God Said: "You Shall Know Them by Their Fruit", I Believe Him

"Just believe" has been the gospel message for as long as I can remember. While it is true we must believe in what Jesus Christ did on the cross to pay for our sins, we must also obey the other things He said to be saved; change minds (repent), confess sinfulness and desire to be changed by Him. These are all a part of believing in Him.

Matthew 4:17

"17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Repent means to change one's mind about their sin and about Christ. When we realize we are sinners and cannot pay the penalty for our own sins, then we can trust in Christ. However, if we want Christ without admitting we have a sinful nature then we are not changing our minds about our sins. Christ said; "you must repent."

Then after we have changed our minds we must trust what He did for us and desire to be changed by Him. These are not works these are thoughts of the mind.

Many people for many years have been trained to only use the word; "believe" without any explanation causing many pretenders, and false converts who have no idea about holiness, obedience to the word, or desiring to be changed by Him. They said they believed and those with a false gospel accepted them in as brothers and sisters. This is the reason we have so many pretenders in the church today.

When Christ changes us in response to our confession, repentance and desire to be changed, we are no longer the same person.

With the pretender, they "believe" but remain the same person they were before they said they believed. No change has happened and there is no desire to be changed by Christ, most often there is no Bible study or there is academic study to appear more intelligent than others, but the commitment to Christ is not there in their heart.

Many of these pretenders went to Bible school and Seminaries to feel a sense of being above others or the need to work their way to heaven through knowledge. There are many pretenders who hold positions in the pulpits today who were not only not called by God to do it but are not even born-again.

Pretenders have the ability to "act" as they are expected to act around those they wish to impress but it is not the real them on the inside. A pretender is not regenerated by Christ but can fake it around those who expect certain things of them. This is the cultural Christianity that has been a large part of our Christian experience for many years.

A pretender can go from friendly and kind to angry and raging at the drop of a hat because the real them emerge when they are confronted with their false teachings. The nature of the pretender remains the natural bent of defensiveness when challenged. They do not have the Holy Spirit so pretending to be like a Christian is their mode of operation until they must account for themselves, then the real self rises to the surface. This is also one of the reasons we see elderly people who seem to get worse in their old age when they have been in church all their lives.

Those who have been authentically born-again do not rage at others no matter what is said and done. They may become adamant but they are generally kind all the time because it is their nature to be kind. The authentic believer remains the natural bent of the new nature in Christ when they are challenged.

Matthew 7:15-20

A Tree and Its Fruit

15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?

17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 1

18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits."

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

The born-again believer does not have a need for a rule not to become angry because anger is not a part of their natural response in Christ Jesus. If they slip up and allow the flesh momentarily to act badly they quickly confess because they hate what they have done. The pretender is never sorry for their anger, in fact, often they justify it and never confess it. The pretender does not hate what they have done and in many cases are proud about what they have done that displeased God.

1 John 1:9

"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The pretender is embarrassed by righteousness even repelled by it, but the born-again believer who loves Christ and His principles love His Law, they do not need rules against stealing, adultery or any other violations of the Law because they don't have any desire to do those things. The hate it when they fail, because they love the principles of Christ.

The godly person operates according to their new nature in Christ without pretense.

The ungodly operate according to their natural bent toward manipulation, causing people to believe things about them that are not the real them on the inside. They cannot "be" kind and loving, they can only pretend to be so.

We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, however, within the word believe is embodied confession of sinfulness and a desire to be changed by Christ.

Many people "believe" in Christ but never confess their sinfulness and have no desire to be changed by HIm, these are the pretenders, those whom God will not change because their belief is merely academic, not systemic.

Anyone can pretend to be a Christian with a few words they repeat and constant church attendance, but this does not mean there has been a transformation by Christ.

This is why as believers we need to have more in-depth conversations with people than the pablum coming out of superficial church gatherings.

Being on the right side of politics, doing the things that make someone a good citizen in the culture can be done by anyone who wishes to avoid trouble in their lives, it is not a measure of whether or not someone is born again.

