Nourish your Temple

I feel the need to reemphasize the fact that being a Christian is to be a follower of Christ that you no longer have to be a slave to things of this earth. That does include "good" things. Especially if the actions are not done for Godly reasons.

"Satan does not care if you try to keep the ten commandments, provided that you take the credit for keeping them. In fact, he will assist your moral resolve if you will do it that way. Satan does not mind if you come to church, or teach Sunday School, or preach, or work for the freeze or lobby for a human life bill, or seek prayer in the schools -- he's all in favor of whatever your moral agenda is, provided you rely on yourself instead of the Spirit of Christ and take credit for it yourself instead of humbly giving all glory to God. So do not be unprepared. Our adversary has a clever scheme by which he aims to ruin us and the church."
- John Piper-

That was a quote I heard in a Cru meeting Last Thursday. I found the quote and reread it a few times, not because I thought it was flawed, but because it spiritually body checked me to the ground. I have been trying to bring glory to His Awe mighty name, but this quote nailed one question in my mind. If you don’t bring glory by your works, by the fruit you bear than how do you praise Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of all?

Using the knowledge bestowed upon me and talking to people I view as strong spiritual figures, I successfully vindicated my original hypotheses. Which is, good works do not lead to salvation but a good salvation leads to great works. So it is possible that someone seems to be bearing holy fruit on the surface but when you bite into the hypothetical fruit the inside is rotten. Be careful of these kinds of people for if you digest what they are saying it will ill your spiritual body.

The inside of a fruit and the core of a human are what really matters. It is possible to eat around a physical blemish on the surface of a fruit but if the fruit is not yet ripe there is no eating around it, even if the outside looks good and ready to eat. In the same way make sure your works are fully ripe not deceivingly presented. This does not mean if your core is ripe that you have His blessing to let the exterior of your fruit (your works) be bruised. For who would pick an extremely bruised piece of fruit to bring nourishment to their holy temple? And as Christian we are we not called to spread the good news bringing joy and nourishment to the ones we encounter? So grow and ripen your fruit on God's tree and keep your works as clean as possible so you may plant even more seeds for Christ. ‘And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.’ -Titus 2:7- NLT

‘Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you--unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected?’
-2 Corinthians 13:5- AMP

P.S.
Thanks again Janice for the Amplified Bible!