Fire On Your Head

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Luke 6:43-45

This is a passage that pretty much anybody who is saved has heard, quoted, maybe memorized or studied. It’s “christianese” to most of us, but let’s look at something usually overlooked, especially in light of the theme of my posts lately concerning the words we speak and the power of them. Much of what I’m going to present should be familiar passages of Scripture, but presented from angles you might not have taken time to consider.

When reading and studying Scripture it’s extremely important to keep context in mind, and it’s highly recommended that the Sermon on the Mount in either Matthew 5-7 or Luke 6, is something believers study and meditate on. In fact, there’s plenty of gold to unpack in the end of this chapter of Luke, and things are in the order they are in because there’s a correlation between each thought, and the Holy Spirit saw to it that our writings are the way they are–and written in the order they are–for a reason.

I don’t think many of you need to be told or have explained to you what a treasure is. The Word of God says elsewhere that where your treasure is, there your heart is also (Matt 6:21). If your treasure is valuable to you, its protected. Strong’s Concordance says of treasure, that this is the place in which good and precious things are collected and laid up. Is it not true that many people keep valuables in things like chests and safes, hidden somewhere that can’t be reached easily by just anybody except the persons entrusted with it? In fact, safes are made out of such strong metals and materials, that even if a house burns down, whatever is in those safes is still protected and you still can’t hardly break into them to get what’s inside! That’s why they call them ‘safes’, eh. Then it’s no secret as to why Solomon said the following:

“My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep [guard] your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.” Proverbs 4:20-24, emphasis mine. Again remember how these passages deal with the tongue bringing forth what’s in the heart. Guard your treasure.

What are you saying?

Ephesians 5:18-20 states: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The implications are clear: When we’re filled with the Spirit, we’re saying something. We’re singing something. There’s something different about our hearts and words. There’s rivers of living water that flow out of us (John 7:37-39). It’s incredibly obvious that words and speaking are one of the tell-tale signs of this. Blessing and cursing cannot be coming out of the same overflow (James 3:10), anymore than fig trees don’t bear thorns, and vice versa.

Look at how the Amplified Bible translates verse 45 of our text (emphasis mine):

“The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.”

What are you storing up in your heart?

I’ve said before in my posts,  if you sit and watch hours of TV a day or play video games constantly and spend only 15 minutes in the Word, you’re not in a healthy place as far as your spiritual inner man is concerned. The stuff you feed your heart is what will be there to come out of your mouth. You can’t speak to mountains and tell them to move if you’ve got nothing in there to say. You are what you eat. Everything we watch, read, spend our time doing–is feeding our spirits in some way, whether good or bad. “Harmless” things–even if not outright sinful–if they aren’t things that produce growth in our spiritual lives, then they are useless foods. Junk food in the natural doesn’t prepare us for extensive muscle use, neither does spiritual junk food prepare our use of spiritual muscle during fiery trials and tribulations. Jesus Himself said anyone not working for Him is working against Him. I’m not against TV and movie watching in and of itself–I’m against how much time people spend doing these things. Most Christians don’t want to admit it, but Hollywood and Nashville are preaching to them more than the Lord is, and these things filter their understanding of spiritual things. I know it’s impossible to chart every single thing we watch, talk about, do, read and make sure none of it is wasteful, but trying to live by that standard is definitely better than not bothering to at all–for the sake of your heart.

I know I’m sounding legalistic to some readers. But I’ve written before on how discipline is needed in the Christian life, but it’s not the same thing as legalism. I read some of the blogs out there, Facebooks, MySpace sites and just plain talk to some of you who will be reading this, and I cringe at some of the things so many believers are comfortable participating in!–in any of the cultures I have set my foot in. As a sidenote, can you really picture the disciples with Jesus in the boat or laying around a camp fire, and discussing the latest episode of The Office that was on the night before? Or if anybody had downloaded the newest Spiderman movie illegally on the internet? I’m not preaching against those idols in particular, it’s up to you to decide if idols in your life are idols that need to be destroyed.

But it’s also up to you how much you want to hear the voice of God clearly in your life and have more of the Scriptures come up from inside your spirit more often and more deeply, then I guarantee you–I say from experience–the junk needs to be cut out! It dulls you. Too many Christians are insensitive to the Holy Spirit because they’re too desensitized by the junk and dope of this world. Unblock and unclog the things in your life/spirit/heart/soul/[whatever the spot is exactly]–and remove the things that are in the way and polluting your vessel. Yes, God uses impure people to accomplish His will. Yes, God ‘uses us in spite of us‘, but imagine how much more He could have His way if we were giving ourselves more to His purposes than our own vain pursuits and entertainments?

That is not a rhetorical question, by the way!

If you enjoyed this post or were blessed by it, then you may enjoy mp3s we have for free download on our podcast dealing with these same subjects:

Fire On Your Head Episode 21: Spiritual Disciplines
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Transformed into the Image of Christ – message by Bob Gladstone
Download mp3 (right click and save)