One way to test a person's spirit is to challenge something they say they believe by asking for the Scripture that supports it. Most people either will not engage or they will bring up a Scripture out of context to support what God never said.

The pretender has two natures, the one they show to those they wish to impress and the one they show to those they dislike. One loving the other angry. The pretenders are controlled by their feelings more than rational thinking. The pretender can switch from friendly to rage on a dime because their feelings do not tolerate any correction or disagreement. Another thing I have noticed is that the pretenders gravitate toward familiar ritual that may not even be Scriptural. Rituals bring good "feelings." The pretender leans often if not always toward the feelings instead of the facts.

The born-again believer has two natures, the Christ-like nature that is the same on the inside as on the outside for others to see. The fleshly nature that is under the control of the Holy Spirit. They are not perfect, when they fail they hate it. They are generally self-controlled, as God said would be one of the fruit of the Spirit. They may feel angry at times but it does not control their actions and attitudes. and when they fail they confess to be cleansed as God commanded in 1 John 1:9

1 John 1:9 "1 John 1:9

"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The pretender never grows in maturity,emotionally or spiritually because they never confess their wrongdoing. The born-again believer grows in direct proportion to how often they confess to be cleansed by God. Those who will not confess do not grow.

1 Corinthians 3:2-3 "…2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready,

3 for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man? "

May many people who have walked in pretense all their lives realize they must change their mind to desire change by Christ and confess their sinful nature.

May those who withhold the gospel message out of fear they are judging, let go of their pride in desiring to be seen as a good person by the culture and speak the truth to those who might be perishing. In order to do this though, one must be steeped continually in prayer for guidance from the Holy Spirit and in the Word of God, His principles are the very essence of Who Christ is, they will guide all that we do and they will expose problems that need to be confessed.

God said "you shall know them by their fruit", I believe Him.

Another Violation of the Scriptures of Christ that is Mocked in our Day

I had a question from someone about the teaching of the practice of the head covering and thought it would be good to put the answer to that question here too.

1 Corinthians 11:5-7 "…5And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for it is just as if her head were shaved. 6 If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. And if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. 7A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man."

The men are to be uncovered and the women are to be covered during the gathering, not all the time. If the women were to wear the covering all the time then the men would have to be uncovered all the time. God said that a woman is to be covered when she prays and prophesies in the coming together of the gathering for worship.

There is nothing in the Scripture that says this has ever been changed and it is for the sake of the angels. The angels learn from us all the time.

If the covering was as so many people say; "for back then" a custom of the time then why all the explanation in chapter 11 about the order of man and woman. Some people have tried to explain it away by adding to scripture but with a straight reading of the Word in context, we see that it is for all believers. Some say the scripture says; "we have no such custom", this is a mistranslation, the original language says; "we have no such custom of being contentious about this, and we have no other custom than this, all the churches are doing it in obedience to God."

This is one of those things that has been done away with back in the 1960s when women began to shed all their responsibilities. The covering for a woman was a matter of obedience to show her role as under the man. The lack of covering for the man was to show his obedience under God as the leader of the home and in the church.

When I was a child all women wore either a cloth covering over their hair or a hat but most didn't know why, they thought it was respect because no one was teaching this practice. Then when the Pope decided the women didn't have to be covered anymore suddenly, almost overnight the covering went away everywhere except in some small groups.

In all the countries of the world except the western countries, meaning Europe and the United States, the women are covered. What is different? It is clear that western countries are more modern and disrespectful of the Bible.

This is not to say that the other countries of the world are doing everything right, but it does show that they are not as "fashion conscious" as the western countries and they are less "feminist oriented."

It was feminism that was the driving factor in the removal of the covering in gathering. Notice that the men still remain uncovered, although they don't know why in most cases, but the women who have rebelled against any sort of submission have chosen to uncover to be like men.

Men and women have different roles, it has nothing to do with equality in God's eyes, its just the order of things God commanded. Order does not equate to less or more equal, it is according to the job God has for each gender, one is not better than the other, just different.

