Just Look at the Fruit

Posted on by pastordarryl68

There will always be critics who pretend to be invested in your life, motivated by all sorts of self-centered emotions and agendas, speaking from their own narrative, perspective, and assumptions.

At the same time, sometimes even in the same moment, God will gift His people in your life with exhortation, discernment, mercy, wisdom, faith, and generosity to speak hopeful TRUTH into your life – even in correction or rebuke. These truths from God are edifying to the soul and refreshing to the Spirit, equipping you for every good work in the body of Christ.

How do you know the difference? You will know them by their fruits…every single time. Fruit doesn’t lie. Look at the fruit. Look at how they spend their time and with whom they spend it. People are easier to read than a book, if you know what to look for.

“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” Matthew 7:16-20

Repent

Posted on by pastordarryl68

Unlike so many of us who try to be loving and supportive to others, God never coddles our insecurities and weaknesses. He never says, “Bro, you got this. You’re amazing.”
Instead, He simply says, “I’m with you. I got this.”

Why? Because HE IS AMAZING!!!!

His PRESENCE is the guarantee. Not our person.

Jesus didn’t eat with sinners and tax collectors because He wanted to appear inclusive, tolerant, accepting, or approving. He didn’t do so for His own benefit, entertainment, and well-being.

He ate with them intentionally to graciously call them to repentance…to compassionately and mercifully offer them forgiveness and redemption FROM their sin, not acceptance OF their sin.

As image bearers and having been indwelt by HIS Spirit, we are called to do the same.

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” – Matthew 4:17

Engage the Culture with Jesus

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Our culture has determined that we don’t “need” a God that is intimately involved in the every day affairs of life, revealing that we’d rather serve our own personal idols…even a lot of church-goers. As a result, most have decided that there is no need for transformation. Instead, we have chosen to “normalize” the behaviors – the hurts, habits and hangups – that we know do not walk in harmony with a righteous and holy God. We convince ourselves and try to convince others that these things are “normal”, everybody does it/experiences it/feels it/faces it or should accept it as “normal”.

Our culture has more than its share of self-absorbed, grumpy, over-extended people who walk around in a fog of despair, exhaustion, frustration, anxiety, panic, and offense.

Do you know what our culture lacks? It lacks love. It lacks joy. It lacks peace. It lacks patience. It lacks kindness. It lacks goodness. It lacks faithfulness. It lacks gentleness. It lacks self-control. It lacks light. It lacks favor. It lacks contentment. It lacks rest. It lacks purpose.

As true followers of Jesus – by sheer existence, we possess the most adequate portion of these qualities that anyone could need. We have been made one with Jesus and are indwelt by His Holy Spirit. Be light. Be salt. Be content. Be filled. Be Jesus. And engage the culture with these qualities.

We have way too many “christians” who behave as if they are more depleted, frustrated, exhausted, needy, and purposeless than the world they are supposedly trying to reach with the Gospel – a gospel that evidently hasn’t even been enough for them.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.“

Road Rage

Posted on by pastordarryl68

I cut a young lady off the other day. I was clearly in the wrong. No question. I was making a right turn where two lanes were turning right. I turned into the left lane from the right lane of traffic. I didn’t see her there when I was turning, but it was no excuse. Fortunately she honked and hit her brakes and we avoided a collision.

I pulled up next to her at the next light and rolled down my window to apologize. Then she rolled her window down, and began cussing and yelling and waving and flipping me off. I was trying to take ownership of my mistake but she was so blinded by her rage and busy vocalizing her offense that she never heard my sincere apology. I was so disappointed.

We can sometimes get so fixated by the motives, intentions, and reactions we THINK or PERCEIVE other people have that we become deaf and blind to hearing and seeing the actual truth.

We live in a heartbreaking culture. God help us to love beyond people’s reaction.

“Know this, my beloved brothers. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;” James 1:19

Chasing After Jesus

Posted on by pastordarryl68

Every day, we have conversations with people of faith in Jesus who are driven with every fiber of their being to find love, joy, hope, peace, pleasure, significance, contentment, and fulfillment in the things they do and the things/people around them – ourselves included.

If we really listen, these people’s days are so full of duty, responsibility, obligation, being exhausted, overwhelmed, over-extended, over-booked and just “getting thru the day”, that they have little time, energy or focus to chase after intimacy with Jesus, His Word, or His people.

