{"id":21399,"date":"2017-05-28T00:10:28","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T07:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=10916"},"modified":"2017-05-28T00:10:28","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T07:10:28","slug":"may-28-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/05\/28\/may-28-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"May 28, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cNow the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, \u2018Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.\u2019 And His disciples heard it.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Mark 11:12-14<\/span><\/p>\n

Clocks and Fig Trees<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

There is a clock on the wall where I work. Because of its design it has always been hard to read. Several months ago it quit working, but because of its size it has been left on the wall for decorative purposes. People coming into the office squint at the clock, trying to figure out what time it is until we tell them it doesn\u2019t work (even though it IS right twice a day).<\/span><\/p>\n

It reminds me of when Jesus cursed the fig tree because it had become just \u201cdecorative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

David Guzik\u2019s commentary on this passage says, \u201cEssentially, the tree was a picture of “false advertising,” having leaves, but no figs. The tree is cursed for its pretense of leaves, not for its lack of fruit; like Israel, it has the outward form but no fruit. In this picture, Jesus warned Israel\u2014and us\u2014of God’s displeasure when we have the appearance of fruit, but not the fruit itself. God isn’t pleased when His people are all leaves and no fruit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus said, \u201cWoe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness\u201d<\/em> (Matthew 23:27).<\/span><\/p>\n

I have to ask myself, am I like that clock and fig tree? Do I give the appearance of godliness, but inside am like those whitewashed tombs? If someone comes to me hungry, do I offer the Bread of Life?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLord, help me to walk the talk. I don\u2019t want to stumble anyone or misrepresent You in any way. In Jesus\u2019 precious Name, Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNow the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5z9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}