By their fruit

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Mat 7:17  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

Mat 7:18  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Mat 7:19  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Mat 7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Do men gather grapes of thorns?

No.

Do men gather figs of thistles?

No.

Every GOOD TREE will produce GOOD FRUIT.

Every CORRUPT TREE will produce EVIL FRUIT.

A GOOD TREE CANNOT produce evil fruit.

A CORRUPT TREE CANNOT produce good fruit.

CORRUPT TREES are CUT DOWN and BURNED.

BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM!

A good tree cannot produce evil fruit and yet using this as an analogy to prophets and our being BEWARE of them, we have to comprehend that a GOOD PROPHET will not commit evil acts.

How many so called prophets in the last twenty or so years have been found out to be embroiled in sin and yet they preached, they prophesied, they gathered followers to them by the hundreds and even thousands?  A lot. They are secretly leading very sinful lives all the while preaching against sin, they are hypocrites!

We are NOT perfect by any means, but our LORD wants us to BEWARE of those who would trick us into thinking they are HIS when in fact they belong to Satan.

Inwardly these people are wolves- they are Satan's.

Outwardly these people are sheep- they are God's.

And so many will say that they hadn't a clue, they couldn't know, it was kept secret from them, they were deceived.  All they are saying is truth.  It's not hard to be in the dark, to be fooled, to be deceived.  Who among us can say in truth that we wouldn't have been like Eve and Adam, deceived into eating from the tree of Good and Evil?  We don't know, we just don't.

We have to pray NOT to be deceived.

We have to STUDY ALL that the prophet is saying, not just taking that prophet at their word.

We have to take every word they teach and hold it up against our BIBLE, hold it up against GOD'S TRUTH.

If the prophecies, the message coming from these people, contradict God's Holy Word then they could very well be WOLVES.  

Yes, they could be sinners- repentant, struggling sinners, or they could be unrepentant sinners. We have to take their message to GOD'S word and if it hold up to that LIGHT then they are GOD'S. 

Their message will not hold up to God's Word if they are WOLVES.

By their FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM!

We have to look at the FRUIT. There is EVIL FRUIT and lots of it. The quantity of EVIL fruit can be amazing, in fact, I'd venture to say that there is much more evil fruit out there than good fruit and yet it is all FRUIT- the product of a prophet, an evil prophet or a good prophet. If there is tons of evil fruit it is fruit that has allowed itself to be deceived.

The TRUTH exists.

The LIGHT exists.

If we choose darkness rather than LIGHT, we are accountable for it.

Joh_3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

There will be LITTLE light on earth when our Savior returns. The majority of the world will be lost to the darkness of evil and it will be lost to it, by choice.

Don't get me wrong, there will be a great deception and the majority will give the APPEARANCE of being in the LIGHT, but it will only be because they are now calling evil good.

Isa_5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

May GOD protect us from deception, from the evil that would have us calling evil good, and good evil. Please LORD as You asked the Father in Heaven, KEEP us from EVIL!

All by YOUR GRACE, in YOUR LOVE, in YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ALWAYS!

Beware

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits…

Beware.

Our Savior is telling us to BEWARE.

Whenever we hear that word- beware we know it is a cautionary word. We are to be on our guard.  We are NOT to adhere to every single prophet which comes along.  There are going to be prophets and if we are easily sway, and NOT cautious, we will be seduced by them and we will LOSE our eternal life because we chose NOT to BEWARE.

Yes, the false prophets will get their punishment for deceiving people, but those deceived people will be punished as well by allowing themselves to be deceived.

EVE and ADAM were deceived- were they punished?  YES!

They weren't simply allowed to say hey, it's the serpents fault, punish the serpent, it's not my fault.

They were punished even though they were deceived.

All who are deceived will be punished, they won't be able to use the excuse of deception as a get out of eternal death free card. 

We are accountable for allowing ourselves to be deceived. 

And it's not like we haven't been warned, our SAVIOR is warning us. 

BEWARE.

In some movies we see warning signs saying BEWARE, and then we hear ominous music playing to get the point across that to us. The characters in that movie better be cautious or else.

