Life Lessons

It doesn’t matter what a person says, how many scriptures they can quote, and where they go to church (they may even preach!)… you will recognize them by their fruit. LOOK AT THE FRUIT!   Take a big bite and see!  They are not the same!

Luke 6:44  Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks 

Matthew 7: 15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' 

John 15: 1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunesso that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.  

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Life Lessons:    I bet you can guess....

•   LOOK AT THE FRUIT!!
•  Just announcing that you are an apple tree doesn't make it so.... Analyze your own fruit, you may JUST THINK you're an apple tree! 

14....he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead,

18This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.  (Revelation 13: 14-18)

I was raised Baptist, and if there is one thing that the Baptists teach, it's about the Rapture and the Second Coming (two seperate events)!  I know about the Rapture! and about the tribulation period!

Back in the 60s, when I first started learning about the the tribulation period, the technology wasn't there to "pull it off".  Heck!  Personal computers didn't even exist until 1974/5!!!  MS DOS wasn't available until 1981!  I think it was 1985 or 86 when I got my first PC. (before there were hard drives!!!  You had to store everything on those FLOPPY floppy disks! 

Oh my, how in the world how changed...  It would have been impossible to find anyone that didn't have the mark of the beast back then!  ...true, they would be noticed if they tried to buy or sell something, but how could they be tracked down???? 

(Just so you know... if you have a grocery card...like a Kroger Card, you are already being "watched"... They are tracking all your food purchases now!   A few months ago they let me know that some of the food I had purchased a few months before that, was being recalled!  It printed out on my receipt as I was checking out!)  

Yes, today is another story all together!  Can you believe that personal GPS systems are less than 10 years old!?!   They are in every new car and every cell phone in the world!  Soon, not only will they be in our dogs, but, it will only make good sense to embed them under our skin!  Because, after all, if a child is lost, think how easy it would be to find them with a GPS chip!!!  Tracking will NOT be a problem!

Combine that with the cameras that are EVERYWHERE now and you can be found!  I was just telling some friends Saturday that I had not realized that there are now cameras on EVERY pole on the interstate around Atlanta!  They use to be just at major intersections...not so anymore, they are literally 3 or 4 in every mile!! 

Then, last night they had the following on the news. 


Sure, it all makes perfect sense, and seems like such a great idea ....  but one day very soon, the people not taking the mark will be the ones being tracked down.


PEOPLE GET READY!  JESUS IS COMING!!!

• Do not slander a servant to his master, or he will curse you, and you will pay for it. (Proverbs 30:10)


• If you have planned evil, CLAP YOUR HAND OVER YOUR MOUTH! ...stirring up anger produces strife. (Proverbs 30:32b,33b)

I had to hang the following picture up directly in front of my face the whole last year I was at my last job!  And, for a month I wore a rubberband on my wrist and popped myself anytime I let the words out! (THAT WORKS!)
Life Lesson:

• DON'T SAY IT!!!  It WILL come back to bite you!


• 
  
  Talking behind someone's back does one thing, and only one thing, and that is it invites the spirit of strife in...a demonic spirit...NOTHING good comes from it!

Have you ever had one of those days when the Holy Spirit in you does flip-flops in your heart… or something happens on the inside of you that is near impossible to explain?

That was my today. I was sitting here this afternoon at the computer and a church service came on the tv downstairs. They started playing an old hymn that the Holy Spirit in me clearly loved because tears came to my eyes and “that ache” welled up in my chest. You know “that ache” the one that expresses that love that is impossible to describe. I’m thinking that it is a love that cannot possibly be directed towards a person like it is towards the Lord… I know I’ve never felt this love pain towards any person! And it usually happens when you least expect it… Like when driving, or again tonight while I was watching something on the Food Network but thinking about this blog and what I wanted to say about “WAITING”. (but that will be another day now). I was really meditating more on the Word than watching the show… It happened again, suddenly, my eyes filled with tears and my heart started the aching thing again. Honestly, I really don’t know how to put it into words! But, I hope you get to experience it because it is incredible!  I do know that you can't make it happen... I listen to Jesus music all the time...and meditate on the Lord all day long...  ????

I’m about to tell you a story that may seem to take me off subject but you’ll get it in the end…..

Many years ago I decided to stop having any sort of “Christmas” decorations in my home… Strange, I know, but Christmas is SO SACRED to me that I don’t want any part of the commercialism that comes with the traditional decorations of Christmas. There is absolutely NOTHING Christian about a Christmas tree!...so I’m always a little baffled that Christians fight so hard for it. But, that is definitely a personal thing for me, I don’t judge anyone else for their choices. I just choose not to “do Christmas” the way most people do.

Well, about 11 or 12 years ago I offered my house for the office Christmas party. WAIT! You can’t have an office Christmas party without ANY kind of decorations!! So, I decided to have a “Happy Birthday Jesus” tree…with all things “birthday party” on it.



....Happy Birthday Jesus! (whatever the real date is....)