Fruit - Title taken from Samantha Swaney's Blog - http://thisonetime-samantha.blogspot.com/

I will start this by having you pull out a Bible and turn to Matthew 7:15-20. Read it.

Now, for a moment I want to focus on the last verse in this passage. Vs 20. “Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.” This passage has been on my heart for quite some time, but I found it rather ironic that the story I am about to relay to you took place this week. As everyone knows, at least everyone that has contact with the outside world, Michael Jackson died and the media coverage of everything has been constant. Presidents who pass away do not receive the coverage that MJ did and will continue to receive. I found it rather disturbing that so many people would say things like, “The king of pop is with the King of Kings.” or “He is looking down on us right now.” Statements indicating that his arrival in heaven has now been concluded have been tossed about as if the status of his soul was sealed without any credence given to the Word of God. I posted on my FaceBook page this statement, “I am astonished that there are so many people that believe MJ (Michael Jackson) as the "king of pop" is with the "King of Kings". There is no evidence that this would have ever been the case or that there was a regenerated heart...wake-up! Wow, the feedback was incredible. I was hit with everything from “you are right “ and “I agree “, to “you don't not know the condition of a man's heart”, and the Bible says “judge not lest you be judged.” Jesus says that you can know the condition of a person's heart, and the whole judgment verse (Matthew 7:1) has been taken out of context. Let's take a look.

A person's heart is evident by the fruit they produce. In the passage we just read the false prophets will be known by their fruits. While the bulk of this passage deals with discerning the false prophet pretending to speak truth, the actual discerning process takes place by the comparison of the bad fruit to that good fruit produced by the good tree. So, you will know each by the fruit produced. The Good, and the Bad. Dr. Ed Glasscock says, "Jesus was saying to watch the lives of the teachers to know the genuineness of their teaching. Fruit is a metaphor indicating the end result of one's character or efforts." D.A. Carson says this... "Living according to kingdom norms can be feigned for a time; but what one is will eventually reveal itself in what one does. However guarded one's words, they will finally betray him." You will know them by their fruit.

Matthew 12:33-37 is another passage where Jesus is rebuking the religious leaders of the day, and after He compares the fruit of the bad and good trees again he calls them vipers and says, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Jesus demands that we take a close look at those who would lead and counsel and we should seek to see the real fruit of their life. For those who would say that we are not to judge citing Matthew 7:1, they are correct that we should not judge in the context meant – arrogantly judgmental as the Pharisees and Sadducees were. They are quite wrong when it comes to what they are really saying. They are really saying that we shouldn't hold anyone to any standard, even Biblical standards, and, in not doing so, not be held to any standard themselves. Jesus did not see it that way. Here, the disciples are taught to compare good and bad fruit in order to be discerning, and in John 7:24 He says to "...judge with righteous judgment". Stott puts it this way. “The command to judge not is not a requirement to be blind, but rather a plea to be generous. Jesus did not tell us to cease to be men (by suspending our critical powers which help distinguish us from animals) but to renounce the presumptuous ambition to be God (by setting ourselves up as judges)." I agree...The pharisees were constantly judging others by comparing what the others did to what they did, and in doing so supplanted the role of God with themselves. We are never to do that. Jesus rebuked them constantly for such things and it was the pride of the religious leadership that God the Father used to place the Son on the cross. We are not to be judgmental, but we are to take a look and ask “is the fruit I see good fruit or bad fruit”...the end result determines the very nature of a man's heart. Is it God's heart, or has your heart remained with lawless one?

Let's take a look at the fruit. What is the fruit? The first fruit of a life that has been turned over to God is the fruit of repentance. In other words, a life once led by the lawless one and is going the path of this world – to hell – is now changed and repentance has occurred. The focus is now on Jesus the Son of God instead of self and the way of Satan. Repentance will occur at the point of true belief, and for the Christian it must perpetually occur. At the point of salvation it is by nothing of us that it happens, only through the changing power of God. In Matthew 3:7-8 we find John the cousin of Jesus rebuking the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance." Ironic isn't it, both John and Jesus call the same people snakes and let them know exactly who they were. It wasn't judgmental, it was the truth and John was telling the religious people that he wanted to see the fruit of repentance. True repentance, that is turning away from sin and in faith turning to God will always yield more fruit, or visible signs of such a radical change. The Pharisees and Sadducees did good works all the time and John was letting them know that their works were not good fruit, in fact, they needed to repent and then their fruit would be worthy. Jesus said you will know them by their fruits and the first fruit is repentance, which only occurs through the power of Almighty God.