When you see a BEWARE of Dog  sign you are instantly on guard against a dog coming at you. You will NOT enter an area with that sign without taking the risk of being attacked. If you enter that area it's your own fault if something happens.

Our Savior wants us to BEWARE of FALSE PROPHETS.  He even goes as far to tell us that they will appear to us as sheep but they are really wolves.  These false prophets are not going to look like the wolves they really are. They will appear like soft cuddly puppies, only to viciously go for our throats the moment we are hugging and snuggling them.  So if these sheep like wolves are going to confront us there has to be a way for us NOT to be deceived by them.

We will KNOW them by their FRUITS.

Their FRUITS.

Isa_8:20  To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

They HAVE to speak the SAVIOR'S word and no other!

What they produce from their preaching, from their prophecies, has to ALL be according to the LAW and to the TESTIMONY, or else it is DECEPTION!

We will know them by their fruits--

More on that tomorrow by the GRACE of GOD.

All in HIS LOVE.

Others first always

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 7:12  Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Here our SAVIOR is telling us what the heart of the LAW and all the Prophets tried to teach us.  Our SAVIOR is reaffirming the LAW, His moral LAW and the Prophets.

Websters calls the prophets this--

'In Scripture, a person illuminated, inspired or instructed by God to announce future events; as Moses, Elijah, David, Isaiah, &c.'

We aren't to disregard the LAW or the PROPHETS, but to comprehend their entire purpose and that purpose is LOVE.

Mat 22:36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment

Mat_22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

LOVE - the Lord thy GOD

LOVE- thy neighbor as thyself

WHATSOEVER ye would that men should DO TO YOU, DO YE even so to THEM-  this is LOVE, the act of LOVE, the revelation of love.

Do NOT treat those like YOU would NOT want to be treated! 

Yell at others and ask yourself- do you want to be yelled at?

Hit another and ask yourself- do you want to be hit?

Emotionally traumatize someone then ask yourself- do you want to be emotional traumatized?

The list goes on and on and on… the actions we commit towards others MUST be ONLY the actions we would want to be done unto us, no matter how OTHERS treat us, that is IRRELEVENT!

Satan wants us to give as we get.

Our Savior want us to give as we would like to get.

Be kind to another and ask yourself- do you want others to be kind to you?

Be patient towards another and ask yourself- do you want other to be patient with you?

Be compassionate to another and ask yourself- do you want other to be compassionate with you?

If we WANT to be loved, we MUST love.

We cannot ever use the idea that someone treated us badly and that gives us the right to treat others that way.

OTHERS FIRST ALWAYS. OTHERS BEFORE OURSELVES ALWAYS.

Satan has us twisting this so incredibly much from the smallest of things to the largest of things. We'll reach for the most tempting looking donut first, we'll grab for the prize first, we'll get the best parking spot if we can, we'll cheer as we snatch up the last toy for sale beating out others for it.  We love being the best- the smartest, the fastest, the strongest. We reward this in people. The most beautiful, the best body, we reward this!  We don't care how those people really are as long as they're personable enough- we don't care if they love or hate God. We reward these people!  Satan has us raising generation after generation of kids with the comprehension that getting ahead and being the best is what is most important, rather than LOVING OTHERS FIRST.

Our Savior wants us to LIVE this! He is teaching US HIS TRUTH- LOVE OTHERS even before we love ourselves because WE would want others to love us before themselves.

By the GRACE of GOD may we LEARN to LOVE as HE WANTS US TO LOVE, all through HIS LOVE and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Asking, Seeking, Knocking

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 7:7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

Mat 7:8  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Remember how we are not to worry about what we'll eat, drink, or wear?  Well, this goes hand in hand with that. Our asking, our seeking, our knocking, all these actions will have consequences. Yet so many people treat these verses as if they were little magic lamps. They expect to ask, seek, and knock and then get everything they ask for, everything they seek, and everything they want opened to them in just the way they are imagining. When that doesn't happen they decide the magic lamp isn't magic after all and toss it away.

