Fruition - Reflections on a Life Grafted-In

F r u i t i o N

Reflections on a life grafted-in

Bill Girrier

Copyright © 2011 Bill Girrier

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-2350-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-2347-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-2348-4 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011916002

Printed in the United States of America

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/13/2011

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1

The Fruit of the Holy Spirit

Chapter 2

Firstfruits

Chapter 3

Fresh Fruit

Chapter 4

The Fruit and the Root

Chapter 5

Free-Flowing Fruit

Chapter 6

Fearless Fruit

Chapter 7

Fruition

Chapter 8

The Vinedresser

Chapter 9

Known by Your Fruit

Chapter 10

Authentic Fruit

Notes and

Bibliographic References

Acknowledgements

This book is dedicated first and foremost to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who inspired its contents; to my radiant, persevering and encouraging wife Denise; to my beautiful, valiant, risk-taking daughters Tiffany and Bridgette; to my brother and sisters who inspire me; to my parents, who cultivated my character and encouraged me to follow my heart; and to the authentic brothers and sisters of the Body of Christ who surround me and sharpen me with their love and their purpose-driven lives. I also dedicate this book to all whom I have and will serve in His name who truly bless me. I dedicate it to the pastors in my life whose laid-down lives provided and continue to provide access to the truth and to a divine awareness that first drew my restless heart to find its rest in the Lord and now sustain me on my narrow path as an ever maturing disciple of Christ.

A special thanks to the staff and editors at Westbow Press for their technical guidance, objectivity, counsel and support throughout the publishing process.

Introduction

Imagine a vast vineyard draping the slopes of a valley at sunrise. You are at eye level before a cluster of luscious grapes glistening with fresh dew. The dew drops shine and sparkle with exquisite crosses of starlight. The branch from which this marvelous cluster grows shows evidence of a former grafting that has, over the seasons, grown over with layers of skin and bark. The grafting point is now a subtle yet robust bulge, discernable to the knowing eye—a strong point along the length of the branch. Elsewhere on this very branch is what looks like a freshly cut stem that must have started to grow out but needed attention. Nectar oozes—no, drips—from this fresh cut. One can sense a healing action that will result in a new branch that will bring forth another marvelous cluster of fruit. Nearby is another branch. It is brown and even black in parts—and withered. There is a stunted cluster of grapes hanging from it, of which some of the individual grapes are brown and shriveled. There is a little mold and a very visible graft not far away. This graft is cracked and open. It is festering with unsightly blemishes and crawling insects. Just out of focus looms the shadow of a presence, a person with an outreaching hand. In that hand is a pruning tool. And with that, this loaded question: where will the vinedresser cut?

Being a work of Christian literature and inspired both by Scripture and the author’s submission to the narrow way, the reader need not seek to justify his or her career ambitions, the stuff they already possess, or the stuff they wish to possess in its pages. This is not a self-help volume. You will not justify yourself here. What this book will attempt to do is to justify and illuminate your God-created, eternal purpose for practical application in this natural life that is but a vapor, a brief gasp in the eternity of God’s intended relationship with you.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit!(John 12:24, KJV).

Created for Eternity—Now!

It occurred to me one day that, while being created for Himself and to bear His fruit, we were created for eternity! We, therefore, must have in and about us a quality of endurance that God put there that is beyond description—beyond the failing flesh that drapes our brittle skeleton. Created for eternity and not just for this physical life. This realization prompts one to examine the purpose of this seemingly puny physical life on this finite, albeit splendid, but nevertheless, fallen planet against the immensity, the vastness of eternity and all its possibilities. And this physical life is possibly the starting point of that eternity—at least from the perspective of our consciousness of it because the Bible (Romans 8 verse on predestination) tells us that we were on God’s mind from the very beginning. What are we to do here? Discover God? Explore faith in the face of uncertainty? Express our love for our found Creator? God presents us with life and death and urges us to chose life. The default is death. He created us for Himself. We have a role in our destiny. Dealing with that role is our purpose for being.

Take a turn back in time with me for a moment to February 1862. The American Civil War is raging. President Lincoln has lost friends and colleagues to the war, and now he loses his eleven-year-old son Willie to typhoid. Nothing is going right. In that vulnerable moment of grief and despair, the president’s perspective of control is rocked. Historians say that the words of a Presbyterian minister, Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, at Willie’s funeral penetrate the heart of an already reverent Lincoln. In his eulogy, Gurley says, In the hour of trial one must look to Him who sees the end from the beginning and who doeth all things well. Lincoln asks for a copy of the eulogy.¹ Shortly thereafter, he writes the Emancipation Proclamation and the moral trajectory of the United States, and its greatness among nations, takes a decidedly positive turn upward thereafter.

Why do I bring this up? Because I believe that God has plans that in moments of revelation and unexplained clarity of awareness result in turning points and Rubicons. I trust that the subject and the content of this volume will serve and provide such to the reader.

There is something compelling about the power of making a commitment. Perhaps you’ve heard or read the famous statement made by William Hutchison Murray, an alpine mountaineer who, commenting on a Scottish Himalayan Expedition of 1953, wrote,

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in ones favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: ‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.²

Shortly after his death, Murray’s wife published his autobiography titled The Evidence of Things Not Seen, which borrows its title from Hebrews 11:1. I can now report that the phenomenon of commitment-driven providence was manifest throughout the writing of this book you now enter. There is no other explanation for the utterly uncanny way that mentions, references, stories, and accounts of fruit, fruitfulness, fruition, and every related topic began to come my way once my commitment to write was sealed by initiating action. Books, newspaper articles, online blogs on which I would accidentally find myself, and pulpit sermons came to me—as soon as I had recognized a call from God to undertake a work to report on the essential fruit of life and of the life of authentic fruition, and I took the first steps in obedience to write about it.

