Fruit: From a Horticulturist

(The following was adapted from a conversation with friend who is a horticulturist. Her insights are presented followed by my own thoughts in italics.)

Growing fruit costs a plant an enormous amount of energy. Compare the amount of calories/energy in an apple with the leaves and bark of an apple tree, the latter leaving a terrible taste and few calories gained. More energy, flavor, scent, design and color go into the fruit than the rest of the plant. Plants are designed for their fruit to be taken to where it can multiply and grow. It doesn't matter that energy is hard to come by, photosynthesis being the only source. Plants that live year after year store energy to survive the winter dormancy and come back in the spring, but fruit and its seeds are the major channel into which collected energy is funneled.

This illustrates the principle taught by Jesus in the parable of the lost sheep in which a shepherd took great risks to find a lost sheep. God has given great energy and cost to save mankind from sin. How much energy, time, and money will we give for lost sheep?

Fruit is a vehicle for seeds: future plants. While the plant spends an enormous amount of energy on its fruit, the fruit is simply a means of transportation for seeds. The plant's 'goal' by producing fruit is to provide opportunities for more plants like itself to germinate and grow. The fruit itself is used up in the process, eaten or decomposed. Ultimately, a germinated seed is the result of a 'successful' fruit.

Did you ever think of yourself as the fruit of someone else’s efforts in the Lord? While you are directly connected to the vine (the Lord) others have taught, provided examples, and encouraged you. God used other Christians to plant seeds of Christianity in the ‘soil of your heart.’ You, in turn, are constantly dropping seeds on the many types of soil around you. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6 NIV) Do your part in the kingdom of God.

The plant has no control over which fruit/seed becomes another plant. Plants are not concerned with which specific fruit/seeds are successful. They focus on producing as much good fruit/seeds as they can. The more fruit/seeds the plant produces, the better chance that some survive.

Do you try to evaluate the ‘soil’ of other people’s hearts? Jesus didn’t. He preached, taught, healed, and helped all kinds of people. He never looked at someone and decided that they were not a good ‘prospect.’ He simply planted seeds. The Apostle Paul said that he adapted himself to different circumstances in order that he might win some to Christ. (See 1 Corinthians 9:19.)

There are many kinds of fruit. Each plant species produces a different kind of fruit. Each is well-adapted to its environment and designed specifically to be carried by a certain means. Whether by animal, wind, water, or person, each fruit/seed has a successful but often unique way of traveling and becoming a new plant.

You are the ‘touch of Christ’ in your world. You touch your family, friends, fellow Christians, coworkers, neighborhood acquaintances, and many others in a unique way. Just as the Apostle Paul was uniquely suited to carry the gospel to the Gentile world, you may be uniquely suited to plant the seed of God’s word in someone’s heart.

Like nature, our task is not to analyze conditions, past success, or probable future success. God simply asks us to plant and water the seeds of His word. He will provide growth where the soil of the heart is fertile. For now, it is springtime in the kingdom of God, a time for planting and watering.


Mark Stinnett

April 19, 2026

Pick and Choose?

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The truth of God’s word is not dependent upon human compliance.

In God’s word are many instructions regarding life and living. Some are more about an individual’s response to God while others lean more to the way we interact with each other. Whatever the instruction, nothing changes in God’s words if you comply or if you rebel. His instruction remains.

Let me show you an example of what I am thinking about with a statement passed around in recent months on social media. I do not know its source although it is attributed to Rev. Benjamin Cremer. I don’t know if this person really exists, and if so, if he actually said/wrote this. Nevertheless, this quotation and ones like it flood the minds of modern readers.

“If you take the Bible extremely literally about human sexuality, but not about feeding the hungry, bringing good news to the poor, liberating the oppressed, forgiving debts, bringing health to the sick, or loving your neighbor, please don’t act like you take the Bible seriously.”