Jesus continued…

Mat 7:9  Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

Mat 7:10  Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

Mat 7:11  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Do you imagine that a son could ask of his father a brand new car, and that father has to give it to him or else what sort of father is he?  NO.

But that's what so many believe these magic actions have to produce for them- whatever they ask, whatever they deem good for them, not what God KNOWS would be good for them.

No, it's not a bad thing to ask for food when you are hungry. But what happens if you don't get that food you are asking for? You're starving and still no food is coming to you. You're on death's door and again, nothing, no food. You die, you starve to death.  So, what happened? Your good Father did not provide what you asked for, something your own earthly father, had he been alive and able would have provided for you.

People go through this sort of situation all the time, especially those with terminal illnesses. They see no GOOD reason for them to have to die and they ask for a reprieve, they ask for life, yet it is denied them. 

We can ASK.

We can SEEK.

We can KNOCK.

And we will receive, find, and have it opened to us.

The thing is- God is NEVER going to give us anything that will interfere with our eternal life.  If our starvation is necessary- we will starve, and in starving we might not comprehend how that works for our eternal life, but we have to trust that God will do all for our good towards eternal life. We cannot believe otherwise because if we do, then we have no real faith.

We have to ask, seek, and knock all in accordance with the WILL of GOD, not our own will.

Jesus is teaching those who would follow Him, learn from Him, live for Him.  Jesus is NOT teaching those who are seeking their own will, believing more in themselves than in Him.

Not a single lie is spoken by our Savior.

Our Father in heaven is more than willing to give good things to those who are His, to those who choose to have Him as their heavenly Father.  Those who do NOT call God in all truth their heavenly Father can expect nothing because God knows those who are His and those who are not His.

Sincerity and truth, these are the things God knows of us, that we cannot hide from Him.

When we ask someone something and we don't get an immediate answer we continue to ask, don't we? We seek that answer which hasn't been forthcoming as of yet. And if we continue to ask, seeking an answer diligently we most likely will  go to great lengths to get the answer including knocking, being earnest in our desire for a response.   When we are asking, seeking, and knocking all in an effort to receive something of our Heavenly Father and we are NOT asking amiss, we have to comprehend that it is through PRAYER we ask, through PRAYER we seek, through PRAYER we are knocking. PRAYER is our communication line with God. Our Savior earlier taught us how to pray didn't He? Remember this…

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Mat 6:11  Give us this day our daily bread.

Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Asking- give us this day.

Seeking- forgive us our debts.

Knocking-deliver us from evil.

We are taught this--

Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

We are told that the things we should be asking, seeking, and knocking for are heavenly treasures, not earthly things.

When we ask, seek, and knock for earthly treasures why in the world do we seriously expect them when we are NOT supposed to be laying up for ourselves earthly treasures?

When we ask for healing, for food to ease our hunger, for water to quench our thirst, for clothes to cover our nakedness we are asking, seeking, knocking after things our Father knows we need and He will provide for us according to our eternal necessities.

We might be called to a life of being abused and denied all these basic needs but somehow, some way our God will allow all that is necessary for us to be fed with the food of eternity, we will drink from the fount of eternal life, we will  be clothed with the righteousness of our Savior, with His salvation- these are the things that are TRULY our necessities, all that pertains to ETERNAL LIFE.

So yes, we can ask, seek, and knock for anything but ultimately we must do all of those according to the will of God, according to the Heavenly treasure we must desire above all things, or else we are desiring things of earth, not of heaven.

Please Lord help us to ask, seek, and knock after YOUR will, not ours. 

All by YOUR grace, YOUR mercy, YOUR love that goes beyond our full comprehension.

All in YOUR righteousness, all by YOU!

In Christ Jesus our Savior now and always!

Judging, Reproving, Witnessing

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 7:6  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Judging.

Reproving.

Witnessing.

Our Savior wants us to comprehend where we are in this grand scheme of life.

Are we to judge?

Judge not lest we be judge. How we judge we will be judged.

Are we to reprove?

