Seeds

“For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, He shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.”

You ever notice how the same temperature can feel different? If it’s 72 degrees because the heater is on it feels comfortable. If it’s 72 degrees because the sun is shining through a windowpane it feels glorious. I sure enjoy basking in those sweet sun rays in the middle of a winter’s day. I hope today we get to bask in the glory of Yeshua.

Satan has his version of trees: bad trees that produce bad fruit. All men have things they do in their schedules that they know aren’t quite right but they do them anyway. I for instance drive for a living, and sometimes I have to use caffeine in order to keep up. Caffeine makes me think negative thoughts, so I know God would rather me not use it. I do anyway.

Let’s imagine me using caffeine (that action) is the fruit of a tree. If I take away the fruit once, it will blossom again. I have to to take away the branches too. Isn’t that absolutely miraculous when God takes a problem in our lives away, fruit and branches, trunk and roots? Yeshua is amazing.

The Almighty’s trees are good, and the bad trees are simply counterfeiting those valuable, ornamental trees of YHVH. He uses the metaphor of plants that bear fruit constantly. The fruit will not occur without the seed, roots, branches, trunk and leaves.

The seed is just a little something that may or may not take root.
The roots represent a structure such as a rule, like the law of gravity, a fact such as existence, something to live by or a repetitive result’s source like do good receive good, do bad receive bad (Deut. 28).
The roots support the visible trunk. All of the sustenance that the roots take in are sent to the rest of the tree through the trunk, whose stubbornness supports the rest of the tree.
The branches represent a network of thoughts and actions that come from that seed. The seed is now gone, the earth has made it into something else.
While the roots represent our ability to take in unseen information and sustenance, the leaves represent our ability to take in information and sustenance that is in the open. Things such as other people who relate to us, movies who support our life viewpoint, Bible verses that support us, songs and poems, other phenomena that occurs that metaphorically fit our actions, all the open things designed to support the way we live feed and encourage our way of life. If we are living righteously, our leaves are taking in the light of The Son.
If the tree stays healthy and it’s systems function as they were created to function, it produces good, lasting fruit. This fruit has an effect on everything around it: the reason why active goodness can be controversial to some men: to be kept at arm’s length at all costs.

When we come to realize how deeply deceived the world is, it is generally a result of our coming out of deception. When one of His own see’s the truth, it is so obvious. It is easy to become bitter towards the world who just is not ready to accept the truth. Like the waters at Marah were not ready to quench the thirsts of the parched Israelites, nor is an unripe fruit ready for the belly.

When The Creator brought His children out of the house of bondage and through the Sea of Reeds, all the time He was artistically orchestrating events to point them quietly towards Yeshua. The Pesach screams Yeshua. The parting of the sea points to Yeshua’s not being accepted in His hometown and the people He grew up around, His family and friends, taking Him to a cliff with the intention of throwing Him over before He gracefully passes through their midst, leaving the recalcitrant town that He grew up in. Now, they come to Marah. Do you remember what it was that made the waters drinkable? That’s right, it was a branch, or an “Etz” in Hebrew. An Etz is a tree. There were lots of trees near Marah, but the tree that made the bitter waters drinkable was a specific tree that “YHVH showed Moses”. The tree had to be be cut away from the earth and placed into the waters to give life to a nation on the way to the Promised Land. Marah is a picture of The Savior cutting His people away from our lives to render us unto The Father. Have you ever wondered if you really are saved or not?

His Salvation’s proof can be seen in our works. If our works give sustenance in the desert wilderness that is this world, to a people who desperately need His character to come alongside them and love them with tender lovingkindness, as well as Fatherly stubbornness against the evils within and without, then salvation is indeed true.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Mashiach Yeshua for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Baptism is both a fruit and a seed. Our Father’s creation of a world where baptism is a part of reality is baptism’s seed. Yeshua orchestrated that seed for each and every man who ever lived. The roots of baptism come alive when the Living Word of the Holy Bible are coupled with man’s lost heart, waking up for the first time. The trunk is shown when a man repents from sinful living and decides to start making plans to get baptized. The branches can be seen in all the thoughts and actions that God pours into the man through studying Scripture. Studying Scripture and actively believing are what cultivates an atmosphere for the leaves to function in their intended capacity. So are the believers that God places into our lives that support us as and sharpen us as we do the same for them. That fruit begins to blossom when our plans to get baptized start to form and become solid.

Is getting baptized anything? Baptism is nothing without it’s true purpose: an appeal to The Almighty. What were your intentions when you got baptized? Who were you appealing to? If your appeal was without the cares of the world, focused on He who orchestrated a just path for you to walk, then the intertwining of your schedule with His propitiated plan of baptism for you was a team effort between you and God: the branches. The fruit is the baptism which leads to the washing away of sins and the gift of the Ruach HaChodesh: nourishment. I pray this post has nourished you, my friend

_{NOTE: I tried to quit caffeine for a long time and could not: thus I found that it was in fact an addiction. Since writing this article so many years ago, through the prayers of a strong brother, coupled with discipline, I have been broken free from the addiction. So free in fact that at times I will have a cup of coffee and not fall back into the addiction again. Like I said, I am not chained to complete sobriety, nor am I chained to continuing to need it: I am truly free from the chains completely. He broke me free from this in 2016. There is hope my brother, as I am nothing special outside of Messiah, but by choosing Messiah in my daily actions, instead of losing my life I have gained it.} _{THIS IS NOT ENCOURAGING DRUG USE OF ANY KIND, WINE IS FOR THE BELLY, NOT THE MIND!}

Welcome to all the 55 new folks following GTS Since the last few days of August until this posts publishing! If you are in this group, say Hi in the comments and thank you for joining this Bible Study group in our little corner of the internet.