That sounds good, right? It sounds good and right! Surely, anyone who takes the Bible seriously must be serious about those good works. And yet, you might already see the slight of hand the author attempts.

The author of the quotation has isolated two general activities and set them against each other. On the one hand is ’human sexuality,’ which might be placed in the broad category of holiness. It is about one’s moral response to God. We might even say that it is addressed by the first great command, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

On the other hand there are ‘acts of service,’ which might be placed in the broad category of love. It is about one’s love for one’s fellow man, something addressed in the second great command.

One of the reasons this quotation sounds as if it is the moral high ground is because the Bible contains something similar. In 1 John 3:17 we read...

Whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

However, let’s flip the original quotation upside down:

“If you take the Bible extremely literally about feeding the hungry, bringing good news to the poor, liberating the oppressed, forgiving debts, bringing health to the sick, or loving your neighbor but not about human sexuality, please don’t act like you take the Bible seriously.”

The way the original quotation reads, morality is set against loving service as if service is superior to morality. Yet, in the second modified version, loving service is set against morality as if morality is superior. Reduced down, both versions ultimately present tension between the first great command and the second. In reality, both commands come from God and do not compete. The second command is developed from the first and complements it.

If we look deeper, both commands are rooted in the character of God. God is holy and demands that we live our lives in holiness and purity. At the same time, God is love and He demands that we live our lives in love and service. In God there is no tension between holiness and love. God is holy in all his decisions and actions and, at the same time, He always acts in love.

So, do you need to love others through service? Absolutely. And also, do you need to maintain holiness through purity in your sexuality and all other aspects of life? Absolutely. Christianity is not a pick and choose menu. You are either a disciple of Jesus in every aspect of your life, or you are not a disciple.

Mark Stinnett

April 12, 2026

All Joked Up!

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His lessons were uplifting, a rich sustaining spiritual feast from God’s word. That was the first time I heard him preach. Then, a few years later, something had changed. He didn’t preach, he just entertained. We opened our Bibles, but the ‘lessons’ were filled with jokes and amusing stories.

• "Well, that’s like the man who…” (one liner) LOL
• “And that reminds me of the little girl who…” (joke) LOL
• “On one occasion when my boys were little….” (Illustration or just another funny? Hard to tell.) LOL

A friend’s daughter tallied 15 ‘funnies’ during the first half of the ‘sermon’ and then lost count. (Compare that to a late night talk show host who begins with a 4-5 minute monologue of humor.)

Jesus: jokester??

John: personal anecdotes??

Peter: one-liners??

Where was Paul’s amusing introduction to draw the crowd’s attention!?

“Jesus taught by telling stories,” we have been told. Yet how do the ‘stories’ that Jesus told compare to the stories told by preachers today? I have never once heard a preacher tell anything like the parables of Jesus that contain inexhaustible spiritual riches.

Almost 2,000 years ago Paul described our times:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. 

--2 Timothy 4:3

Too many times I have heard people remember the jokes and stories that preachers tell, yet forget the sermon content. Illustrations can be meaningful and might be amusing. However, when the humor distracts from God’s word, divine truth becomes secondary and is rendered ineffective.

Consider Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1:12-15

I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. (v. 12)

Read through the first 11 verses to identify “these things.” He was not interested in new or clever or funny. Rather, he was always ready to remind them of things they already knew to establish them in the truth.

I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder. (v. 13)

What did Peter use to stir the people up?

He remind them of what they already knew. It was the right thing to do.

And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind. (v. 15)

Peter was not interested in his audience getting all joked up. His goal was that they would remember, remember, remember the divine truth of God’s word after he was gone.

Given the choice of what to remember, choose the truth being taught instead of the illustration. Remember the Bible class lesson better than you remember the teacher’s personal anecdotes. Remember the content of the sermon rooted in God’s word instead of the name of the preacher.

What is your preference: God’s word preached or man’s entertainment?

Mark Stinnett

April 5, 2026