Take the BEAM (the great faults) out of our own eyes before we dare to take the MOTES (any little fault, even the littlest of faults) out of the eyes of others.

Are we to witness and if so, to who do we witness?

Give NOT that which is holy to those who are unreceptive, unhearing, hardened of heart.

How do we know who is unreceptive unless we first give an opportunity to receive?

How do we know who will hear unless we first give them a chance to listen?

How do we know who has hardened their hearts unless we know them?

Seriously, how do we know who is a dog, or a swine?  These are incredibly pointed descriptions of people and aren't we making judgments when we label someone a 'dog' or a 'swine'? At what point do those labels apply? 

You've heard of numerous situations where 'religious' people badger others constantly. Relatives and friends, as well as strangers, who are forever bashing their religion over the heads of all they meet, and they do so because in their minds they are witnessing.  As relatives and friends of people of this sort they are tolerated, but by a lot of people they are not. They are avoided if possible because  they are trying to force something upon those who are unreceptive.  Does this mean we shouldn't witness once the message has been rejected? It means our witness must be our life, not our words.

Our LIVES are a witness.

If we are LIVING as our SAVIOR is teaching us to live in HIS love, loving others, our lives will reflect that LOVE, it won't be able to be different. You can't hide this love, it's something that cannot be hidden.  God's love in us will shine through in all we do.

When we are called to witness to others and actually preach the word of God, the message of the Kingdom of Heaven, Salvation in Jesus Christ, then we must witness and if the reception of our witnessing is rejected we are NOT to continue to preach to those unwilling to listen. If we choose to keep up this preaching to those that CLEARLY do not want to hear the word of God then we can expect that our words will be trampled upon and they will rend us (physically, mentally, emotionally).  We are NOT to force others to listen, to believe. When we use force or even try to use any sort of force then we are not living the love of CHRIST, He who would NEVER use force.

Christ Himself remained silent many times. Christ Himself would say what needed to be said, but He did NOT fight with others and force His message on them. Should we EVER try to force the Lord's truth on anyone, ever?!  NO!

Christ is our example and He would never want us to force the word of the kingdom of heaven upon anyone.  When someone absolutely does NOT want to hear the word of God we are NOT to give it to them.

Mat 7:6  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs.

Cast not our pearls before swine.

The dogs and the swine are those who just like the animals unable to comprehend truth, only it is by their own choice, not because they were created that way.

If we give holy things to dogs, or pearls to swine it means NOTHING to them, nothing at all it is wasted.  If we spend our time wasting God's holy things and the pearls of wisdom we are given by the grace of God, then we are accountable for choosing to waste that time when God clearly would rather we move on or even remain silent.

All by HIS grace may we listen to Him and do only that which is good in His eyes. All in HIS righteousness, none in ours, for ours is as filthy rags.

Finding faults in others reveal greater faults in ourselves

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 7:3  And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Mat 7:4  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Mat 7:5  Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

And we continue being taught by our Savior.

How incredibly easy it is for us to look at the faults in others. How easy it is to gossip, to say things like- "I'd never do that."  "I'm glad I'm not like that." "They've got problems."  We say this sort of thing all the time. We see so clearly what we imagine to be faults in others lives but our own lives we'd much rather not examine too closely.

How dare we imagine that we would not do the very same thing another person is doing, were we walking in their shoes.

We are such different people. Every single one of us is different from the other with NO TWO people exactly alike.  We have numerous commonalities but we are NEVER the same, never.

Two people in the exact same situation can, and often do, react completely different to that situation.

My mindset is different from everyone else. We can agree on a lot of things, but we will never agree on everything.  The audacity of anyone to presume they would do BETTER in a situation another isn't doing so well at, is arrogance at its worst. Sure, it might be true, but to belittle anyone is wrong. When we tell someone that we could do something better, we are telling them they have failed to do the job as well as it could be done.  Too many people some how believe they are HELPING others when in truth they are just bringing others down to pat themselves on their back.

We aren't supposed to examine others but ourselves.

2Co 13:5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.

1Co_11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

This of course goes along with JUDGING NOT.

