No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
Luke 6:43-45 NIV
Overflow
Each spring, the Canadian Arctic is the site of a fierce battle between water and ice. The flow of the Mackenzie River, swollen with meltwater, helps break up river ice and pushes north toward the Arctic Ocean. In some places, intact ice resists the pulses of water and spurs flooding. But spring warmth always prevails, and by summer the river flows freely into the Beaufort Sea. The rush of fresh melt water, called a “freshet,” is important for the hydrology of the Mackenzie River Delta because it recharges groundwater and sustains lakes.
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One of the key themes of the Bible is that what is inside us in a spiritual sense becomes obvious by how we live our lives and how we speak. Or, as someone once said, you don’t really know what’s inside a tube until you squeeze it, and you don’t really know what’s inside a person until they are squeezed. Jesus taught about this in Luke 6:43-45: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognised by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn-bushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” We need to regularly take stock of how we are living our lives, and how we are speaking. If our lives are marked by anger, impatience and ungodly actions or if our talk is marked by such things as cutting remarks and foul language, we need to repent and invite the Holy Spirit to fill us.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley