By Winnie Wun
When I passed by a table at the concourse after church service many weeks ago, I was asked whether I wanted to join a book study led by a church member. I had read about it in the church bulletin and it seemed interesting so I signed up.
We spent many Fridays together studying Bishop Emeritus Dr Robert Solomon’s book, The Virtuous Life — Cultivating The Fruit of The Spirit. It was a study on Galatians 5:22-23, which reads: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.”
We may think how it is possible to spend three months studying two verses in the Bible - but indeed, it is possible. For we are a stubborn, recalcitrant people, needing to be reminded repeatedly by a patient and long-suffering God. At the end of it, we realise we still have a long way to go.
Not only did we dig deep into God’s Word, but the animated discussions, sometimes dissent, showed us how much we needed to reflect on the Word and not just read superficially as we often do. And not least, the sharing of spiritual and physical food enabled us to get to know one another better. We do have some wonderful cooks in the group, and the sharing of living experiences with family and friends, all contributed to our fellowship.
The teaching in the Word of God has direct bearing on our daily life. As we step forward to share and open yourself to a better relationship with others, you will discover a warm fellowship with other like-minded people.
Let this be an encouragement to you - join our church activities*, and you will reap benefits in ways you did not expect!
By Blossom Tan
Luke 6:44 Every tree is known by its own fruit.
The Fruit of the Spirit is well described in the Bible in Galatians 5:22-23. Over 13 weeks, our Ladies’ Bible Study group of 14 warm, lively ladies took a deep dive to study the Fruit described in the Bible and the Fruit of our own Spiritual Tree.
Using Bishop Emeritus Dr Robert Solomon’s book The Virtuous Life - Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit as a guiding reference, June Teo, our facilitator, took us through each virtue of the Fruit to understand not only its Biblical definition and significance, but also what it meant and should look like in our daily lives, in our words, thoughts and deeds.
We learnt in particular that the Fruit of the Spirit is in fact the Continuing Work of the Spirit in us (Sanctification) and it is not for us to work hard on our own efforts to cultivate any one or more particular virtues, but rather, Fruit grows when we surrender to the Holy Spirit’s leading and sometimes painful pruning, moulding and refining efforts in our lives.
We faced hard truths that, if on honest and sincere reflection we concluded that our lives brought forth no fruit, immature fruit, fake fruit, or “monster” fruit, then it was a cold reality check for us to seek repentance before God and ask to come back to the Master, to come back to the Vine. We were clearly reminded that in John 15:2, Jesus said that every branch in Him that bore no fruit, such a branch will be indeed cut off, for it was useless to God!
As we journeyed together over the weeks, the constant exercise of reflecting and then seeking to once again abide in Him, the constant surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s work in us – it bore its own good fruit as we prayed for each other, journeyed with each other in our different seasons and reached out in love to each other at points of need.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples – if you have Love one for another (John 13:35)
Our humble Bible Study Group bore the important fruit of Love – our love for one another evidenced by our prayers for each other, our words of affirmation for one another and our deeds to reach out to another when needed, through sharings, visits and hymns.
In one of our Bible Study sessions, we sang the hymn “Spirit of God, You Know My Inmost Being”. This hymn was written by Martin E. Leckebusch, and sung to the tune of ‘O Perfect Love’.
1 Spirit of God, you know my inmost being;
all of my life is open to your sight;
help me to take to heart your probing counsel;
help me to yield to love's all-searching light.
2 My love, I know, is rarely what it should be;
my joy is all too shallow at its best;
my peace is fragile as a flower's petals;
my patience crumbles at the slightest test;
3 Self-interest haunts my kindness and my goodness;
seldom is true integrity my goal;
I lack my humble, gentle Lord's demeanour;
old habits undermine my self-control.
4 Spirit of God, beyond the flaws and failures
you know the person Christ would have me be.
Come, plough and prune, and make me fit for service;
come, plant and nurture your good fruit in me.
It is our united hope and prayer that from the seeds planted in this Bible Study, with the Holy Spirit as our Counsellor, we will grow more and more to be Fruit in His Image and Fruit Fit for His Service.
*Looking for church activities to participate in? Check out our list of upcoming events or our Family News E-Bulletin.
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