The devil managed to convince women they didn't have to be under anyone, that power over others was preferable to submission. Men do not have "power" over women in God's order, they have influence and responsibility to their families, their wives and under God. Women's responsibilities carried out in God's order has influence, just in a different way.

The best way for the devil to ruin families was to remove the most powerful influence in the home, that is the woman and divide her attention from the family to that paycheck outside the home. Once the woman left the home the children began to be raised by school systems, paid babysitters, and the culture rather than their mother. The mother's influence declined within the family. It harmed the homes of those mothers who did remain the keeper of the home because now the entire culture was against the very important job she did there.

Even now, when a woman chooses to remain in the home, taking care of everything there and teaching her own children, she is mocked and diminished in the community as having less intelligence. Women's lib has destroyed the family but they could only do this because the women didn't know the Lord, didn't know the Bible and became greedy for power and money.

This article will be an affront to many women, the purpose is not to cause anger but to show God's order and perhaps those who still can return to the home will see the value of obeying God.

Homemaking is God's design for the woman, the covering is also God's design for the woman. If you are strong enough to obey God and ignore the mocking of the world, you can see the value of God's way and obey Him.

Follow Only Jesus Christ, Following Men Will Lead People to Hell

Beware of following any man, in these last days, we must depend entirely on Christ in us and His Word. So many people in my mother's day, (I am 70), were cultural Christians following the culture rather than Christ. Most didn't even know their Bibles.

 
They had Bibles but they gathered dust in the house almost never read. Also, if they were read and the Bible said something different from the culture around them, they went with the culture.

 
This is the reason there are so many people who believe something is Biblical when it is against God's Word. They will even fight to defend their sinful mentality by intimidating truth tellers into silence by calling them things like "legalists" or rude for correcting. Once our eyes are open they can never be closed again, to the false Christianity that is everywhere now.

Dave Hunt said the following:

That arch heretic, Norman Vincent Peale (who said on national TV that there are many other ways to God besides Jesus Christ) was praised by Billy Graham and other church leaders. It was Peale who brought psychology/psychiatry into the church some 70 years ago. For decades, the entire evangelical community rejected this enemy intrusion as heresy destructive of the faith before succumbing to its siren song. Today, secular psychology and psychiatry, the most atheistic of all professions, are the darlings of the evangelical church.

How could this happen? It happened through baptizing psychology by attaching the word "Christian" to it. That deceit convinced Christians of the outrageous fiction that God's Word does not provide sufficient guidance for today's living but that we need additional help from rank unbelievers and Christ haters in order to live for Christ. As Newsweek reported long ago:

Christians are realizing that being born again is no vaccine against mental and emotional illness. One result: Christian psychotherapy, a for-profit movement aimed at mining new markets by offering evangelicals a Bible-based approach to problems from anxiety and depression to sexual abuse and schizophrenia.
"We use the same teachings and principles as other psychiatrists," says psychiatrist Steven Schultz, medical director at LifeCare's Ft. Worth center. "But we do it in the context that we're Christians." 

What a damning confession; and what delusion! There is no "Christian context" for psychotherapy, which didn't exist until 1,800 years after Christ paid the penalty for our sins and the gospel began to be preached (Mk 1:1; Phil:4:15). Schultz could not have said more clearly that, for Christian psychotherapists, Paul's "Christ in you, the hope of glory" is an empty slogan without meaning for today's Christians! Besides, if everyone believed on Christ, found "peace through the blood of his cross" (Col:1:20), and obeyed His Word, the truth would make them free (Jn:8:31,32)--and psychiatrists and psychologists, "Christian" or not, would be unable to earn a living for lack of clients. That "for-profit" growth industry is jealously protected and promoted by its adherents at the eternal cost of souls!

We Can See the Fruit

Matthew 7:15-20

You Will Know Them by Their Fruit

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 1

16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

This fruit of the Spirit is evidence that we belong to God and the way in which each believer can identify their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Every born-again believer has this fruit, it is the very character of Christ Who dwells in us. It is unmistakable to those who have discernment.

