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!!!!

Easy Life Superficial Thinking

If you want an easy life then you will live a superficial life.

If anything our life is full of valuable lessons. We must experience everything, the happy, the sad, the painful, and everything else in between to be able to learn those lessons.

We do not learn very much when things are easy, fun, and exciting. Those who play all the time tend to be superficial because the play does not teach good lessons, it only serves to bring very temporary thrills of little to no value.

Colossians 3:1-2 "1 Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.…"

We don't need to think up ways to torture ourselves so we can learn, believe me, the trials will come and go in our lives with regularity. Thankfully in my life God has spread them out a little so I can recover from one before another one comes.

Do not be afraid when the trials come, just turn them over to God and be ready to learn something while going through, remembering that Christ goes through with us.

Silence Anger

Amen, anger is not one of the fruit of the Spirit nor is it love.
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."
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant.
5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered,
6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails;

Dorla Patterson

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Wise suggestion. Many unnecessary, painful and regretful things have resulted from someone acting out in anger.

Our Actions Prove Our Heart

There will be people who will tell you that we ought to be more concerned about the spirit of the Law than the Law itself.

The Law gives the rules as to the conduct of a godly person. It is the schoolmaster that leads a non-believer to Christ. Every human being who is not born-again is condemned by the Law because there is no way they can keep it. The Law shows us our sinfulness, even if someone thinks they have followed it they have not.

Someone may say "I have never committed adultery", believing they have kept that commandment, but Christ shows us they have not even if they have never committed the act of adultery.

Christ said;

Matthew 5:27-28 "27 You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. "

God's standard was higher than the mere committing of the act, it is based on what our heart thinks even if we never commit an act.

No one can act separately from their thought life. It is the thoughts that determine the acts. Without the thought, the act does not occur, therefore if the act occurs then we know the heart came first.

I have had young Christian women tell me I didn't know their hearts when I chastised them for parading on the beach in string bikinis. I told them that modesty was commanded in the Bible by Christ and that violation of God's commands was rebellion against Him. Now that they know it is wrong to parade oneself immodestly they are responsible to repent and comply with God's Word.

Instead of being ashamed that they had been nearly naked on the beach while with men they were not married to, they became hostile enlisting their "youth leader" to also come against me for being "legalistic."

I attempted to explain that it is not legalism to rebuke someone for sin, the problem is that these young women were not being instructed in the ways of God from the Bible, so they felt empowered to spiritually and emotionally bludgeon anyone who would correct them for their sinful behavior.

I did know the heart of someone who dresses immodestly around young men on the beach, their heart was leaking out of them in their actions. If they didn't care about men looking at them lustfully they would not dress that way in front of men.

Even worse the tirade of angst that emerged from them when they were corrected tells me they didn't care what God thought and even became worse, a sort of in-your-face revolt against God and anyone else who would expose their indecency.

After this, I realized that I was probably dealing with pretenders who were not open to teaching and correction in holiness. If they had been open to truth and did love Jesus Christ they would have felt ashamed when confronted rather than to rage collectively.

James 2:17-19 "…17 So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that God is one. Good for you! Even the demons believe that—and shudder."

Those who truly are seeking holiness and do love Christ with all their heart, soul and mind would never rage against a correction, they would welcome it and make changes to their behavior.

Just Saying!!!!