Cut . . . It . . . Out

This are quite old photos of persimmon/Sharon fruit trees. I used to love seeing the trees when they were full of fruit, whilst I lived in Albania. One of the reasons they fascinated me is because you would see a tree and it would appear DEAD. Almost all the leaves had fallen off or were dry and brown. The branches were dry and brown but yet bright orange fruit were hanging in abundance. It almost looked like someone had deliberately stuck them there, the way you would Christmas decorations.

It always seemed a contradiction to me. . . it also reminded me so much of the scripture that speaks of bearing fruit in and out of season....because these trees appeared dead or out of season but the fruit was there....

But this week, i randomly was thinking about these trees and another thought occurred to me. I started thinking of Matthew 7 and a few other scriptures that talk about knowing a tree by its fruit. How a good tree produces good fruit and vice versa.

I started thinking about this in relation to sin. How we are strongly encouraged to rip sin out at its roots, in our lives....to cut it off or cut it out....not to leave a trace. A bit like a cancer cell in the body, doctors can be so ruthless when dealing with cancer that sometimes some of the good cells around a cancer cell are removed as a precaution and to prevent it spreading. sin is like a cancer in us, but how many of us deal with it ruthlessly?

Its like that tree bearing bad fruit. . . but how many of us strip the tree of the fruit, stop watering it till the leaves dry up and fall off....we might go so far as to trim the branches...but if you have not rooted out the issue, no matter how dead the fruit appears....be careful because it can still produce fruit [usually when you least expect it].