Like tapping into a new root of resource, threads of information, knowledge, wisdom and awareness began to mingle with my life. A serum of consciousness regarding the task at hand now entered the stream of my vine-centered spiritual sustenance that had me reading manuscripts and being exposed to the wisdom and otherwise hidden works of men and women of God forgotten and obscured by the world of this present darkness. Books out of print and hard to find became known to me as objects of need and of essential pursuit. There is no explanation for it other than the fact that I was meant to read them and factor them into this work. This led to a realization that the degree of my submission to the purpose became directly relatable to the supply of material and order in the work at hand. This further led to deliberate prayer for material as the outline clarified itself, and the spaces in between began to fill themselves. What an honor and pleasure it is to submit oneself and let the book literally present itself. The experience has been compensation enough.

As I ponder the sources and resources provided throughout, I realize with wide-eyed meekness and a personal revelation that nothing in this book is really new. I would be a fraud to believe that my discovery could imply ownership or creation. Everything here is only revealed anew and perhaps with perspective for application at this present moment in eternity. What Solomon documents in Ecclesiastes 1 (NKJV), I present here because it is good to read it:

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher;

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

What profit has a man from all his labor

In which he toils under the sun?

One generation passes away, and another generation comes;

But the earth abides forever.

The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,

And hastens to the place where it arose.

The wind goes toward the south,

And turns around to the north;

The wind whirls about continually,

And comes again on its circuit.

All the rivers run into the sea,

Yet the sea is not full;

To the place from which the rivers come,

There they return again.

All things are full of labor;

Man cannot express it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing,

Nor the ear filled with hearing.

That which has been is what will be,

That which is done is what will be done,

And there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there anything of which it may be said,

See, this is new?

It has already been in ancient times before us.

There is no remembrance of former things,

Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come

By those who will come after.

This I humbly affirm from experience.

And so, I would say that fruitfulness in an endeavor is most certainly related to authentic commitment and not merely some sort of passing heightened awareness, such as noticing red sports cars as soon as your son starts driving one. No, commitment and the degree of selflessness in it, I believe, are directly related to resource availability in the carrying out.

Be it St. Teresa of Avila or the lyric writer of the Christian music group Casting Crowns proclaiming it, we are the eyes, the ears, the mouths, the feet, and the hands of God through which He fulfills His will in our world. When we somehow find ourselves listening and hearing His whispers and submitting to His purpose, all things are useful, all things are possible.

There is a wholesome, biblically sound concept that has become popular among contemporary Christians that has to do with living a Christian life of adventure. It is a concept that often becomes distorted as it is filtered by believers or make-believers through and blended with our existentialist, relativist, material-seeking culture. Life is an adventure to live. Life is an adventure to live for God and His glory. Life is an adventure as, and if, we let God live and flow through us. He is the Author of everything authentic, and for anyone to claim that he or she is the author of anything original or authentic is robbery.

Some years ago, I read a book and participated in a related small-group program. You may have heard of John Eldredge’s book Wild at Heart and accompanying Band of Brothers small-group program.³ It is a good book and a biblically sound program in my opinion. I embraced it and championed the program at my church, delivering its message to scores of men. In applying it to my life, however, my pride and self-seeking nature let it get somewhat distorted. And so I embarked on many years of walking in circles in the wilderness, as it were. But I eventually snapped out of it—for a season—this present season. And this season I pray will continue uninterrupted by the powers and principalities of this present darkness.

Another very influential book in my early Christian development was John Ortberg’s If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat.⁴ That book really drew me to the thrill of derring-do alongside Christ. I thought I had the idea, and I fell right into Peter’s trap and floundered for several years. One fine sunny autumn day, Jesus yanked me up with these words that He whispered so gently into my trial-riddled ears as I sat in contemplation and unemployment going on two years: I’ve been teaching you true humility, perseverance and patience, to depend on Me alone and how to hear Me when I speak to you. Now, do what is before you to glorify Me, not for any end you may have in mind but for what I will bring you to discover along the way.

Throughout this book, I present quotations and excerpts from authors of many varied backgrounds and walks, not as an endorsement of their lives but to illustrate that God’s wisdom vibrates through us all. Not all, however, choose to stop, be still, and let that resonance take over their lives so that, like a tuning fork, they too resonate His wisdom to a watching and impressionable world.

Now I had taken some risks in my newfound faith, and I had taken those risks at God’s urging, I am sure. But in my heart, I was more concerned with what others thought of my risk taking and daring. My adventure to live was a spectacle for other men to witness and marvel at. I took my eyes off Jesus. Why, oh why, did He not come through with my next assignment? Why, oh why, did nothing seem to work? My friends, pastors, family, and brothers in Christ were very supportive, and I was encouraged and built-up by everyone. But my true trial went unseen to others. It was between Him and me.

God, who is so gracious and gentle, was faithful and tolerated my self-centeredness while hobbling my life for a long dry season to set me aside, get my undivided attention, and give me ears to hear. My suffering roots clawed through hard parched soil toward a source that I knew was there but of which I was not partaking. He also etched upon my heart an appreciation for the essence of the Christian life of adventure, which is to boldly explore with Him, discover, and express that for which we are each uniquely created—to bear His manifold fruit in this world. I needed to do this hand in hand with Him, my eyes set on Him, seeking His resource, seeking His design, releasing myself to His pleasure, seeking His accolade alone. That is the adventure, that is where joy is found, and that is where the battles are fought.

At the end of each chapter in this book is a section titled Introspection. This section is comprised of a series of provocative questions designed to help the reader contemplate, digest, and personally apply the content of that chapter to his or her