Think about the impact of that statement…
By our own statements of faith in Jesus, we believe that HIS SPIRIT is the SOURCE of those qualities (Galatians 5:21-22). What if we chased, every waking minute of every day, after JUST Jesus – the way, the truth, and the life? Wouldn’t we find in HIM all that everyone else is looking for in their day?

If following Jesus isn’t changing you daily, then you aren’t following Jesus.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33

Don’t Participate in Fearmongering

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It is an offense to Yahweh for a man or woman of God to support, feed, or encourage the fears, worries, and anxieties of others.

It’s also an offense to the same God to guilt and shame them for those fears, worries, and anxieties. Jesus didn’t do that. The apostles didn’t do that. They acknowledged that people are fearful when they need not be. They do have worries and anxieties about things they should not.

What Jesus and the apostles did was speak to the fear, worry, stress, and anxiety. “Fear not.” “Don’t be anxious.” “Fret not.” They reminded those who are fearful, worrisome, or anxious about who their God is and what their God has already done in them and around them. Then, they instructed the weak on how to take their thoughts captive, redirect them, and renew their trust in the One to whom they have completely surrendered their entire lives.

When I’m fearful or worried about something that I know I should not be (and I am), I don’t want my brothers and sisters in Christ to placate me and justify or rationalize my lack of faith and trust in the One who saved me. I want them to lovingly speak TRUTH into my life.

We as the body of Jesus Christ need to make a commitment to one another that we will not participate in fearmongering – either as an instigator or a participant.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7

Faith In Yahweh

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If your faith is on life support, the first vital to check is this: “in whom or in what did you place your initial faith?“

Faith that is placed in an influencer, mentor, religious creed, church, or ideology will always stagnate, decline, disappoint, denigrate, and/or be destroyed. Only faith in the infinite, immutable, self-sufficient, sovereign, holy, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and glorious Yahweh of the Bible is sustainable and eternal.

Religious people have been causing hurt and pain in the name of their self-righteous, religious law since before the temple worshipers (the priesthood, the Sadducees, and Pharisees) crucified Jesus. They weren’t followers of Jesus and the Way then…and they’re not today either.

Followers of Jesus seek His Kingdom first. If you’re not actively seeking Yahweh, you might want to reconsider in whom you first placed your faith.

Consideration For Others

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Genuine generosity and authentic consideration for others should be the norm, especially among followers of the selfless, serving, sacrificing Jesus.

However, these are seen as extremely rare and prized qualities, even in the church, because the vast majority of Americans are laser focused on their own wants, preferences, welfare, and comfort. We want the best we can get, we want to be first in line, we want preferential treatment, and we want to be heard above others who are talking.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.

Philippians 2:3
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves;

A Husband’s Highest Calling

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If husbands love, lead, and serve their wives in the way CHRIST loves the church (not the way culture says that a man loves a woman), a God-loving, God-fearing wife is designed and empowered by God himself to crave that protection, provision, and leadership, to reciprocate the love and to seek the shelter of that umbrella of authority that God has placed on her husband.

A godly man never has to be guilted into loving, leading, and serving his wife the way Jesus loves the church or his God-given responsibility. A godly woman never has to be guilted into submitting to her husband’s God-given authority or her God-given responsibility.

This is the highest calling given to a husband and to a wife, the way the Creator designed both male and female.

Men, if we fail at this, we’ve failed at everything.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18:22

The Grass is Greener for a Reason

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It’s easy to love the family that expects nothing of you…the one that knows little about you.

As an adolescent, I was of the generation when I was always at one of my friends’ houses, hanging out with their family. I liked hanging out with their family a lot better because they were more fun and I never got scolded or reprimanded. It was more fun than hanging out at my house where my parents knew my shortcomings; they knew when I hadn’t done my chores or what was expected of me, or when I was trying to get away with something that I knew I shouldn’t. Food at my friends’ houses was always better…there were more snacks and more sweets.

Whether it’s an affair with another person, another family, another job, another car, another house, another church, etc – the grass is always greener on the other side. Never forget the commitment it takes to get it that way… loads of manure, the care, the weeding, the thatching, the aerating, the watering to get the lawn that luscious. Only the one who takes responsibility will put in that kind of work to get out of something that’s worth getting.

As a youngster, I benefited from the love and care those parents put into their children. That effort was not out of love for me but for them and the benefits were extended to their guests.

Being a guest is WAY DIFFERENT than being a member of the family. A guest who only receives will eventually wear out their welcome.

“For each will have to bear his own load.” Galatians 6:5