HE MADE IT AGAIN!
FRUIT SALAD! Broken, spilled out, at Jesus’ feet.
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT:
Jeremiah 18:2 The word of the Lord told Jeremiah, ARISE, and GO to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my word.
4. And the vessel that He made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter: so HE MADE IT AGAIN another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2. Every branch in me that beareth NOt FRUIT He taketh away. And every branch that beareth FRUIT, He
purgeth it, that it may grow MORE FRUIT.
4. Abide in me, and I abide in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, ---
5.I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
MUCH FRUIT. For without me ye can do nothing.
I. NOTICE HIDDEN IN THESE VERSES A LESSON OF THE DEGREES OF FRUIT BEARING.
1. NO FRUIT
2. FRUIT
3. MORE FRUIT
4. MUCH FRUIT
ONE OF THE GREATEST GIFTS YOU COULD GIVE JESUS IS TO FORGIVE THAT PERSON WHICH YOU ARE ANGRY, DISAPPOINTED, OR BITTER.
THERE ARE MUCH SWEET FRUIT THAT GROWS FROM A FORGIVING HEART!
II. THE SPILLED FRUIT SALAD!
Here is a bowl of fruit salad for you!
I always make fruit salad for Christmas, it has been a family tradition for many years.
While at home, my Mom and Dad always received a lot of fruit for Christmas.
We would always make fruit salad out of the fruit and top it with marshmallows.
Apples were always abundant.
My Mom’s battle with cancer was near an end, it would be her last year with us here on earth.
As Mom was carrying the bowl of fruit salad to the refrigerator, and in her weakness she dropped the whole huge bowl of fruit salad.
She started crying and was embarrassed that she had dropped the bowl.
I hugged Mom and told her that was all right, we would make another bowl.
I was cleaning the gallon of fruit salad from all over the floor.
As Mom cried, she said, Son, we often get mad at people who spill things, parents get mad
at little kids for spilling things, a wife gets mad at her husband for spilling things, and sometimes spills
are a part of life.
I replied, Mom, you are right, sometimes we spill things, and wish we hadn’t, but it does not matter,
let’s laugh, clean it up, and make some more.
I ran to Winn-Dixie and bought more fruit, and we came home and made another bowl.
The whole family joined in, and making the second bowl was much more meaningful than the first.
We laughed and laughed remembering Christmas’ passed. The spill pulled the whole family together
to encourage Mom.
When it was all over, Mom hugged me again, and said, Son, you are a good son.
I hugged Mom back and told her she was a GOOD MOM.
I guess, I am wanting to tell you, if you spill something, don’t get mad, laugh, CLEAN IT UP,
and try again.
I PROMISED TO NEVER MAKE FRUIT SALAD AGAIN AFTER MOM’S DEATH.
The next Christmas the fruit on the table beckoned me, I had to make fruit salad. I had to make it for
my sons, and their sons. I made the most I had ever made. I bought $150 worth of fruit.
I took fruit to the rest home and gave a bag to everyone there. I made a huge bowl and shared it with my neighbors.
I took a bowl to a friend that was dying, and they greeted me at their door, I told them of Mom spilling the bowl and how we made it again. The older couple cried, and said we need to call some of our family over and share your fruit salad and clean up a mess
we have. As I got in the car and drove away, I saw the real fruit come out of the fruit salad.
III. SOMETIMES IT IS NOT SPILLED FRUIT SALAD, IT IS A SPILLED LIFE OR A SPILLED MINISTRY?
Mary had made a mess out of life.
All the people knew in the room that Mary was a spilled, broken mess.
Many people were in the room, and they all saw and judged BAD MARY!
MARY HAD WASTED AND MESSED UP HER DIRTY LIFE!
Jesus saw Mary differently than the others in that room that day.
Mary saw Jesus differently than the others in the room. Some wanted to see a sign, others were following the crowd.
As Mary saw her broken, messed up life, she started crying.
The next thing you know, is that Mary is at Jesus’ feet.
The best thing that ever happened to Mary was coming to the feet of Jesus.
As Mary cried she saw something different in the eyes of Jesus.
She humbly washed the Master’s feet, and her brokenness started to heal.
She dried the Son of God’s feet with her hair, and change occurred.
Mary illustrates the inward work in her heart by an outward sign.
