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"Bearing Good Fruit" Ideas

The purpose of this page is to share practical ideas to enhance our daily walk with God.

..."For the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." --- [The Bible, Apostle Paul, Galatians 5:22, 23]

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[I.]"The Tattered Beggar Who Sat On The Guardrail"

I had just received an urgent phone call telling me that Victoria, my 7-year-old daughter, had been admitted into Children's Hospital as an "emergency" patient. I immediately hopped into the car, and sped down the road not knowing what was wrong with her.

Approaching the hospital's entrance, I was abruptly stopped by a red light. I was anxious to rush into the emergency room and wanted to "run" this red light. As seconds which seemed like hours ticked by, I noticed someone sitting on the guard-rail outside of my car window. It was a man wearing old, tattered clothes and holding a brown cardboard sign which read, "Need Food".

I reached for a five dollar bill from my wallet, and started to roll down my window, when an "inner voice" said, "Don't give that bum your hard-earned money --- he will use it to feed his alcohol or drug addiction. He might 'carjack' you, or pull out a gun!" Upon consideration of these dangerous possibilities, I rolled up the car window, and raced to the hospital.

During the next week while Victoria recovered from a rare life-threatening disorder called "Kawasaki's Syndrome", I could not erase the image of that homeless tattered man from my mind, even though I was worried about my daughter's life. I prayed for Victoria and for the poor, hungry man.

Ten days after her admission, Victoria responded positively to medical treatment, and I received God's healing answer for the guilt I had experienced by not helping the tattered man. God directed my heart to drive to the local grocery store, to walk to the canned fruit section, and to fill my cart with canned pears with the "pull tab" lids. I placed these pears in the back seat of my car.

One month later, with Victoria fully recovered and riding in my car, I stopped for a red light at a busy intersection. In the middle of this intersection stood a tall African American man holding a white plastic bucket with a "Food For The Homeless" label on it. I rolled down my car window and asked the gentleman if he was soliciting food for a legitimate cause, or for his on personal use. He said that his name was "Pastor Davis" (which is my name!), and he assured me that all donations go to the Homeless Shelters. So I grabbed all of the canned pears from the car's backseat and placed them in Pastor Davis' bucket.

All of these events occurred two years ago and, to this day, fresh canned pears sit in the backseat. I tell you this story not to "toot my own horn", but to encourage you to keep fruit in your car for dispensing to the needy, and to ask you to "pass on" GOD'S idea to everyone you know. Canned fruit allows us to bear the "good fruit" of "love" and "kindness". ---Doctor Mike

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