has a prayer that I suggest we all incorporate. It is a simple prayer. It is, "Your will be done, nothing less, nothing more, nothing else." Let us do it together. Your will be done, nothing less, nothing more, nothing else. If we pray this with the intention of not only asking God for direction but opening ourselves to hearing, God will do great things with us. If we invite the Holy Spirit in we can become Disciples in the image of the original Disciples, performing miracles, bringing others to God and changing the world. Without the Holy Spirit we are nothing. Which probably explains the mess we are currently in in the world around us.

In the current newsletter I tell a story of a ship’s captain who was floundering because the wind that moves him had stopped. Nothing is more serious to a sailor than the loss of wind. Without it we cannot move, we are caught in a place of inaction and despair can set in because we have no control over the moment. Knowing that a man of God was below deck, the captain went down and talked with him. He asked the preacher to pray for wind. Sometime later the preacher came up on deck and was surprised. He sought out the captain and told him, you ask for God’s help and yet the sails are not unfurled, open to the wind that will come. You pray and yet you don’t believe that God can provide defeating the very power you seek. We are a church with the sails that are not yet unfurled open to the wind that will come. 

We must become the church where people can find the answers to the struggles of their lives. We must become the church where people can feel welcomed with no regard to their culture, their language, their lifestyle or their journey. We must become the church that finds ways to make poverty less, make hunger less, make oppression less and make community more. We must become the church that spends as much time outside its doors as inside, maybe even more time out than in. We must become the church that finds ways to teach people new skills, assisting people to find financial security not through entitlements but through reliance on proven financial tools. We must become the church that people come to not out of a sense of loyalty but out of desire to be a part of a family making a difference in the world. We must become a church that focuses on being Disciples individually and corporately through the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit. We cannot feel the wind of the Spirit if we keep the sails furled against the mast. We must become a church that focuses on the common good for all, compromising to bring out the best God has to offer through the gifts and talents God has given us.

Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years. His role was to bring them to place where they could find relationship with God, learn to be obedient to God and to become the instruments of God to change the world. Moses did what he had to do always listening to the will of God, nothing less, nothing more, nothing else. God allowed Moses to see the land of promise from the mountain, but Moses would not lead them there. His work was done. Martin Luther King in his famous speech brought a prophetic message telling us that his dream would be realized even though he would not get to the mountaintop with us. Like Moses, King never saw his dream realized. But God is fruitful.   

Sir Frances Drake: "Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love."

What good is a fruitless fruit tree?

Sermon given at Grace UMC 6/14/15

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^NRS James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Many years ago a great craftsman had a vision of the perfect violin. In his mind he could hear the beautiful sound and the incredible music that would come from this instrument. So he set about building the violin. He took the finest pieces of maple and shaped them into the ribs of the instrument. He spent months on gluing the joints together and often would start over when he was not satisfied with his work. It took him two years but he finished and he stood back and looked upon his creation. And he was satisfied that it was the best that he could do. Many musicians had learned of his work and though he himself could not play, he had built some of the best instruments for musicians throughout the world. The musicians all desired to play this work of art that he had built. But his fear that something would go wrong prevented him from allowing anyone to pick it up and play it. So throughout his life, the perfect violin stayed in its case and the only music from it came in the craftsman’s head. When he died, the violin could not be found. Musicians the world over commented on how the world would have been a better place if only he had allowed someone to play the perfect instrument. You see, the craftsman might have created the perfect violin. But without it ever having been played, the world cannot be sure whether it was as good as the craftsman said it was. We are left wondering what kind of beautiful music the violin would have made and left with never knowing.

James is considered by many as the misunderstood apostle. Did he get it wrong or do we read into his scripture on works from the wrong point of view? Is he in fact saying that faith is not the answer in direct contradiction to Paul? Is he saying that it is truly what we do that creates salvation? There are many in the world that believe that and preach and teach it as the road to heaven. Day in and day out, they do good works and believe that as long as they are good people that God will look down with favor upon them. Now I for one believe that God is bigger than anything that I can understand. But I also know that the God of the Bible, Old and New Testament is a God who works hard to make us understand not what we want, but what God wants from us. God utilized the prophets and the apostles to help us to understand the most basic of concepts of life in accordance with God’s point of view. And of course when all else failed, God came down to earth as Jesus the Son, to assure that those who would listen would finally understand. Jesus himself spoke on this many times in his teaching. ^NRS Matthew 19:16 “Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’” And Jesus tells the rich young man that he must obey the commandments. And then if he desires to be perfect, that he must give up all that he has to the poor and follow Jesus. We know the story. And for many of us, this story has become the mantra of our lives, the words we live by as we follow a risen Christ. But for many, it is the story that stands as a barrier between them and becoming the Christian in their hearts they desire to be.