Mary reaches into her purse and pulls out the most expensive gift she has.
This alabaster box is worth over a years salary.
As Mary pours out her LOVE TOKEN, she does not realize the importance of her actions.
She is anointing the very Son of God for His burial.
Wow, all of this because she was broken and spilled out.
All the other whole, religious experts in the room, missed their chance to minister.
Mary did what she could.
Are you doing what you can? Be honest? Couldn’t you spill out a little more?
The greatest gift you could give Jesus is to come out of the cave of self pity and quit licking your
wounds.
The potter does not throw away the clay that gets marred, he adds more water, and back to the potters wheel, and the good potter MAKES THE BROKEN MARRED VESSEL AGAIN.
THE LESSON OF THE APPLE? FRUIT?
I always use several colors of apples in my fruit salad.
The red and the yellow help make the fruit salad more colorful.
I was pondering about the apple in my fruit salad.
At one time that apple I am dicing on my counter was a bloom on a tree.
At one time that tree was a seed in the cold wet ground.
Many can see the apple on the counter, a few can see the seasons and years that the apple required to
become fruit, even fewer see the seed, the damp ground, the spout, the little tree, the cold winter, the wet and warmth of spring, the pretty blossom, and the little honey bee flying so busy all around.
Then there is the dry, hot summer, the developing apple, the process of maturity, the ripening, the picking, the bushel basket, and some of the apples are going to be crushed for cider or apple sauce.
Others will fall off the tree and rot, still others will be peeled for the pie.
Then there is the seemly, cruel process of pruning and cutting away excesses.
Then how about the winds and storms that tax to the limits, but to the apple that hangs to the tree,
there is a plan, so much had to happen before I washed this apple and started cutting it to be the center
of my fruit salad, so much had to happen, I never saw this?
But it is all a process of time.
The Father saw it all, the Father had a plan.
Someone had TO DREAM, they had to act upon the dream, to find the good ground.
Someone made the choice to plan to plant a seed, for me to hold this apple.
Someone chose to water a little developing plant, and hope to the future.
How much time and effort did someone invest in this tree and this apple?
Seems we have the ability to count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the apples in a seed.
I know not who took the seed out of the apple? I know not who planted it?
I know not who watered the little tree? I never saw the little honey bee land on the blossom?
I may remember a few of the storms that have passed?
But before me is sitting a bowl of fruit salad and I taste the golden delicious and the red delicious apples and
I owe a debt to many unknown people. How shall I repay them for their kindness?
As a blossom goes before the fruit, so faith must go before your miracle.
V. ONE OF THE GREATEST GIFTS YOU COULD GIVE JESUS IS TO FORGIVE THAT PERSON WHICH YOU ARE, BITTER, ANGRY
OR HURT. AS YOU FORGIVE ANOTHER, YOU WILL RELEASE YOURSELF FROM BEHIND THE BARS OF BITTERNESS AND DISAPPOINTMENT.
I shall invest in others and grow the patience to wait for the day!
Until then I must change! I must give! I must try again!
Until then I must understand the toils of my hands may not yield fruit salad tomorrow or the next day.
God help me invest today and trust you for tomorrow.
I understand the fleeing nature of life, yesterday in embryo; today opportunity;
tomorrow will be reserves, regrets, and retreats,
and unfinished deeds, unless I understand the process of time.
So for what ever time you have ahead, you must know your assignment and role in the plan of God.
Great test? Great testimonies? Big messes, big messages.
There would be no fruit salad today had someone not planned and someone prepared?
We can develop a spiritual attitude looking for prosperity and pie falling out of the sky?
We may be like the five virgins, pure and kept clean, but they had no reserve and they had not prepared
and expected the day to come.
If you always do, what you have always done, you will always get, what you have always got?
How insane is it to want things different and stay the same? If you do not like what you are getting,
change what you are giving?
Jeremiah 18:4 And the vessel that He made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter: so HE MADE IT AGAIN another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Please invite God to take your broken, spilled out life and make it all over again.
THE PERSON THAT NEEDS YOUR LOVE THE MOST, PROBABLY DESERVES IT THE LEAST.
What kind of fruit are you growing?
That spill does not matter, if you clean it up and try again.
Thank God for the apple today? Help me Lord develop a spiritual orchard for the Kingdom!
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
