Christine Caine on Her New Book: The Faith to Flourish
Maina Mwaura
Audio By Carbonatix
By Maina Mwaura, Crosswalk.com
It doesn’t take long for New York Times Best-selling author Christine Caine to start talking that it becomes evident that her cultural background is Greek. Caine, who has become an influential figure in young adult and women circles, is clear that we can do nothing without Chris and that He is the one that we must be rooted in. In her new book, The Faith to Flourish, Caine is clear that this book is different from her last books. In The Faith to Flourish, Caine takes a deeper look into studying the vine and branches, along with what it takes to produce Olive Oil, and how those three show us the power of what God can do, not just in nature but in his children. Caine is clear that although this book may be different from her past work, she is rooted in Christ, knowing that what God has given her to write will equip believers to be who God has called them to be.
CW: How is this book different from your past books?
CC: All different things start atop the Acropolis in Greece at the Parthenon. According to my parents, the beginning of civilization life, the universe, and everything started with the Greeks. I was standing at the top of the Acropolis, I have an anti-human trafficking organization, one of our bases is in Athens, Greece. I've been up on the Parthenon; I don't know how many times in the last 40 years. It's almost like, for the first time, I saw a little plaque called the sacred olive tree. You've got this barren Acropolis in Athens. It was a stinking hot day, 130 degrees and all the things, and there's this tree. How the Lord often works in my life is reading, through the Psalms and had gotten to Psalm 52, which of course is a psalm where, you know, it’s based on the story where David had kind of come after David, and Saul was coming after David, and the priests were killed, he had betrayed him and slandered him and David's hiding in a cave, and everything externally is a mess. In Psalm fifty-two, verse eight David said, but I am like a green olive tree flourishing in the house of God trusting in the faithful love of God forever. I had been thinking the whole time, why during adversity, challenge, struggle, tribulation, lies, betrayal, and physical danger. David picks a green olive tree. I was meditating, thinking about this. I'm now on the Parthenon, and there's a green olive tree.
My mother would've been waiting for this one book in my life that you go, okay just looking at this flourishing green olive tree in a barren place, the Lord just started stirring in me and the nerd in me started doing a little bit of a research, and I found, which of course, you know, how have I been breathing oxygen and not known this, that there are over 200 references to olive trees, olive oil, olive branches, olives, the wood from the olive tree throughout scripture, from Genesis through to Revelation. I mean everything from, you know, Noah and the ark and the olive leaf when the water receded to when Paul in Romans talks about us being grafted in, it's an olive branch that has been gifted to the family of God.
CW: How do Oliver Trees resemble us?
CC: As believers in this hour, when everything externally is chaotic, if we were created by God in Genesis one to flourish, to have dominion, to multiply, to go forth, if Jesus came, that we might have life and life more abundant, perhaps what is at stake now is the glory of God and our witness. Should we be bearing fruit and be flourishing in a world that is barren and in desperate need of beauty and truth. Everything that the olive tree represents, everything that the olive tree symbolizes. So, here's the cliff note version of what sent me on that journey into the scripture about the olive tree. When olive trees don't flourish, they resemble us.
CW: What did you learn about the Olive Tree in your research?
CC: Because our world is just so divided and chaotic, and people are languishing. I look at the body, and there's just a languishing, a tapping out of the faith. The glory of God reflected in the world today is, partially determined on the fruitfulness of the people of God, because it is to our Father's great glory that we bear much fruit of all the fruit bearing trees, the olive tree bears more fruit than any other tree. You could produce so much out of it because one olive can be pressed up to five times, this is for the nerds out there. I went to, seven different countries and talked to olive farm owners, in Morocco, Slovenia, Italy, Greece, and Spain, Peru just to name a few. There are so many things that can be done with the olive oil, from making soap to the oil itself. I feel if, if David said, but I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God, in the presence of God forever, we who have the Holy Spirit of God, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, lives on the inside of us, surely, we should be like olive trees within our spheres of influence. Whether you are a stay-at-home mom raising and homeschooling kids, or whether you're a corporate CEO, we should be flourishing in this hour because it bears witness to the God that lives within us.
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Photo Credit: ©Gettty Images / Eugenia R. Washington / Contributor
MAINA MWAURA is a freelance writer and journalist who has interviewed over 800 influential leaders, including two US Presidents, three Vice-Presidents, and a variety of others. Maina, is also the author of the Influential Mentor, How the life and legacy of Howard Hendricks Equipped and Inspired a Generation of Leaders. Maina and his family reside in the Kennesaw, Georgia area.