So what is James saying in this scripture? Let us explore the scripture this morning and see if we can figure out what James is saying and what we need to do as a result of it. James begins with a question. He asks us what good is faith if we do not have works. If someone lacks food and you have the ability to feed them and do not, what good have you done? That is a question that we need to ask ourselves every day of our lives. If we have the money or the hands or the food that can provide someone who is hungry from starving, then it seems the only answer is we must feed them. Makes sense doesn’t it? If we have the ability to provide clothing for the poor, or housing for those who are homeless or education for those who need re-training then this scripture sounds like we have an obligation to do something. If we truly believe that being a Christian means being more than simply that we are baptized and have confessed our belief, then we believe that we have an obligation to do good works in the world around us. But is it works that gets us ultimately in good grace with God or faith? Is James saying something contradictory to what we profess or embracing it?

Let me see if I can explain it in a different way. The early Methodist were focused on living their lives in the perfect imitation of Christ. I say early Methodist, because it was a requirement of those early Methodist to make their fruits of their spirit public to one another. And when you are making something public to one another then you had better be doing the things you say you are doing or someone would surely call you on it. And fruitless living could be grounds to be expelled from the group. Each time they met they would ask each other, “How have the fruits of your spirit made themselves known this week?” I wonder what our world might be like if we began our worship service each week with that question to each other. You claim to be a Christian. Well I am from Missouri and I want you to prove it! What is the proof of your Christianity? And what are the fruits of the spirit if not the things that make us different from the world around us. Patience, kindness, grace, and love to name a few. And if in fact we abide by the commandments that Jesus has given us to love God with all that we are and love our neighbors as ourselves, then how can we not reach out to each other in kindness and with love? How can we not clothe the cold, feed the hungry and house the homeless? And if we are not doing these things, then isn’t it possible that our Christianity might be suspect to those watching. John Wesley believed that. Our early brothers and sisters in Christ believed that. And this scripture tells us that James believed that. In other words, we who claim to be Christians must in fact be in the world doing the things of Christ, helping, healing and teaching, or our own salvation may very well be questioned by those around us. Maybe more importantly, James is suggesting that God may question our belief.

We focus on Discipleship in the church as the answer to this question of faith. Truth is we spend more time talking about works issues, feeding, clothing, etc. But true Discipleship means that we spend out lives in imitation of Jesus as we follow His example and His teaching. The things that James is taking about and the things we tend to focus our efforts on are fruits of the spirit that comes through true Discipleship. Our faith life is built around the concept that we believe what God has told us through the story of the Bible, through the prophets, and through Jesus and the Apostles. And if throughout the story, we constantly hear God calling us to reach out to the poor, to overcome social injustice wherever we see it, to teach those who need to be taught, and to provide housing for the homeless, then how is it that the church of today fails in many of these things? Is it possible that like the rich young man, we can do the things that cause us little compromise or pain, but digging into our pockets or taking our time is more than we can bear? Or maybe our concept of church is, “as long as nothing else is happening today then we can go.”

What James is saying to us,

What Jesus is saying to us,

What our ancestors in faith are saying to us, is that without the viewable works that a true faith life brings, how is it that anyone, including God, can know that you truly believe.

Now that may seem harsh or unfair. But just like the perfect violin that is never played, how can we know how good something is if it is never played, never acted out and never worked with? And what James is trying to tell us is that if we truly believe and have faith, then we must see transformation. And when we are transformed, we must act. Once transformed it is impossible to walk by a starving child or a homeless person or watch someone abused without acting. And when we act, the world will see our fruit through those actions as we allow the works of the spirit within us to interact with the world around us.

If there are no works, then there must be no spirit.

If there is no spirit, then there is no faith.

If there is no faith, then what exactly is it that you believe?

Get the picture?

So if we call ourselves Disciples, then our actions, words and deeds will set us apart from the world around us for all to see.  

I planted an apple tree once. I prepared the ground for it by putting in the best soil, fertilizer and dug a hole just the right size. I planted the tree and watered it, pruned it and gave it all that I had to offer it. As it grew I nurtured it, loved it and cared for it. It grew into a great tree. But it never bore any fruit. I checked with those that knew a lot about apple trees and they said that I have done all the right things. But the fact is the tree never grew the first apple. Well let me ask you a question. What good is an apple tree that grows no apples? What good is a fruitless fruit tree? Is the tree of your faith life bearing fruit?