There is more fruit spoken about in scripture. In fact, James says this in chapter 2:26 "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Do you display the fruit of faith or the fruit of an unbeliever. Works will not save anyone from hell, but if you are a true believer you will perform works, not for you, but for God, out of love for what He has done for you. James wrote it for us plain and simple – there is no faith without works as the fruit of that faith. What kind of works? Well, what does your neighbor need? What does your fellow church member need? and what does your brother/sister in Christ need? You tell me what kind of works are needed in your sphere of influence. James asks earlier in chapter 2 "will you feed the hungry and clothe the naked or will you tell them to leave and you will pray about it?" Umm, that was paraphrased... You do not have to pray about it – help them out...period. Do it because you love God and through that you can love others. The fruit of a true believer is shown in works born of faith and displayed not only to our neighbors but in an even greater way to our brothers and sisters in Christ. In I John 3:17 it says "But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" And he goes on to say in verse 18 "My little children, let us not love in deed or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." If you claim to be a Christian, don't you dare just talk about faith and the good stuff you have heard, show it, if you do not, the love of God does not abide in you. If the love of God does not abide in you, then you have to ask yourself are you really of God...Don't believe me? In verse 14 of the same chapter John writes "We know we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death." If you have a truly regenerated heart, meaning you are a true believer, your works, your actions will show it and you will love each other, and others you come in contact with by actually helping them. The Bible says so. So, you will be known because of the fruit of good works to other believers and to others you come in contact with throughout life.

There is the fruit of the Spirit. We have all heard of that, right? Maybe even have them memorized...Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." We have spoken of love, but is there joy in your life? True joy which is founded in Jesus...the kind that sustains through hardships and difficulty, that joy is what we are talking about. The joy that can only be of God. Do you have peace? Do you live in the peace that flows from God and is evident in your life? There is a settled state about a person that is in God's will and is doing what he or she has been told by God to do – no matter the outward circumstances, there is a peace, and it is from God, and it will show. Is the fruit of patience evident in your life? Paul has written here that we will be patient or long-suffering, why? Because God is that way with us. Period, it is that simple. Husbands - is your wife not being the wife that she should be? We are to be patient like God is patient with us. Wife, is your husband not the man of God he should be? Be patient, as God is patient with you. There is nothing your spouse can do to you that you have not done to God. Kindness will overflow into our daily life. Goodness will be part of who we are. Gentleness will become the norm even for those of us who are not so gentle. And we will have self-control because we are living for God, all these things are fruits of the Spirit. We will not be perfect, but we will constantly be perfected, and these fruits will shine through because God is in control and His Spirit lives within us. The fruits of the Spirit will be known to those who see you and watch you, they will know you by your fruits.

So far we have covered a small portion of the fruit that will be evidenced in your life if you are of the good tree bearing good fruit. What does fruit from the bad tree look like? Just prior to the fruits of the spirit we have a list. Galatians 5:19-21 says this, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Now that is a list of bad fruit. Does this mean that if you commit one of these sins you will go to hell? No, but it does say that if you practice these, meaning you habitually stay in one of these sins the chances that you are truly a believer is slim to none. God will not allow you to remain in that sin forever if you are his. You will be convicted and ultimately, He can choose to kill you if you are His and you do not get out of the sin you are in...He will not allow bad fruit to be shown to the world as being from Him for long. By this fruit people will know you. Are you of the lawless one or are you of God?

In I Peter 4 we find another list of bad fruit that is very similar to the one from Galatians. Peter lists lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. We could go on for quite some time listing all the bad fruit, but it truly comes down to one thing – bad fruit is sin. In I John 3:4 it states, "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. In verse 8 it says, He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning." That is bad fruit – sin is the bad fruit. If you take a look at the fruit you bear, do you see good fruit or bad fruit. Do you know that you are constantly sinning and breaking what God wants us to do and you feel no conviction? Perhaps the Holy Spirit isn't present in your life. I saw a video clip this past week from a sermon and the preacher was saying some much-needed and little said things. He was saying to run from gospels that preach anything other than the gospel we have here, run from preachers who steal your money, and run from a church that you attend and you do not feel convicted of your sin for it is a den of devils... Let this be a warning to you, if you feel no conviction of sin you are not saved. In that case I tell you to run to the Saviour. If you see good fruit, that is great. I encourage you to see where your fruit can improve, better yet, ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you need to improve – your eyesight may not be that good. If you see bad fruit and that is all you see, then you need to understand that verse 8 in chapter3 of I John doesn't stop at He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. It goes on to say, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. "

