Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)
OK, great. So if they have good fruit, then they’re a good apple, right? Um… not so fast.
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Matthew 7:22)
Clearly, these people had good fruit, but they were bad apples.
So how exactly do know who’s a good apple and who’s a bad apple?
If they have bad fruit, they’re probably a bad apple, but even good apples have bad fruit sometimes. Case in point… The man after God’s own heart, David, who orchestrated a married man’s death to cover up his adultery.
If they have good fruit, they might be a good apple, but they could also be a bad apple.
So the conclusion is… it’s pretty much impossible to know for sure, who’s a good or bad apple.
It is no surprise over the centuries, people twist the Bible to say whatever they want. And it’s no different today. No we might not want to admit that we do, but we do. Whatever we like in the Bible, we keep. Whatever we don’t like, we dismiss. What do I mean by this?
You remember when the Catholics were selling indulgences? They needed money so they preyed on the illiterate and told them that if they buy indulgences they can help their deceased ones go to heaven. You can imagine the Bible verses or Biblical concepts that were spun to get people to give money away. Now that’s a pretty egregious example. Let’s look at some modern day ones.
In 1 Corinthians 11, women are to have their heads covered when praying or prophesying. Very few women would say that it applies to this day. It’s dismissed as cultural. And the women who want to do head coverings will say that it applies to today. You kinda get my point here? We cherry pick what we want the Bible to say.
Same thing with remarriage. The Bible prohibits remarriage if you had the adulterous affair or you “fell out of love”, but people don’t care about what the Bible says about this. They’ll spin it somehow to make it seem like “Yeah, I was wrong, but no one’s perfect. Plus, I met a new person who’s cool. I think God wants to give me another chance so I’m gonna marry him/her.” And of course, you can cherry pick any verses you want about how God’s giving you a second chance to justify your actions.
OK. I think you get what I’m saying. So this is just a warning to both me and you not to spin the Bible into saying what we want to hear. If we do, we’re gonna be in big trouble.
The raising up of your children is your responsibility as a parent.
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
With that said, it doesn’t mean you can’t subcontract it out. Now, I can’t tell you how much you should or not. There are situations where subcontracting makes sense. For instance, if you suck at math it might make sense for you to find someone else to teach your kid math.
When it comes to spiritual development, I wouldn’t subcontract that out. Deuteronomy 11:19 says,
“Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
God expects parents to be the primary influencers of their kids’ spiritual growth. This is not to say that there might not be others who play a supplementary spiritual development role in your kids’ lives.
Homeschooling is not for everyone. There are instances where public schools can be a better option than homeschooling. One such instance is my own. Yes, the public schools were indoctrinating me, but I would have been indoctrinated at home also. My parents would not have been able to develop my reading and writing skills for instance as well as the public schools. Either option, I would still have been under an atheist worldview.
The majority of homeschooled kids are homeschooled because the parents don’t trust the public schools for one reason or another. Needless to say, the anti-Bible indoctrination at both public and private schools can steer kids from God and you certainly don’t want that. I’m not saying that there can’t be kids who love God in these schools, but you’ll have to detox them every day from the worldly philosophies that will assault them. If you have the time and energy to do that, your kids may turn out OK. But if you don’t, you’ve basically handed your kids over to the demons to indoctrinate your kids.
It’s probably not a good idea to put your kids in public or private schools until they have at least a working critical thinking mind. I can’t give you a specific age that might be, but if you’ve raised your kids well that could be 14. I’ve seen 14 years old who think critically.
The most critically thinking kids I know all come from homeschools without exception. Even the Christian schools don’t produce the quality that homeschools do.
I have seen too many Christian parents entrust their kids to public or private schools who indoctrinate their kids into thinking there are 46 genders, that there’s no God, that sex before marriage is OK, etc. These kids pretty much become secularized. So be very careful about letting the Babylonians raise your kids.
I remembered the first time I learned some swear words. I must have been second grade or so. Some of the Mexican kids on my school bus started saying the f-word. I had no idea what it meant. I didn’t even know if was a swear word until someone else told me it was. And even then I didn’t know what swear words were.
As a believer, we are to abide by the Scriptures. It says in Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
With that said, it doesn’t really specify exactly what is unwholesome. So to categorically say that the f-word (or whatever your choice swear word is) is a violation of this command may be a stretch. The f-word is sometimes used when someone is really angry. Sometimes it’s used in a funny way. Sometimes it’s used to express surprise.
