Smallest Seed

Image from American Magazine. LIFE and Character Right from the start of Jesus' ministry, he made clear what the Kingdom really is---it's producing fruit. And by "producing fruit," it's like how trees produce them. Trees do not work hard or use effort to bear fruit. They just stand there and wait for God to do everything for it. John 15 says we produce fruit by remaining connected to the Vine---by remaining in Christ. It's really all that easy. Remaining in Christ turns your life upside down and strangely different from the lives of other people, very different from the world, in fact. It's radically, eerily and even "frighteningly" so different that a lot of people get scared and turn away from it, even church people (or especially church people and their leaders). Jesus enumerated the Kingdom virtues on a mountainside one day. Beatitudes Kingdom is life. It's not a religious organization or a particular theology or belief or

Image from  buildingiq. Kingdom Dynamics Very few things matter in the Kingdom, one of which is fruit . John the baptizer said, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance," as he preached, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is near!" Positions, titles, degrees, importance, achievements do not matter even one bit. It's fruit of repentance, proof that you have really radically changed. He saw Pharisees and Sadducees trooping to where he baptized at the Jordan river, and he called them "brood of vipers." They probably thought their positions, titles and accomplishments would give them special treatment and place in John's ministry. But John didn't spare them from his tirade. Imagine their shock. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Only Fruit Matters If they had come to church today they'd pr