You prove you’re my Disciples when you produce fruit!

Fruit of the Spirit
Loving
Joyful
Peaceful
Patient
Kind
Good
Faithful
Gentle
Self-Controlled

Fruit of the Flesh
Selfish
Frustrated
Anxious
Impatient
Uncaring
Bad
Disloyal
Harsh
Indulgent

"It's not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you"
-Batman

"I know that i fall short to glory of God all the time...I still cuss like a sailor...drink a little drink...smoke a little smoke but I got a heart for God y'all...i believe God can change and God can heal..." - Jelly Roll

True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would. - Dallas Willard (The Spirit of Disciplines)

"Faith today is treated as something that only should make us different, not that actually does or can make us different. In reality we vainly struggle against the evils of this world, waiting to die and go to heaven. Somehow we’ve gotten the idea that the essence of faith is entirely a mental and inward thing."- Dallas Willard (The Spirit of Disciplines)

"There seems to be something about the way we approach them, something about what we think it means to walk with Christ and obey him, that prevents most of us from entering into the reality which they express. The ease, lightness, and power of his Way we rarely enjoy, much less see, as the pervasive and enduring quality of our street-level human existence." - Dallas Willard (The Spirit of Disciplines)

Jesus could not have imposed anything that hard upon us. And besides, we’re in a period of grace—we are saved by grace, not by anything we do—so obedience to Christ is actually not necessary. And it is so hard, anyway; it cannot be expected of us, much less enjoyed by us. - Dallas Willard (The Spirit of Disciplines)

“Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried.” G.K. Chesterton.

The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit to the kind of life that will produce the action we know to be right and the condition we want to enjoy. This is the feature of human character that explains why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We intend what is right, but we avoid the life that would make it reality. - Dallas Willard (The Spirit of Discipline)

To depart from righteousness is to choose a life of crushing burdens, failures, and disappointments, a life caught in the toils of endless problems that are never resolved. Here is the source of that unending soap opera, that sometimes horror show known as normal human life. The “cost of discipleship,” though it may take all we have, is small when compared to the lot of those who don’t accept Christ’s invitation to be a part of his company in The Way of life. - Dallas Willard (The Spirit of Disciplines)

The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of principles to be obeyed apart from identification with Jesus Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting his way with us.” - Oswald Chambers

What is your strategy for how you will stay connected to God?

"Covenant"

Margaret Halaska

The Father
knocks at my door
seeking a home for his son:
Rent is cheap, I say.
I don’t want to rent. I want to buy, says God.
I’m not sure I want to sell,
but you might come in to look around.
I think I will, says God...
I might let you have a room or two.
I like it, says God, I’ll take two.You might decide to give me more some day
...I can wait, says God.
...I’d like to give you more,
but it’s a bit difficult. I need some space for me.
I know, says God, but I’ll wait. I like what I see. Hm, maybe I can let you have another room.
...I really don’t need that much.
Thanks, says God, I’ll take it. I like what I see.
I’d like to give you the whole house
But I’m not sure—
Think on it, says God, I wouldn’t put you out.
Your house would be mine and my son would live in it.
You’d have more space than you’d ever had before.
I don’t understand at all.
I know, says God, but I can’t tell you about that.
You’ll have to discover it for yourself.
That can only happen if you let him have the whole house.
A bit risky, I say.
Yes, says God, but try me.
I’m not sure—I’ll let you know.
I can wait, says God. I like what I see.