1 John 3:7 – 8 “Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.”
It was the fall of 1992. We were preparing to return to Ghana to serve in a remote village in northeastern Ghana. I was a highly qualified general and pediatric surgeon; yet, I was about to relocate to a small village where there was no hospital, only a modest health center with a handful of workers. Because we were needed urgently, we were about to leave the U.S. with less than half our funding assured. We could only trust that somehow God was going to supply our needs.
This was our second missionary term in Ghana. Before our first term, God had given us the famous verse from Esther 4:14 “Who knows but what you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Now we were asking God to give us His Word for this missionary term, and He directed us to 1 John 3:8.
When we took up our post in Saboba on January 23, 1993, little did we know that barely more than a year later, a tribal war would break out and we would find ourselves as the only source of medical care for more than 100,000 Konkombas. Before we were through, I had to re-organize the pharmacy and do an exorcism in the process, and initiate a laboratory and an operating theater. By 1996 we had crammed a 37 bed bush hospital into a health center building and were operating several hundred cases a year plus transfusing large numbers of patients. In the beginning, there was a great deal of opposition; when the tribal war came and we expanded services, it actually helped solidify our position. I should note that we had no electricity apart from a small portable generator and a modest solar system that was donated part – way through 1995. I have delivered babies by kerosene lantern, by torchlight (flashlight for you Americans), and by the light of battery – operated 12 volt tubes. (My husband is very handy and can rig up almost anything.)
Throughout all of these struggles, we had to keep reminding ourselves that God had called us and that we had not placed restrictions on that call but had told him we would come no matter what happened. And God destroyed many works of the devil. Eventually one of the key staff who had been looting the hospital was dismissed. God brought in supplies when we needed them and graciously provided strength and energy beyond anything we could logically expect.
Today in America we have groups claiming to represent minorities, but they are rioting, looting, and burning. Many times these groups have done severe damage to the areas in which the very people they claim to be helping are living. Here John gives us a very simple test for those who follow God and for those who do not.
“Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start.” It’s all about the fruit. Good trees bear good fruit. Bad trees bear bad fruit. And if your fruit is rotten, sooner or later, it will begin to STINK!!!
When I was growing up on an Illinois farm, we had lots of apple and pear trees in our yard. There was nothing more delicious than a nice fresh apple or pear. But there was also nothing more revolting than to bite into a piece of fruit, only to find that it was rotten inside, even though the outside looked fine. At some point, a worm or an insect had found its way in and had pierced the protective skin, leaving the fruit open to attack.
When we follow Christ and practice righteousness, we are protecting ourselves from spiritual attack. But if we start compromising and arguing with God, that righteousness can rot and quickly become sin. The question each of us must answer is this: what kind of fruit are you bearing?
PRAYER: Father God, we confess that we are sinners and that we cannot free ourselves from that sin. But we thank you that because of Jesus sacrificing himself on the cross at Calvary, he has already paid the price for our sins. We accept what Jesus has done for us and ask you to help us to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. Help us to bear good fruit, fruits of righteousness. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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