Got Fruit ?

Judge not, and you shall not be judged.  Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Luke 6:37

There is a significant difference between judgment and discernment. God sees people’s hearts and knows their motives (Prov. 16:2). Only God can accurately judge those who deserve punishment. Ultimately, Christ will sit in judgment upon us all in the day of judgment (2 Cor. 5:10).

Our problem is that we like to sit in the judgment seat and pronounce condemnation upon those whom we think have sinned. Scripture commands us not to judge or condemn others, for we cannot be judgmental and redemptive at the same time. It is difficult to pray sincerely for someone while we are judging them. At times our judgmental attitude can seem to provide us an excuse not to become involved in God’s redemptive work in someone’s life. Scripture reminds us that God will treat us with the same grace or severity with which we treat others (Luke 6:38).

God commands us not to judge others, but He does want us to be discerning. Jesus said we would know people’s spiritual condition by the fruit of their lives (Matt. 7:16). He said grapes are not produced by thorn bushes. If a person’s life produces thorns, we can assume that person is not a grapevine. Are we being judgmental? No, we are being discerning. Scripture commands us to avoid associating with scoffers or fools (Prov. 22:10; 17:12). Unless we are able to identify scoffers and fools, we cannot obey God’s command. That is not being judgmental, it is being discerning. As Christians, we have been instructed to observe the lives of others so that we can help them while avoiding any sinful influence.

You will be helpful to others only if you see them as God does. If you have been judgmental of others, ask forgiveness and pledge yourself to let God use you as His minister of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18).

Henry and Richard Blackaby
Experiencing God Day-by-Day

Todd Wilken writes an interesting article over at Truth War Central 

Issues, Etc. (HT to Truth War Central).  In his article Wilken explains the "trumped" up accusations and misuse of the term "Pharisee" sometimes "dealt" at discerning Christians as they point out doctrinal "dealings".  The article’s intro article in it’s entirety is located here.

2nd Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Grace and peace be with you.

(Edited 20081110)

It has been a personal practice to not become overly fascinated, ie having a spiritual man-crush on theologians, pastors, teachers, Christian spiritual leaders or figures.  On a few occasions however, I’ve made reference to a few quotes or viewpoints by popular Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias.  Since I have in fact enjoyed Zacharias’ ability to articulate his thoughts in the past, it’s somewhat saddening to discover and "report" that  Crosstalk discloses that Ravi seems to be in fact slipping in his doctrinal position as he’s endorsed some questionable persons dabbling in "Christian" mysticism.  You can check out the Crosstalk segment posted on YouTube that discerns Zacharias’ teachings concerning "Christian" mysticism.

In addition I would like to take this opportunity to address Got Fruit (?) readers concerning my position on any items linked from this blog, especially in the case of quoting or citing "Christian" leaders, their ideas or sentiments.  Simply put, any external links from posts here at Got Fruit(?) should not be construed as a personal endorsement of anyone’s character or doctrine.  It is policy to not link to blogs,stories or other forms of Internet based media that I consider or believe, to be not glorifying to God (includes ideas, beliefs and teachings not in line with orthodox Christian doctrine).

2nd Timothy 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Grace and peace be with you.

I had some additional thoughts from a comment left by Jen of Walk Two a few days ago that I’d like to share today.  Jen and I were speaking about spiritual deception ie; false prophets, and immediately the recent fall of Todd Bentley (Lakeland Florida Outpouring Revival fiasco) came to mind.

If one is not aware of Todd Bentley, the short of it is that he’s a charismatic "prophet" associated with Fresh Fires Ministry.  Bentley led what’s been described as a franticly paced revival in Lakeland Florida over the past 2-3 months.   Bentley has had a questionable past, and seems to have become a quick and rising star on the scene of evangelism (?).  As for the revival itself, some of the questionable things to come form this "revival" include reports of healings  accompanied  with violence, heavenly visitations ("Third Heaven") and encounters with angels; specifically one named "Emma".

Apprising Ministries, Apostasy Watch and Marsha West have already done a well enough job commenting on this story so I won’t go into detail adding my 2 cents worth to what’s already been written about the bizarre happenings of the revival. What I do want to add however is some spiritual food for thought in retrospect.

The first thought comes from 2nd Thessalonians, and pertains to all spiritual deception not just the Florida Outpouring Revival:

2nd Thessalonians 2:9-12
9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Honestly, I don’t know whether to take those verses as pertaining strictly to the false prophet being delusional in their own self crafted schemes or the people flocking to the deception?  This next verse however is in my opinion definitely addressing those that practice and preach false doctrines, and counterfeit works.  It’s something that many folks obviously missed before hopping on the Florida Outpouring Revival bandwagon:

Colossians 2:18-19
18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19 He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Also see: 2nd Timothy 4:2-4

And Jesus said: "So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time." (Mark 13:21-23)

Grace and peace be with you.

Before I get into the heart of this post, let me say or rather make clear that Got Fruit(?) is not being transformed into a discernment oriented ministry so to speak.  I sensed  after reviewing the past few posts, that impression may have been given.  Please do not take my  statement as me downplaying the importance of discernment, I believe that it is vital for Christians to be discerning, however, it is not an area that I feel compelled by the Holy Spirit to jump into with both feet.  There are countless areas of spiritual growth that we all must be matured in be it, forgiveness, discipline, service, humility, to name a few.  It is simply my opinion that a Christian, particularly one that is a "spiritual babe" (of which I consider myself), can become sidetracked from experiencing Christ in their life fully if they pursue a narrow scope of Christianity.  My own experiences and opinion tell me that an infatuation, particularly from an intellectual "collecting’ mindset, may not lead one to truly knowing Jesus.

Soooo.. with all of that said.   More on discernment.

I was in the process of replying to a reader comment  from the Emergent Motivational Posters post this evening (ok, yesterday evening by the time I actually get this posted, but I’m filling it under yesterday); and we we’re exchanging some ideas and thoughts concerning discernment, in particular the Emergent Church doctrine/theology.  I won’t rehash the entire conversation here, but one of the questions or thoughts that came up was about how EC leaders, speaking for the whole I gather, have a warped sense of SIN and REGENERATION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT is.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist taking at least a little step upon the the ‘ole soap box.  The short of what I understand from reading EC propaganda is that their "gospel" is along the line of social transformation with a jesus twist.  Yes, no capital "J" on that jesus, because he is not the same Jesus that I read about in the Bible or pray to.  The jesus of the EC seems to be everyone’s homie, that’s just happy to have been  able to be crucified.  Not really sure why he was pleased to be crucified as the EC doctrine, or at least Rob Bell seems to not make it clear that the purpose of the crucifixion was to redeem us because of OUR sins against him.  For more in depth reading and commentary, I suggest heading over to Apprising Ministries headed up by Ken Silva.  You’ll find plenty of informative posts concerning EC doctrine and it’s leaders there.

Anywho… one of the comments by the reader regarding our discussion of the EC’s failure to comprehend the gospel was along the lines of a paraphrased passage: "Be ye transformed".   The Bible passage that came to mind for me is from Romans:

Romans 12:2
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Kind of hard to understand God’s holy and sinless agenda if your trying to approach Him from your naturally sinful and unregenerate perspective, don’t you think?

Grace and peace be with you.