I know that some people stumble when they hear the f-word. I personally don’t use it for that reason. I don’t want my weaker brothers to stumble. And it’s not a word that I must use in my everyday life. I rarely find occasions where I just have to say it. In fact, so rare, I can’t remember the last time I used it.
And of course, it doesn’t bother me one bit if people start mouthing off the f-word. I really don’t care. Some people have not been as blessed as me with an expansive vocabulary so it’s just part of their everyday language. I also would not ask people not to say it because I don’t want to inhibit their communication with me. I want them to be free to say whatever.
But would I teach my kids to refrain from using the f-word? I would. Not because the Bible prohibits it. But because it’s unnecessary to make others around you stumble. Why risk losing relationships over it? It’s just not worth it.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Romans 8:28, which says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
I don’t question the veracity of this promise when things are going pretty good, but when seemingly all things go south that’s when I wonder, “All things? For the good? You gotta be kidding me, right?”
Now, I’ve lived a pretty easy life by any measure you might want to use. I was never physically abused. I never went hungry (except when I’m fasting, but that’s my own fault). I don’t have major health problem. I can’t even say I have minor health problems. Always had a roof over my head (except that one time I went camping where I only had a tent over my head, but once again I chose to do that to myself). I’ve never used drugs. I’ve only had a sip or two of alcohol in my life. So I never had substance abuse issues and the fallout from that.
But recently, something upsetting happened and it wasn’t my fault. Someone lied to someone else about me and that person chewed me out publicly. I tried to explain to him that he didn’t have his facts straight, but because he was so mad he couldn’t hear anything I said. (By the way, there is no reason to talk logic to an angry person. Their emotions will cloud their hearing.) I had never been yelled out like this. It was not a good feeling. It bothered me a lot during the day and even at night. It hampered my appetite and sense of well-being.
But there were some things that helped me recalibrate and I’d like to share them with you.
1) Understand that if you love God, everything bad that happens to you somehow works out for your good.
I can’t connect all the dots for you. Sometimes you may see how it turns out for your good, but sometimes you may never see the connected dots. But if the Bible is true, then this promise is yours. You can take it to the bank. This is so freeing because that means that only goodness will follow you all the days of your life as you love the Lord. How cool is that?
2) Be thankful.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re crazy! How can I be thankful? Whatever situation you’re in, chances are 95% of the world will be happy to switch places with you. Let’s say, you made a bad investment and now you’re gonna have to “sell the farm” to pay for your expenses. Suck, right? Yeah, that suck! But you know what? There are people in this world who go hungry every day who would happily trade places with you… in a heartbeat.
3) Be glad it happened to you.
OK. This is another crazy thought. One of my friends who found out about this guy chewing me out told me, “Well, if him chewing you out meant one less bruise on his wife or one less tongue-lashing at his kids you would have done them a favor unknowingly.” Yeah, I can see what he meant. I’ve heard that Super Bowl Sunday is the day more domestic violence happens than any other. I guess, when if someone is really into his football team and they lose, unfortunately, this douchebag might take his anger out at his wife or girlfriend. By that same token, I would rather be a punching bag for this guy than letting his wife/kids getting the brunt of things. By the way, I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy is a domestic abuser. I feel sorry for his family.
4) Whether you know it or not at the moment what happened to you may close some doors, but it opens others.
You might not see the open doors right away, but they’re there. One of my friends named Allison was raped as a young girl. It was traumatizing for her, but that experience later led her to learn self-defense (both martial arts and guns), build up her confidence, and now she’s teaching so many women self-defense. That’s what I mean by open doors. She is such an inspiration to so many. I’m proud of her that she did something positive with her bad experience.
5)Ask yourself what’s the worst thing that can happen to you? And accept it!
Obviously, for many days I was afraid I might accidentally see this guy who blew up at me and I was afraid he’d do it again. That gave me some anxiety because I’m not the thick-skinned person. I pretend that I’m thick-skinned, but I’m really soft-hearted. But then I asked myself, “What’s the worst thing this guy can do to me?” Well, the worst thing he can do is murder me, of course. But if I die, it’s not because I did anything wrong or stupid. If I die, it obviously means the Lord wants to take me home. If he didn’t want to take me home quite yet, nothing can touch me. In other words, I have the Lord’s full protection. So I will trust my life in His hands. I am the Lord’s servant.
