{"id":23610,"date":"2018-08-02T03:30:44","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T10:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=23610"},"modified":"2018-07-31T13:32:17","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T20:32:17","slug":"august-2-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2018\/08\/02\/august-2-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"August 2, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cSo when the woman saw the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate…\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Genesis 3:6<\/p>\n

Low-Hanging Fruit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

My little brother and I used to go to our babysitter\u2019s house during the summer months. Her backyard was full of fruit trees and forts. The forts were really abandoned chicken coops scattered with feathers and dirt, alongside sheds with rusty mowers, rakes, and hand trowels, but our imaginations made them prisons and fortresses on battlefields. We prisoners were only allowed to eat the low-hanging plums that hung hot and sweet in the trees. Wasps and bees buzzed us as we bit into that sticky, dripping purple fruit. On hot summer afternoons, anything wet tasted good.<\/p>\n

Low-hanging fruit is right before the eyes, a temptation for anyone who is hungry for something. You can\u2019t help but see it as you walk along. It seems to cry out, \u201cEat me! You know I\u2019ll be amazing!\u201d Low-hanging fruit is in your face, and seems to get in the way of moving forward.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with eating fruit, of course, but it\u2019s a good way of looking at temptation. You may go looking for that low-hanging fruit\u2014you\u2019ve visited that tree before, and you know the dripping sweetness of it, and for some reason you forget that you got stung last time you ate it, or you got a bellyache. Or you may come across the tree as you\u2019re on some other errand, the fruit beckoning, catching at you, calling your name to come closer, take a look, have a taste.<\/p>\n

If you sidle up to that sin tree\u2014just to get a closer look, to see what\u2019s there\u2014you\u2019re going to hear the enemy whispering that this Christianity, this life of following Christ, is restrictive. You\u2019ve misunderstood God\u2019s intent\u2014He never meant for you to say no to what He created after all\u2026 and like Eve, you succumb. You see that it’s good to eat. You didn\u2019t taste it yet, but you saw it, and you didn\u2019t look away, even though God has said, \u201cThat won\u2019t be good for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

If a doctor says to me, \u201cYou will die if you drink poison,\u201d then I can assure you I will not drink poison. Never in a million years would I drink poison, even if it smelled like lilac. Why, then, do we covet sin, when God has just as plainly told us we will die if we sin? We\u2019re just like Eve. We don\u2019t think we will die. Not any time soon, anyway. We tell ourselves that God was talking long-range\u2014not here, not now, not me.<\/p>\n

When the low-hanging fruit grabs my attention, I choose to shift my gaze to the horizon, that I may focus on the prize, the goal, the end of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod, grant me spiritual concentration to focus on You, for You are my prize. I choose to inherit an everlasting kingdom rather than enjoy the low-hanging fruit of sin. By Your Spirit, my eyes will be open to only You. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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