"The fruit of the Spirit is love--temperance, kindness, longsuffering, meekness, goodness, joy, peace, and faith are the flavors, textures, colors: different and detectable but all part of one fruit. Remember one thing: fruit is not magic. It does not appear overnight: growth is real but slow. Protection and cultivation are vital. Setbacks there will be. Waiting and working are not always contradictory. Let us never lose heart. It is, after all, the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit is God-created, not man-made."

*God willing, November's posts will be focused on praise and thankfulness.

"We should study 1 Corinthians 13 repeatedly--not as a beautiful and inspiring poem, but as a practical, down-to-earth workbook. This is the way all true children of God act and react: the only way of life and divine fellowship."

"My mind was ruled with small cares to-day,
And I said pettish words, and did not keep
Long-suffering patience well; and now how deep
My trouble is for this sin! In vain I weep
For foolish words never can unsay.

Yet not in vain, oh, surely not in vain!
This sorrow must compel me to take heed:
And surely I shall learn how much I need
Thy constant strength my own to supersede,
And all my thoughts to patience to constrain.

Yes, I shall learn at last though I neglect
Day after day to seek my help from Thee.
Oh, aid me, that I may always recollect
This gentle-heartedness and oh, correct
Whatever else of sin Thou seest in me."

"Now is our opportunity for exercising ourselves in divine requirements. When Christ is in the earth, our one-time thirsty brother will not need a cup of cold water at our hands, our one-time ill-clad sister will not need our clothing. Too late will it be for our perishing neighbor to hear the gospel message from our lips. The door is open to us in these matters whilst Christ tarries. Woe unto us if we are not now busying ourselves in his concerns. We shall find to our cost that he who has opened so that no man can shut, will, in the day of his coming, shut so that no man can open."

"They who have kept their sympathies awake,
And scatter joy for more than conscience sake;
Steadfast and tender in the hour of need,
Gentle in thought, benevolent in deed;
Whose looks have power to make dissension cease,
Whose smiles are pleasant, and whose words are peace;
They who have lived as harmless as a dove,
Teachers of truth, and ministers of love."

"No one who knows the truth, can flatter a world which is ignorant, unbelieving and disobedient, and be guiltless before God."

"Do everything in love: love of God and love of man. Forget yourself. Forget all your own desires: they will never give you any real satisfaction--only frustration and disappointment. There is nothing there: so quit looking for it there. Get independent of personal pleasure and desire. That is the greatest emancipation possible. It frees you to get into the real joys and satisfactions--which are all in love of, and work for, God."

"What we are building is a life, a character, a record, an eternal engraving on the changeless stones of time. This is the whole purpose of our divinely-given existence. It must be clean and worthy and holy and beautiful. The two essential ingredients in the development of a beautiful character are love and tribulation--in just the right, divinely-prescribed and divinely-applied proportions. Together they are the furnace that purifies the gold and purges the dross, the sun and storm that nurture the raw and spindly sapling into the mighty, sturdy tree, the hammer and chisel that shape the formless marble."

"Temperance is self-control. This is a hard thing to achieve if you are prompted by the wrong motives. Control through fear is a struggle which is likely to end in failure. Control for the sake of respectability or through anxiety to avoid detection is at best fragile. When all is said and done the best motive for self-control is love. Love of our brethren: love desiring their advancement; love seeking their salvation. What a blessing it is so to live your life that none of God's family is ever harmed but rather blessed and encouraged, strengthened and provoked to love and good work."

"Some virtues can be practiced, but not meekness. It is unconscious."

"Faithfulness means loyalty to the Truth, even if it means a diminution of your rights, an interference with your progress, risking your reputation."

"Faithfulness means being very careful about your promises and about your relationship with others. It means to be ready to give up your own special preferences, your own scruples, your own strong opinions, if they may hinder your brother or sister or cause them to sin."

"Faithfulness has to do with integrity. It is another word for fidelity. It means being faithful to your word: true to your accepted responsibility, whether in business, in marriage, in the ecclesia. It outlaws the thought of shirking or shedding your duty, be the reason ever so plausible."

"Goodness means doing good things and refusing to do bad things. It is love of that which is good and hatred of that which is evil; doing good for the love of God."

"Kindness is having a keen-eyed but obstructive capacity to discern the need to meet it lovingly. Fame and reward have no place here. Put simply, kindness is love communicating."

"Kindness is not doing great things occasionally: it is doing small things regularly, and not minding that they seem small."

"Longsuffering is having infinite patience."

"At the heart-center of our life, deep below all problems and weaknesses and failures, must be peace with God. It must be the real thing: God must really be a party to it. It must not be self-delusion: self-delusion is very easy. Peace with God can only be based on the Truth, and on total effort that springs irresistibly from total love."

"True biblical peace is the union of conflicting forces, concord where otherwise might be strife. Peace through love means ending strife and bringing harmony because of love for those who are estranged."

"Joy: the healthiest, happiest, most satisfying human emotion. God offers it freely to all, in measureless abundance; immediately, permanently, eternally, perfectly; under all circumstances and in all situations--but--only on one immutable condition: total separation from the world, and total devotion to Him in love and service. Part way will accomplish nothing but disappointment and frustration, for the very essence of joy itself is dependent on the absolute totality."

"When joy is gathered, it is gathered in order to be spread.

"Joy is not one blinding flash of ecstatic happiness which comes suddenly and then is gone. It is a constant force of shared delight which is undisturbed by circumstances, good or bad: in a sense unattached from the undulations of life but always sensitive to the needs they create."

"Love and hate have one thing in common--they both increase at compound interest. If you try doing good to someone, ere long you will come to regard them differently. The spirit of love will ennoble your relationship. Act lovingly and you will come to love, even the most unlikely people."

"Love--though it may cost you dear. Love--though it may never be repaid. Love--though men rend your heart. Love--and keep your spirits from being hardened and embittered."

"Kindliness is thoroughly opposed to meanness, to malice, to mischief of every description. It bids us have faith in one another; it bids us bear long with one another; it tells us to be obedient, respectful, and tender to our elders; firm yet indulgent to our juniors; reasonable and gracious to our equals; just, thoughtful feelings, and helpful to our inferiors."

"Contentment and hopefullness recognizes God's sovereign hand in every situation. We must have faith-birthed optimism that looks to God. We must make sure our attitude is more aware of and grateful for the evidence of God's grace. We must remain confident in God's faithfulness."

"Meek means yielding, gentle, mild, patient, calm, and soothing; not aggressive or self-assertive or bossy; cheerfully putting up with wrong and present disadvantages for the sake of eternal good."

"Meekness is the first requisite of the clay--rigid control of its passions and full submission to the hand of the Potter. The clay must be pliable, workable, teachable. Humility is the handmaid of wisdom, for to see ourselves just as we are in God's sight and to confess our position, is humility. Being such as we are, there can be no other result of true self-examination except humility. Add to this self-control, a rare and godly combination, and we have meekness--perfect material for divine manipulation."

October's posts will be dedicated to learning more about the Fruit of the Spirit and how to apply it to daily life.

"God does not ask us for great accomplishments. He is not an exacting Master--He is a loving Father. What does a Father ask but love, and what else can we give Him? He asks us to love Him with our whole heart, mind, and soul, and to let that love pervade and direct our every act, thought, and word. That is all--but that is everything."