There is nothing more wonderful than to belong to Christ, to learn the lessons He has for us and to discover new truths from His Word. And an added bonus is our brothers and sisters who will be our siblings forever in paradise.

Hallelujah!!!!!

Libbers Devalue Women

Women's libbers are ashamed of their gender, they think only men have value which is why they want to be like them. I feel sorry for them.

Talk about low self-image, any woman who cannot accept the special way God made women are missing the whole picture.

Women have tremendous influence in the home and with their husbands if they want to follow Christ.

Those who wish to see themselves as foolish and innept because they aren't a man are missing out on much of life that God planned for them.

Take a look at Proverbs 31, read how the woman's life is very full of meaning and purpose for those who are capable of thinking for themselves instead of being told by the world what they should be.

Women's libbers are pawns manipulated into feelings useless if they are not a man. This is the devil's ploy to destroy their wonderful talents and gifts.

God says that a wife who operates the way described in Proverbs 31 has worth far above rubies.

A woman's God-given roll is very diverse and busy, as well as creative. Those who are not creative in the home are that way because they see no value in the home or family compared to their careers.

Proverbs 31

"An excellent wife, who can find her?

For her worth is far above jewels.

11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,

And he will have no lack of gain.

12 She does him good and not evil

All the days of her life.

13 She looks for wool and linen,

And works with her hands in delight.

14 She is like merchant ships;

She brings her food from afar.

15 And she rises while it is still night

And gives food to her household,

And portions to her attendants.

16 She considers a field and buys it;

From her earnings she plants a vineyard.

17 She surrounds her waist with strength

And makes her arms strong.

18 She senses that her profit is good;

Her lamp does not go out at night.

19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff,

And her hands grasp the spindle.

20 She extends her hand to the poor,

And she stretches out her hands to the needy.

21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household,

For all her household are clothed with scarlet.

22 She makes coverings for herself;"

Her clothing is fine linen and purple.

23 Her husband is known in the gates,

When he sits among the elders of the land.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them,

And supplies belts to the tradesmen.

25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,

And she smiles at the future.

26 She opens her mouth in wisdom,

And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

27 She watches over the activities of her household,

And does not eat the bread of idleness.

28 Her children rise up and bless her;

Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:

29 “Many daughters have done nobly,

But you excel them all.”

30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,

But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

31 Give her the product of her hands,

And let her works praise her in the gates."

Satanic Strongholds are Growing More Blatant and in Greater Numbers.

There is a town in Minnesota called "Anoka" in which my mother grew up. She lived on the outskirts of that town on a farm in a huge farmhouse that her family rented. She described this home as so big in the hall upstairs that when her aunt came to live with them all of her furniture fit in that hall.

I was perusing the internet today looking for a possible old mansion that was in the area of Anoka, wondering if I could get a glimpse of the old home my mother always spoke about.

I was in Anoka a number of years ago passing through but didn't have time to investigate anything while there.

I didn't find the home, but what I did find was a little shocking. The town of Anoka prides itself on being the Holloween capital of the world.

This little town has a Halloween parade and many festivities as well as tours of all the haunted old mansions that are still standing.

Having begun the carnival-type activities in 1918 in an attempt to stop the chaos in the street caused by wild people celebrating Halloween, The planners of the festivities in order to calm things down, created the festival with booths for seances, tarot card reading, evil looking ghostly figures like scarecrows all over town. The more frightening the better, as well as food and fun things with which to frighten themselves. In other words this was what my mother grew up thinking was fun.

My mother was raised in the Lutheran church so when she moved to Oregon at age sixteen with her parents that was the denomination they attended.

At these festivals in Anoka, they have men walking around in white coats with blood all over them as though they had killed something and many other bizarre and terrifying ghoulish-looking costumes. In other words, they are celebrating evil, demons, and mayhem.

