Source: 1Happysnapper
The Others-oriented fruit of the Spirit series is the longest series I’ve published here so far. It’s taken us from love to self-control, meeting all the funness like longsuffering along the way. 
In general, the series was about shifting from receiving the
Spirit only for ourselves to promoting the Spirit and its fruit in others. It’s one of those needs we all have but don’t always realize. And certainly, at least in my case, rarely share.
I appreciate everyone who’s followed along. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and are able to spread the Spirit to others.
To make it easier, here are the links to the entire series all in one place.
The complete, Others-oriented fruit of the Spirit series
-Others-oriented fruit of the Spirit
Synopsis: The introduction tells what the others-oriented version of the fruit of the Spirit is about. It’s all about helping others develop the fruit of the Spirit in their lives instead of just in yours. (But I just said that here, didn’t I?)
Synopsis: How do you start someone’s love? You love them… in a practical, obvious way. It’s important here to focus on showing love that doesn’t require response.
Synopsis: Joy comes from taking our focus off the individual difficulties that are in front of us and focusing instead on the overall abundance God’s given us. When you and I help others realize their purpose and meaningfulness through Christ’s sacrifice, their natural response is joy.
Synopsis: Peace is calm through turmoil, not absence of turmoil. Guarding peace is preventative – it prevents problems before they occur. You can guard others’ peace by reminding of the protection God’s already given.
-How to increase someone’s longsuffering (patience)
Synopsis: Patience is what we want when longsuffering is what we feel. As with peace, longsuffering means enduring through the trials. So we can help others by enduring alongside them, not necessarily trying to take away the difficulties.
-How to magnify someone’s kindness
Synopsis: Kindness is subtle, so it’s often missed. Don’t miss it. You and I can magnify it by looking for the kindness in others and showing thankfulness for it.
-How to expose someone’s goodness
Synopsis: Goodness is tied to what God’s done, not what any specific person’s done. Exposing someone’s goodness is about bringing them back to what Christ did on the cross so we can all be amazing.
-How to appreciate someone’s faithfulness
Synopsis: Leaders the world over want faithfulness in their followers, but often, at least for myself, I don’t truly appreciate those who are faithful. You and I can do this by valuing the faithfulness that’s already present and adding more through encouragement.
-How to cultivate someone’s gentleness
Synopsis: Sometimes people aren’t gentle because they’ve never had an opportunity to practice it. They don’t know how to be gentle. I suggest letting them (and helping them) practice on you.
-How to train someone’s self-control
Synopsis: I think training for self-control is more effective when it’s focused on changing influences rather than directly attacking habits. So to help others with self-control, focus on surrounding friends with influences that promote self-control instead of selfishness.
Finale
If there’s one thing I’d like to leave you with from this series, it’s this:
You can spread the fruit of the Spirit by…
- Pointing to Christ and what He’s done for us and…
- Teaching others to do the same.
The Holy Spirit is all about pointing to Jesus. So when we encourage others to do the same, the Holy Spirit works through them.
When it comes down to it, that’s what this (and everything else I share here) is all about.
Serving Suggestions:
(1) If you’d like to come back to this series in the future or share it with others, you can bookmark or point to this post.
(2) In the comments, which of these did you find most useful?
(3) Now go spread some fruit.
Twitter Updates
Hi James – Very, very well done. Loved it.
You were talking about starting a magazine. I’ve learned that usually the biggest mistake we make is not trying. Whether we succeed or fail, we learn. And that lays the foundation for final success. Often not immediate, but it finally comes.
One of my family’s e-mail and book-reading friends is Phil Callaway, a Canadian Christian author/editor/speaker/humorist. His website is philcallaway.com or laughagain.com (same site), and his e-mail is phil.Callaway@prairie.edu. I mention him because he edits Servant magazine, published at Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, Alberta.
Since he’s been a magazine editor for quite a few years, I’m wondering if he could be a good source of advice for you. It may be a bit hard to get a response, because he’s one busy guy. Besides editing Servant, he’s written a bunch of books (which we love), and gets about 1000 requests to speak every year, out of which he accepts 100. But we’ve had pretty good success communicating with him. He does NOT do things like review unpublished book manuscripts. I’d keep questions short and specific. And I’d use several e-mails over a period of time, one question to each, instead of sending one long one.
And I’d definitely read one or two of his books. They’re worth it. (And right now he’s giving all proceeds to Haiti relief.) We started with “Who Put the Skunk in the Trunk?” (he did, as a kid), which I think is now called “Family squeeze” Others are “It’s always darkest before the fridge door opens,” and “How to be rich without any money.” My daughter Yvette’s his #1 fan here – she alternately laughs and cries through every one she’s read, and gives copies away to friends who are having tough times.
And I’m going on too long. Just hoped to compliment and encourage you.
Hey Pete,
I’ll email you about this because I’m not quite sure what you had in mind.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
Hi Marshall -
Sorry about that. I suspect it was confusing because I tried to make two comments in one. The top line was for this blog. The rest were for some comments you made several days earlier about your hopes to start a magazine (an e-zine, if I recall correctly), and your concerns about doing that well enough so it’d succeed. Does that make more sense?
When I was thinking about your hoped-for magazine, I realized one of our e-mail friends was the editor of an actual magazine that’s been around for some 20 or 30 years, I think. So I thought “Hey, Phil is one person who could give Marshall some solid advice on producting a magazine.”
The problem is that Phil’s so busy he puts strong restrictions on anything new he accepts. (He gets 1000 speaking requests a year, and accepts about 100 – 2 a week – plus his writing and editing.) And I didn’t want you to get ignored or told he doesn’t have time to answer questions – so I tried to tell you what’s worked for us in communicating with him. I was thinking that he’d reply if you wrote him something like this: “Phil, what’s the most important thing you’ve done to make Servant magazine both appealing and spiritually nourishing?” Very short, to the point, on your key questions, one at a time, spread out.
We only e-mail him about once every month or two, but he always answers, and we’ve become pretty good friends.
One little example of his humor – he and his wife Ramona celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary recently – a”Callaway-Bjorndal” wedding. Then he gave 6 examples of real couples who should think twice before hyphenating theirs. (Complete with a little copy of the newswpaper announcement.) Can’t even guess how he found them – but they included:
Hardy-Harr
Gowen, Geter
Looney – Warde
Wendt – Adaway
MacDonald – Berger
Poore – Sapp
Hope this cleared up my comments. My biggest problem writing has long been to be short and clear. Used to always be long, wordy, complex, intellectual. Was a champ at explaining things in very complicated ways. It was just how I thought. So I often “lost” people. Have been working on that but know I’m not “there” yet.
Yes, totally makes sense now. Thank you for the tips. Most of the comment did make sense in context – I think the beginning just threw (Plus, I might have been running on not much sleep). Thanks for the clarification.
-Marshall Jones Jr.