In this statement is the Gospel. We spoke earlier about the first-fruit of repentance. One of our jobs is to share the gospel – this too is a fruit of righteousness. The salvation experience is accomplished only by the power of Almighty God when we choose to believe that Jesus is who He says He is. Let me explain – The Son of God was manifested in order to destroy the works of the devil. Satan came to Eve and tempted her and she caved – Adam sinned with her and so sin entered the world and all man kind has been born a sinner from that time on. The path is laid and the choice is made – we are going to hell and our fruit or works is of Satan and for him because we are trapped in the bondage of sin. But there is a way out and Jesus provides that way because He is the only way, the truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father except through Him. Now pay attention – this is great. All three aspects of the Trinity are a part of conversion. God the Father draws first (John 6:65), God the Holy Spirit grants understanding and conviction of sin (John 16:13), and God the Son (Jesus) provides the way which was the death, the blood sacrifice, the final atonement and the resurrection again through the power of God by virtue of the Father and the Spirit through His body. But we must choose to believe in faith and upon that, we are granted forgiveness and continued restoration as we are also given a new heart that produces the good fruit. The first of which is repentance and as we grow in Christ-likeness more and more fruit of the Spirit will show as He is manifested in our life. What's your fruit look like? Is it Good fruit or bad fruit?

You can know the condition of someone's heart by their fruit. More importantly, you can know yours.

Easter Reflections

Easter Sunday tends to tweak a few more thoughts and emotions from me than most...I assume. I look at congregations that meet in the buildings that the Church meets in and they are larger on Easter than any other day of the year. Those of us that go on Sundays to the buildings where the Church meets are a touch holier than usual as we verbalize the fact that we are "grateful that He is Risen" and "death has been defeated!" Then, we leave, and the question becomes, "are we grateful the rest of the year and do we live it, the resurrection that is, or do we just celebrate it?"

Easter...google the word and you will come up with a litany of websites and people within those sites explaining the history. I have heard and read many differing opinions as to the origin of the holiday. Historically, the earliest version is that Easter was a goddess of sex that is what became of the wife of Nimrod after her death. The story goes that she came back to Earth in an egg after she became a goddess. The worship of her is tied into the worship of her son, Tammuz(ironically not Nimrod's), who himself was worshipped as a god and babies were sacrificed to him on December 25. The babies were conceived on an altar to him as virgins were raped by priests on the day that Easter is celebrated. It is interesting that as far back as the tower of Babel there is worship that centers on mother and son, but that is another matter entirely from the one at hand...maybe...
There are more pagan traditions centering on the origins of Easter from the Greeks seeking to please the goddess of Spring, Eostre, to the Saxons, Eastre, etc. the list is quite long, but it is safe to say that Easter is a pagan holiday whose origin has nothing to do with Jesus, His death, burial, or resurrection. The symbols of Easter have an almost unholy universalism with culture after culture having extremely similiar symbolisms and beliefs associated with springtimes, gods and goddesses, and rejuvenation. The point is, until the Catholic church decided to be relevant in its attempt to assimilate their faith into whatever culture they were working with at the time, what we enjoy at Easter time regarding rabbits and eggs and even the date, had nothing to do with what Jesus did as He stepped out of the tomb.

So I observe this and wonder if we should celebrate Easter at all. After all, what Jesus did as His role in the Trinity, will last for eternity...and we should live it, not celebrate it.

There is a root of a thought that is starting to grow within me. It goes something like this...The very idea of a celebration is that it comes to an end. It starts with preparation and anticipation, it climaxes, and it is over and we clean up so we can start our "regular" life again. That is not the purpose of the cross, the burial, and certainly not the resurrection. It is designed to give us life as it was meant to be, for an eternity. It was never meant to be for a day. There are some of you reading this and are probably angry and you have thoughts like, "How can you say this, I am grateful everyday for what He did for me." and, "There is nothing wrong with my kids enjoying an easter egg hunt." Let me ask you something, "It's currently the day following Easter, what have you been thinking on all day?" What will you be thinking on next Saturday, next week, or next month? The economy, your job, your family, the kids grades, how they are going to go to college? What drives you? His resurrection or your life? His resurrection or your desires for your kids? His resurrection or how bad things are for you?

