D.O.A.

For the handful of you who may not know, D.O.A. is an abbreviation for the term "Dead On Arrival". Today is a good day to reflect on the indictment of the fig tree, a story in Scripture that for some reason keeps resurfacing from the pulpit of Bronx Bethany... it seems that some people are not listening yet, and God has been demonstrating amazing patience in His willingness to stay His hand of judgement.

As we were reminded on Sunday, there are certain principles we must understand:

If you're not growing spiritually, you're probably dead.
Those who are not born again are spiritually dead, and as such cannot see the kingdom of God.
If you claim to have been born again, but you are not growing spiritually, then you are either dying or dead.

In the spiritual world, just as in the physical world, growth is a key indicator of life. Scripture exhorts us to grow in grace, to add to our faith, to demonstrate a maturing in our love for God and each other. A lack of growth indicates that we are both ineffective and unfruitful (Second Peter 1:8). A lack of growth also leads to spiritual blindness and spiritual near-sightedness, which becomes apparent in our conduct and our decision-making processes: a lack of growth evidences itself in a lifestyle lived from impulse rather than from the directive of the Spirit of God.

The strange aspect of this "dead-ness" is that the spiritually dead often appear to be very much alive. Pastor Sam alluded to the cut flowers in the sanctuary, which were beautiful, in full bloom, but had no roots. In the same way, we can pretend to be the carriers of spiritual life, but after a season it will be apparent to all that we were just putting on a show.

I leave you today with a paraphrase of one of Pastor Sam's comments: the indictment of the fig tree (Mark 11:12-25) is that it was presenting a great horticultural display, evidenced by an abundance of leaves, but lacked what was required of it as an agricultural plant- there was no fruit.

Jesus is looking for fruit. What will He find when He walks up to you?