Part of me understands why I was raised in a family that disregards Christ even though they attend church. I was raised on Halloween as a happy fun time of year to go out getting candy. We didn't dress up in anything because we were a relatively poor family but we celebrated the season along with the rest of the culture.

We were never told Halloween was an evil time just the opposite. My brother as a teenager loved the most frightening rubber mask he could find and would run around terrifying the children with it as though this was all great fun. Our parents went along with the joke endorsing what he was doing and everyone laughed.

Having been raised on Halloween as a child myself I continued the tradition with my own children for the first part of their lives until I became born-again. After I trusted in Christ my eyes were opened wide to the demonic nature of this Holiday and I wanted nothing more to do with it.

I was involved in the Catholic religion before I was saved and married my husband, we married in the Catholic church.

After my husband became born-again, new in the faith, he agreed that we would not allow the children to dress up as anything evil, but he still wanted to do it. I made a rule that if we had to hand out candy we would also place with it a Christian tract so that the foolishness of the holiday was not totally wasted, and he agreed that would be alright. So each child that came to our door God a gospel tract.

So many Christians think their children will miss out on something if the children don't have all the holidays everyone else is celebrating. It's not true, all the holidays are promoted by the parents and the public school system. If the parents never did it and the children were homeschooled they would not miss what they never had.

The point of this article is to demonstrate that there are Satanic strongholds in our country, the west coast is one of them and the state of Minnesota is another. Both are very liberal and culturally Christian areas that thrive on false religion and rituals to carry them but lacking concern about authentic salvation.

There are other places too that are dominated by devils. Since the devils couldn't fool some Christians" by promoting blatant evil to be seen by everyone, the devils used another tactic, making religious ritual and cultural ways more important than God's Word.

This is why we see far more phony Christians everywhere than we find authentic believers dedicated to Christ, even unto death.

Everywhere we have lived I have encountered many people who claim to love the Bible but have little knowledge of it. It is more like an amulet in their home to ward off devils but not something one actually reads to obey God. If they do read it they ignore all the things they don't like that would go against the cultural standard. And, sometimes even worse they deliberately misinterpret the Bible to fit the lower cultural standard, a sinful standard.

I know this because of the frustration and even rage that comes from people when we correct them from the word of God, their first response is to act as though we have done something rude instead of feeling ashamed that they dishonored God.

Mark 7:13 "13 Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”

2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

Those who have sought after Christ will remember their own stories like this in which they encountered more cultural Christianity than truth among those who attend church gatherings every week to the end of their lives.

Giving Up or Not Giving Up

Many people in our culture think that "not giving up" is the highest virtue, but I see it another way. It is not about whether or not we give up, it's whether or not God told us to stop trying at something He doesn't want us doing.

We are to walk away when God tells us to, we must be sensitive to what God wants. "Not giving up" is not a virtue in and of itself, sometimes we are told to stop hoping for what God does not want.

There is a saying; "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result." Einstein said this, he was a scientist so his assessment did not include an action in which God may want us to hang in there until His timing is right.

When we keep trying to make something happen and it keeps failing it may be that God is preventing it because He has a different plan from yours.

Isa. 40:31 “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint”

It's possible that God wants you to keep doing what you are doing until He changes the circumstances, or it is possible He wants you to walk away and leave the final decision to Him.

One might say, "that's too confusing, which should I do?" The answer is far more simple than most people can accept. The answer is that we must seek Christ and make no moves until He makes it clear what He wants. When it is His will it will fall together easily without our striving to figure it out or make it happen.

Psalm 27:14

"14 Wait for the Lord;

Be strong and let your heart take courage;

Yes, wait for the Lord."

It is far more courageous to wait on the Lord than it is rushing in to do your own heart's desire. Trusting in ourselves often has unintended consequences that don't work out.

Psalm 62:5

"5 My soul, wait in silence for God alone,

For my hope is from Him."

We can trust God in everything, even when we don't see movement we know He has our best in mind.

Hallelujah!!!!