LIKE WATER

LIKE WATER

Thursday, March 01, 2018

  Matthew [GW] 7:16-18 You will know them by what they produce. "People don't pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles, do they? In the same way every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a rotten tree cannot produce good fruit.

   James 1:22-25 Do what God's word says. Don't merely listen to it, or you will fool yourselves. If someone listens to God's word but doesn't do what it says, he is like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, studies his features, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. However, the person who continues to study God's perfect teachings that make people free and who remains committed to them will be blessed. People like that don't merely listen and forget; they actually do what God's teachings say.

  Beginning when I was a very young boy my Uncle Gordon taught me much. Not just how to identify and use tools, but how stuff worked. One item that I thought fascinating at the time is that water seeks its own level and people are no different said he. An unchangeable fact I soon discovered through experience and then self observation in the mirror of God’s Word. As we truly believe, we act accordingly. To think otherwise we are fooling ourselves.

  I’ve conversed with murderers that believe they are justified but that resolutely believe it is wrong for the state to kill them. (I’m not writing about capital punishment here, but individual belief pertaining to self.) Some saying they would kill themselves first as they believe doing so is acceptable.

  We justify ourselves in concord with what we truly believe.  Few murder, but there are common practices that substantiate this fact. How many of us have or do believe that we can drive above posted speed limits because we are inherently and practiced superior to other drivers?

  This evident in every one of us, self included. Doesn’t the Word of God tell us that what we actually believe is confirmed by our production?

  Albert Barnes succinctly wrote: The Saviour gives the proper test of their character. People do not judge of a tree by its leaves, or bark, or flowers, but by the fruit which it bears. The flowers may be beautiful and fragrant, the foliage thick and green; but these are merely ornamental. It is the “fruit” that is of chief service to man; and he forms his opinion of the nature and value of the tree by that fruit. So of pretensions to religion. The profession may be fair; but the “conduct” - the fruit - is to determine the nature of the principles.

  Lest I be merely ornamental, again this day I must return to the mirror of God’s Word. Please join me.

EBB4