Ours, or His?

As I was reading in the Desire of Ages about Jesus cursing the fig tree, some things came together. Here goes:

Here is the condition of the fig tree that Jesus looked for fruit on:

“It is the nature of the fig tree that before the leaves open, the growing fruit appears. Therefore this tree in full leaf gave promise of well-developed fruit. But its appearance was deceptive. Upon searching its branches, from the lowest bough to the topmost twig, Jesus found "nothing but leaves." It was a mass of pretentious foliage, nothing more.” 'The Desire of Ages', pg. 581.

Pair that with this:

“And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that theywere naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” Genesis 3:7

And then this:

“Those who thus live for self are like the fig tree, which made every pretension but was fruitless. They observe the forms of worship, but without repentance or faith. In profession they honor the law of God, but obedience is lacking. They say, but do not. In the sentence pronounced on the fig tree Christ demonstrates how hateful in His eyes is this vain pretense. He declares that the open sinner is less guilty than is he who professes to serve God, but who bears no fruit to His glory.” 'The Desire of Ages', pg. 584.

Adam and Eve first made this mistake. They tried to cover their lives with outward show. God doesn't work like that. The fruit comes first. By the time you can see outward manifestations of godliness, the fruits of the Spirit are well developed. This was quite a lesson to me this morning. What lessons can be learned from nature! I want to ask Christ to produce fruit in me. How about you?

God bless friends,

-Schane

(BTW, sorry about the weird highlighting, will have to see what I can do about it...) :-)