It reminds me of Mary’s wish when she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it happen as you have said.” That’s Luke 1:38. You can imagine the possible shame and ridicule she must have faced. People likely erroneously concluded that she must have been sleeping around since it wasn’t Joseph’s. They might have talked behind her back, but loud enough that she can hear them talking. Imagine the stress she must have felt knowing that others may accuse her of wrong when she did nothing wrong.
6) Whether you know it or not God is using what you’re going through to make you more like Him.
Romans 8:29, which comes right after Romans 8:28 says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
Let’s say in your situation, someone sinned against you. Well, perhaps God is using that to mold you into a forgiving person. You get the idea. Character is built during the storms of life.
So when bad things happen to you I hope these points will serve you and help you quickly recalibrate so “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”. That’s Philippians 4:6.
“But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother… When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said, to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” (John 19:25-27)
This an interesting passage of Scripture that barely gets any attention, but I think it speaks volumes. So let me set up the scenario for you. Jesus is crucified. Nails in hands and feet. Still alive, but suffering and in pain. He knows that it’s just a matter of time before he dies. Most people in this situation won’t be thinking about others. But Jesus. He’s different.
There was someone vulnerable in his life and that was his mother. You can imagine the anguish and turmoil she was experiencing seeing her son who she birthed, bathed, fed, raised, being unjustly killed for no real crime, while not being able to do anything about it. It will just about kill any mother to witness.
Jesus from the cross wanted to make sure that his mother was looked after so he told John (presumably) to look after her. Every time I come to this passage of Scripture I don’t know why, but I tear up. Jesus clearly loved his mother to the very end.
The question for you is “Do you love your mother like this?” Or substitute “mother” for the other relationships you have in your life, particularly those who made you who you are today?
Have you ever thought about the conversations that Jesus had with people? It doesn’t exactly parallel the nice and neat gospel presentations that we are familiar with today (i.e. The Four Spiritual Laws, etc.). Let’s take a look at some examples.
To a scribe Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” This is a bit odd because the scribe was telling Jesus that he was willing to follow Him. (Matthew 8:20)
To a disciple Jesus said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” That sounds kinda harsh. Is Jesus against funerals? I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying. (Matthew 9:22)
To Matthew the tax collector Jesus said, “Follow me.” Sounds simplistic. Jesus didn’t give a whole spiel like “So you’re a sinner and you need to believe that I’ll die for your sins one day to have heaven in your future.” (Matthew 9:9)
To the rich guy, Jesus said, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow me.” Surely, Jesus isn’t say that the way to be in good standing with God is to go broke, right? Well, it might be the case for this guy as Jesus may have perceived that this guy’s god was his riches. (Matthew 19:21)
To money-changers who were just trying to make a living providing for their families, Jesus said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” Well, that’s not very nice, is it? I bet Jesus hurt their feelings. (I’m being facetious). (Matthew 21:13)
To the fig tree that didn’t do anything against him, Jesus said, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” OK, this doesn’t really fit the parameters of what Jesus said to people, but I thought it’s kinda interesting that Jesus even had something to say to a tree. (Matthew 21:19)
To Pilate the governor, Jesus said, “You have said so” when asked if he was the King of the Jews. Wow, here’s an opportunity to tell Pilate, an influential figure, who he was and Jesus barely said a word. Seriously? (Matthew 27:11)
Just wanted to highlight these to you to show you how varied Jesus’s responses were. Also want to challenge your notion that there is one correct way to share the gospel.
Years ago there was a popular fad “WWJD”. People would wear the bracelets with the acronym and whenever they had to decide what to say or do in a certain situation they would think WWJD (What would Jesus do?).
Obviously, there are certainly some really great things Jesus did and said, but how exactly is one supposed to be like Jesus to others. No one would argue that believers are to love people, serve people, speak the truth, etc. But there are other things that Jesus did that I don’t see too many believers following including:
Jesus flipped tables.
Jesus yelled at people (Pharisees).
Jesus kept quiet when asked questions (Pilate).
Jesus didn’t want to do God’s will (Gethsemane).
Jesus turned water into wine.
