{"id":501,"date":"2019-02-25T17:30:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T00:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=501"},"modified":"2019-02-22T14:14:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T21:14:33","slug":"glorify-god-with-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=501","title":{"rendered":"Glorify God with Fruit!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[To follow The Ewellogy<\/em><\/strong>, please click on Leave a Comment<\/em><\/strong> above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email<\/em><\/strong>. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?<\/strong>
A. Man\u2019s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sometimes spend a lot of time talking <\/em>about glorifying God, but do we know, practically, how to do that? A common belief appears to be that we glorify God when we gather in corporate worship. But Jesus had a different view:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this is my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15.8, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is this “fruit” that the Father desires? Christian character is certainly part of it:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such <\/em>things<\/em><\/g> there is no law. (Galatians 5.22, 23, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if Christian character is all he meant by fruit-bearing, we wouldn’t have to go anywhere to do it…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit<\/strong> and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15.16, ESV, emphasis mine)<\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If our chief end is truly to glorify God, ought we not to spend more time bearing fruit? More time abiding <\/em>in Christ, the topic of John 15, and more time investing in people<\/em>. Both of which may require pruning, removing clutter, as I wrote yesterday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this is my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15.8, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?A. Man\u2019s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM We sometimes spend a lot of time talking about glorifying God, but do we know, practically, how to do that? A common belief appears to be that we glorify God when we … Continue reading Glorify God with Fruit!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-85","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":504,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}