Here is the point, until we live like there was a resurrection, the celebration for a day means nothing. His blood is enough, His death was in our place, He became sin for us, and took the wrath of Almighty God in our place, and His Resurrection defeated death for all eternity...if we believe in Him. If you do, for real, live it every day...be as joyful everyday as you were on Easter Sunday. Live everyday as breathless and in love with Him as you were on Easter Sunday...and if you don't know Him as I do...you can. Read John 3...the whole chapter...you must believe...should you have questions on believing respond with contact information...

Live life as if every day was Easter...because He has risen...everyday!

I don't really know how to start this...so i guess I will jump right in. Recent events surrounding folks I know from all ages have really made me think about faith, my faith, and the faith of my family. Salvation and the method to salvation appears to be the focus, but there are more words like regeneration, repentance, and restoration that are involved and on the horizon of such a topic as salvation. Recently I have been asked such questions as "How do you know you are saved?" and "Can I walk away from the faith?" Here are a couple of others..."Is it a choice or are we "pre-destined" to salvation?" and "Why don't I feel convicted or repentant?"

How does one know if he or she is saved? Good question...quite frankly more people should ask the question and answer it legitimately. By the way, 1 John is a huge book that helps in asking the right questions. Regeneration is a big word for the things I did like, I now no longer like, and the things I hated I now love. A regenerated heart is key to knowing if you are saved. Do you love the things of God or do you follow the things of the world at every turn? Do you want and feel the need to be a disciple, or could you care less about spiritual growth? Here is the last question...Do you constantly seek the limelight or do you willingly give it to God for His honor and His glory? There is no method to salvation, only belief, all else is of Him and Him alone. A regenerated heart has only become regenerated by the awesome, unimaginable power of Almighty God...it is regenerated by nothing you have done.

Can I walk away from the faith is another question recently asked by more than one person. Short answer...yes, if you never truly believed in the first place. Shorter answer...no, if you truly believed in the first place. You are not strong enough to rip yourself away. Upon conversion, salvation is permanent, and in its permanence you are constantly being saved. Salvation means healing and the human is in constant need of the Almighty's healing. But what about the passage in Hebrews 6 that says...stop...it is refering to the apostate church and those that never believed in the first place. When the "time of belief is about the show, that person has got to go"...to hell! When it is for real there is only only one place to go and that is to work for God himself and following the example of Jesus, listening and following the Father, and listening and doing as the Holy Spirit prompts. By the way...as a side benefit, we end up in heaven...glory! We are only able to have this faith apart from awesome, unimaginable power of Almighty God...it is by nothing we have done or will do.

Choice or predestination? This can be a volatile issue but it doesn't need to be. I have friends on both sides, but I believe those in the predestination or "God chooses some" camp are a bit delusional. God is sovereign, so He knows all and He knows who will choose him or will choose to remain on the path to hell, but it remains a choice. There is a reason that Jesus told Nicodemus the story of Moses and the children of Israel having to look at the serpent on the pole in the middle of the camp. The people were bitten, they were dying, and the only thing they had to do was to look and they would live...remember the story? But they had to make the choice to look, they did not have to...unless they wanted to live, and so it is with us. Jesus became sin on that cross and died in our place to be buried after his death and be raised again so that we choose to believe or not. His blood is enough to cover every sin committed or will be committed but the choice is for us to make...and we would not have a choice to make apart from the awesome, unimaginable power of God...this gift exists by nothing we have done or will do.

Why don't I feel convicted or repentant? Wrong question, you should ask why you are not convicted and have I repented along with if I have repented do I continue to do so? 1 John 1:9 is for the christian, we should continue to turn and go to God, but there shouldn't be a feeling of repentance...it is simply an action that can be brought on by conviction. Conviction and repentance can go hand in hand but they are not to be confused with remorse. Judas Iscariot was remorseful, he even gave the money back, but he did not repent and ended up killing himself...he did betray the Messiah to death, and he knew who he was, but he never truly repented, he just felt terrible. Conviction is a job of the Holy Spirit and upon conviction there is a choice...for the believer it is to repent and walk in His grace. For the unbeliever conviction from the Holy Spirit brings a choice of believing or feeling bad (remorse) for a time and returning to the old way that is already set and leads to hell. It is far better to choose to believe that Jesus is who he says he is for that belief leads to everlasting life...and it is all through His power.