Apple and peach orchards abound in my area of the country. Gorgeous in their flower ladened spring finery, they are equally stunning clothed in winter’s snowy mantle. But they are the ultimate vision of magnificence when heavily ladened with fruit.
At such a time, I delight in the memories of my nursery school days when we used to have orchard visits and get to pick our own piece of fruit from the tree. Being of southern heritage, my favorite fruit is freshly picked peaches. My! My! That aroma as you bring that piece of fruit up to your mouth.
There is only one problem. I am a lazy fruit eater and like to eat fruit that is as trouble free as possible. Peaches that cling to their inner stones do not qualify as trouble free. I am convinced God created cling free peaches for the likes of me. No muss! No fuss!
Because I do not like clingy peaches(or clingy people, now that I think of it), I do not enter the “Pick Your Own Fruit” peach orchards with pit- clinging peaches. Hellish to deal with, I avoid them.
Satan produces some hellish fruit that looks beautiful on the outside, but wreaks havoc on your inner spirit. Satan’s orchards have signs posted that clearly say “Come On In”. Although, I know God has put up His signs saying “Keep Out”, Satan has tried to replace them. Sneaky old devil! But, even with God’s “No Trespassing” signs in full view, there is one problem. How many of us take the time to read them? Rather we forge ahead, focusing on our own agenda. Isn’t that the most beautiful fruit you have ever seen? How could such beauty be harmful? Do you hear the Serpent hissing?
Perhaps you have eaten a piece of Satan’s fruit (or more than one? A bushel?). Or perhaps you only touched it, but still had a violent allergic reaction. And, like exposure to poison ivy, you experienced prolonged discomfort to the poison long after the initial encounter.
Does that sound like an encounter with Satan? Seemingly harmless? Looking beautiful in his fakery. When you take the bite of Satan’s fruit, you find out it is nasty fruit. Fake beauty. But do you learn your lesson or allow Satan to quietly coerce you and convince you that this one piece is surely just rotten and there is one that is ripe and juicy? God’s Word says Satan comes to rob, steal and destroy.
So what is a person to do? Bypass Satan’s orchard! Don’t even take a walk thorugh it to check it out. Run! to God’s orchards and fill yourself with His Fruit, which will never leave you hungry.
That’s what I did the first time I ever ate a peach with an effortless pit. I delighted in finding the orchard with the trouble - free peaches and never looked backwards.
I now heed the telltale signs and choose the orchards with fruit that cause me the fewest problems.
No matter how pretty and enticing the fruit may be in Satan’s orchards, God’s fruit is the most trouble free and the most satisfying. Pick it for your soul’s delight and nourishment. If once you taste Satan’s fruit, you will stay out of his orchards. Satan’s fruit gives you a belly ache and far worse…a soul ache.
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