Now this would be true with the apostles/early believers also. Here’s a few things:
The apostles casted lots to determine God’s will (Acts 1)
The believers sold all they had and pooled their resources together (Acts 4)
Paul instigated an argument so he could be protected (Acts 23)
There are more examples, but you get my point. So at the end of the day, we are pretty selective with how we want to imitate Jesus/apostles. We pretty much do what we want to do and don’t do what we don’t want to do or can’t do. I point this out so that you don’t over-spiritualize your own assessment of how tight you are with God.
What four? Well, it’s God, His Word, People (Souls), and Rewards. If you’re not investing in these four things what you’re investing in won’t last. Now, you might ask, “Does that mean I shouldn’t play video games?” Well, there are lots of things in life that are not necessarily bad. This can include collecting stamps, taking walks along the beach, or doing escape rooms. And things don’t necessarily fit cleanly in the eternal or not eternal category.
I mean, what if you want to build a stronger relationship with someone you’re trying to share the gospel with, and you decide to go to an escape room? I don’t see anything wrong with that. But what if you just want to spend hours and hours collecting stamps by yourself? There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that either.
This is all to say that the closer your activities look like they are an investment in eternal things the better off you are. Only God can judge this, but knowing what’s eternal and what’s not (to the best of your knowledge) might be a good starting point to decide what you invest in.
Yes, you know that the Bible is true and that Jesus is the Savior. You know the Truth! That’s great! But did you know that though you know the Truth you might actually believe some lies, also? Now, I’m not talking about Bible truth here. I’m talking about the truth about history, politics, news, medicine, drugs, vaccines, current events, social issues, and whole host of other topics?
Have you ever seen the movie “The Matrix”? In it, people are drinking, eating, and enjoying life, but there’s only one problem. It’s not real. People are actually trapped like slaves by machines and made to think they are having a great life.
Can it be possible that some of what we believe to be true might actually not be? You bet it can.
So I was in my happy world until 6 years ago. My friend Dave sent me youtube videos on 9/11. I thought, “I don’t have time to watch conspiracy videos” But I knew Dave was not a psycho so I watched them and my world was rocked. It’s a weird feeling because I had never experienced this feeling before or since. It was as if everything I thought to be true was a lie. It made me question just about everything else. And I was shocked to find out how many lies I believed. I was mad because these lies ended up and still do hurt people.
The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12,
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
Obviously, there are dark forces in this world that are always mounting their dark agenda against people. Though this verse speaks about how it’s a spiritual war, in other parts of the Bible we do see that it’s not limited to a spiritual war. In other words, it can very much be a real war, too.
I’m sure you remember the story of the demon-possessed man or the woman with an unclean spirit or the fortune-telling girl who annoyed Paul. Just to mention a few. The spiritual war can be manifest in the world that we see.
Don’t have time to dive into every single topic, but let’s take a look at the topic of vaccines. We are told they are good for you, prevent disease, and keeps you healthy and safe. Now who in the world doesn’t want that? I know I want all these benefits and I’m sure you do, too. But the reality is just the opposite. If you do the research, you’ll find that at best, vaccines won’t harm you (in any noticeable way). It certainly doesn’t make you healthier. At worst, you can be injured or killed.
You won’t hear too many stories of vaccine injury and vaccine deaths because the news companies are pretty quiet about it. That’s what you expect when the news is in bed with pharmaceutical companies. You wouldn’t want to bite the hand that feeds you, would you?
Think about it. If you were the Devil, what better way to destroy people and their God-destined potential from happening than to persuade the masses that something that’s potentially lethal to you is actually beneficial?
My friend’s son, David, was injured by the MMR vaccine when he was just 1 year old. He was perfectly fine and happy until the shot. Then he disengaged socially, curled up, displayed anti-social behavior. Some four decades later, he can’t carry a conversation and is not independent. He won’t be marrying and started a God-honoring family. Because of his injury he can’t work even a simple job.
Now some might say David’s injury was God’s will. In a sense that’s true in that everything that happens, good or evil, is part of God’s unfolding will. In another sense, maybe God had some amazing plans for David, but the Devil smooshed it. We will probably never know what David could have been.
So that’s why it’s important for us to educate ourselves on what’s really going on in the world. If we don’t we may inadvertently do damage or allow damage to people entrusted to our care.
If you’re interested in diving more into these topics check out Ty Bollinger’s books “Monumental Myths of the Modern Medical Mafia and Mainstream Media and the Multitude of Lying Liars that Manufactured Them.
Now as you sorting through some of these topics, just keep an open mind.