We just need to STOP looking at the faults of others while refusing to look at our own.

If we do want to take another's faults to task, first we have to take our own to task.  If we can RID ourselves of all our faults, THEN and ONLY THEN do we have the right to point out the faults of others.

We truly are hypocrites when we go after the faults of others while ignoring our own.

Please Lord, help us to learn to look to our own faults before we dare to look at another's. Please Lord, please teach us, help us learn these lessons and make them part of our lives, our REAL every day lives.

The next time we are tempted to fault another, please help us to pause and question our own faults first. Please.

We aren't saying that others don't have faults, we all do. But ignoring our own and choosing rather to expound on others faults is wrong, very wrong.

Help us LORD, keep us in YOU. Known by You and knowing You.

All in YOUR LOVE!

How you judge others will determine how you are judged

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 7:1  Judge not, that ye be not judged.

Mat 7:2  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

People talk about 'karma'  --

'Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect '

Pasted from <https://www.google.com/search?q=karma&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a>

And you'll often hear something called 'instant karma', meaning instantly having a consequence resulting from an action. Generally it's spoken of in this way- you do something to hurt someone or something and then you are punished in return. Or the opposite- you do something good and something good happens to you in return.

This 'Indian' concept is spoken of readily but the Bible, God's Word has this same concept.

'With what measure you mete, it will be measured to you again.'   If you do good, you'll be rewarded for that, if you do bad, you will be punished for that. 

This is TRUTH.

We can't expect instant rewards, or instant punishment all the time either, it just doesn't work that way.

You can be 'good' here and now and be punished horrifically having done nothing to deserve the punishment. Also, you can be evil and heap great rewards for it here and now. 

If you are being taught by JESUS you are being told that your actions have consequences. You are being told NOT to judge others because you WILL be judged in the same way. If you are compassionless you cannot expect compassion. If you judge ruthlessly, then you will be judged ruthlessly.

We are told NOT to judge.

JUDGE NOT.

If we withhold judgment of others we do NOT risk being judged wrongly ourselves.

How easy is it not to judge though?  Obviously it's not something that isn't an issue, if it weren't Jesus wouldn't have had to teach us about it, would He?

Judge not.

Try to pay attention to how much you judge, do it for a day, a week, a month. Try to catch yourself judging others.

Judging-  (verb) dictionary definition-

'to pass legal judgment on; pass sentence on (a person)'

'to form a judgment or opinion of; decide upon critically'

'to infer, think, or hold as an opinion; conclude about or assess'

Pasted from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/judge>

Judge not.

And from the Webster's Bible dictionary-

'To censure rashly; to pass severe sentence.'

Judge not.

And our being told to Judge not is spoken of in connection with what measure we mete, we will be measured with.

This truly does go hand in hand with LOVE.

We are to LOVE our neighbors. We are to treat others as we want to be treated - no matter how they treat us- this is LOVE.

This also goes hand in hand with forgive others as you want our Heavenly Father to forgive you.

We desire forgiveness, we desire understanding, we desire leniency, we NEVER want to be treated harshly, never. 

We MUST treat others as we want to be treated and SATAN will try EVERYTHING to keep this from happening.

Satan wants us to judge others and judge them harshly. Satan wants us to hold others to higher standards than we hold ourselves. Satan wants us to be without compassion.  Satan wants us  to take on an air of superiority just because we haven't had the misfortune of getting caught up in things others have.  Satan will stop at NOTHING to get us to judge others and mete out very harsh punishment.  Satan will blind us in any way he can blind us and keep us self-righteous and arrogant, and even blind to that in ourselves.  And if we aren't blind to that in ourselves then he'll get us to like our own arrogance and self-righteousness, he'll get us to be proud of ourselves. He'll convince us that EVIL is good, when in truth it can only always be EVIL!

We need to pray for compassion, pray for the love we need to have towards ALL others- not just a select few we choose to love.

May God help us to JUDGE NOT!

By HIS Grace and HIS Righteousness may we learn to JUDGE NOT.

In HIS LOVE!