The Wild Olive

There is a tree called the wild olive tree. It grows bad fruit. The fruit is very small, has a large stone and not much flesh. The flesh it does have is very bitter, so it is not edible.

In Psalms 1: 3 and Proverbs, the Bible talks about Christians as being trees. Matthew 7; 16 says, “You will recognize them by their fruits.” In Galatians 5:22, Paul says , “But the fruit of the spirit is, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

If you had an apple tree, you watered it every day, you watched it grow. And in season, it didn’t produce any apples, you might wonder if it really was an apple tree.

Some Christians are the same as the apple tree that didn’t produce, or the olive tree that had bad fruit. They may look like Christians, do all the things that Christians do , but you have to look closer, as Jesus says in Matthew 7: 17, “Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?”

I grew up in the Catholic Church. My parents were very strong Catholics, but I never felt saved. I knew all the stories but I didn’t believe them. I looked at the characters in the Bible like one would look at a story book character. I really didn’t quite understand. I wanted to. I remember going to Church on Easter, with a friend, and I wanted so bad to be saved, but I wasn‘t. It wasn’t until I turned thirty, met my husband, Mark and said the sinners prayer, then I truly believe I was saved.

I know that God had his hand on me before that time though. Jeremiah 1: 5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”

I had read the Bible many times but until I received the Holy Spirit I could not understand the words I had read. 1 Corinthians 2: 9- 11, “However it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him- but God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him.” 1 Corinthians 2: 14, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So, look for the good fruits in others, look for the good fruits in yourself, and if you don’t see those fruits, pray for others to be saved, truly saved or for yourself, pray for Jesus to enter your heart, as in Romans 10: 9, “That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead then you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”