By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,…”
~ Galatians 5:22-23

Several times, in the writings of Paul, he names off many of the fruits of the Spirit of God. These fruits of the Spirit of God are things like Love, Joy, Peace, etc. If these are the fruits of the Holy Spirit of God, then what are the fruits of the devil???

The fruits of following an evil spirit must be the opposite of following the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, the fruits of the devil would be things like hatred, anger, hurting people, contention, arguing, murmuring, complaining, upset, grumpy, impatient, refuse to help, not willing to suffer for someone, refuse to care, being bad, saying bad things about someone, gossiping, withholding, taking, dishonesty, cheating, adultery, breaking your word, not keeping your word, covenant breaker, roughness, harshness, not being careful, indulgent, intemperate, spazing, greedy, saying rude things, finding fault with others, saying they do it too, you know it is wrong, but you do it anyway; and the list goes on.

If a person is doing any of these things, then they do NOT have the Spirit of God, but they are following the spirit of a devil! No person is justified before God in doing any of these things. In fact, those who do these things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

All is not lost! If you find yourself following this evil spirit then repent. Stop doing these things and start following the Holy Spirit of God, by loving people out here, not just in your head or in your heart, but out here as well. And after love, Joy, uplift people, spread peace, be patient and longsuffering with people, be gentle, be helpful, spread goodness wherever you go, be faithful to all, be meek, be temperate, look only to spread goodness wherever you go. This is the Spirit of Holiness. Plant this tree, and only produce the good fruit of the Spirit of God!

Comfortable

I have been thinking about this concept of being comfortable.  People finding a church, or a group of like minded people, who have the same or similar beliefs, with which a person can be comfortable.  And I find this interesting, because if a person does not like what is written in the scriptures, they try to change the meaning of what is written, so they can feel comfortable.  And they find another group of people or a church, which has the same changed meaning of the scriptures, so they can feel comfortable together.

It is ironic, people want to be good and follow the Lord, and yet if there is something in the scriptures that they do not want to do, they find as many excuses as they possibly can, of why they do not have to do it.  And if they cannot find a suitable excuse, they change the definition of what they are instructed to do.  That way they can still say they are doing what they are supposed to do, and try to not feel bad about why they are not doing it.

But, I am a person who believes in the bottom line.  I only believe in results.  How can I feel comfortable if I do not get the results that are promised by the Lord in the scriptures.  Therein is the problem.  All these places where people go to feel comfortable with their beliefs, they do not get the results of what is promised in the scriptures.  What is the Point?  If the Lord comes and says:  You will get this if you follow me.  And if a person does not get what the Lord has promised, then that person is not following the Lord.  If the Lord comes and says:  If the members of my Church, who live in such and such a way, they will get these blessings.  Now if you or your church do not get those blessings, then you are not living the way the Lord said.  What is the point of making a church that does not follow the Lord?  Or in other words, what is the point of making a church that does not get the results the Lord has promised, and therefore proves that that church is not the Lord’s church?

If you are not getting the results the Lord promised, then you are not following the Lord’s Gospel, so what is the point of making another church?  Why go?  You are not doing it right, because you are not getting the results.  If you are not getting the results, you are obviously not following the Lord.  So, if you are not following the Lord, why make a church, or a group of like minded people to deceive yourselves?  When people do not get the results the Lord promised, they are not following the Lord, they have changed the doctrine.  They have changed the Gospel.  They have changed the ordinances. 

And how can a person tell if the church/group/person has changed the ordinances, or are following the wrong ordinances????

Because they do not get the results promised by the Lord! 

I just do not understand why a person would want to go to a church/group/religion that does not get the results promised by the Lord?

You have a right to believe any way you like, but if your beliefs do not bare the correct results that the Saviour said, then what is the point?  You are only deceiving yourself and others.

Instead, go to the Lord and like minded people of the Lord, who get the results the Lord promised.  Humble yourselves enough to learn from them, and get the same results the Lord promised for yourself.  Blessed are those who come down into the depths of humility, and learn from their fellow man.

Alma 16 - Planting The Seed

What if you had a craving for muffins?

And you have tried many recipes in your life, and none of those recipes made muffins that satisfied you?

What if someone showed up and said they had a recipe direct from the Lord, and you noticed that they were always satisfied, and enjoying their muffins. What if they offered to share that recipe with you?

What if you just could not bring yourself to follow that recipe, the whole thing is just too suspicious. You have tried so many recipes in your life, and you just do not have the energy to keep trying. What do you do?

But this recipe is claimed to have come from the Lord, and all who follow it are showing good results, so you think about that. You watch and you think, and you let that curiosity work within you, until you start to desire to give it a try.

But you are cynical, and give up a few times, and change the recipe here and there (just a little), so it will not work out and you can say it was a bad recipe. They you can feel proud of yourself that you were right all along. Of course, you know you did not follow the recipe, and others are still getting the results, and you still desire to have some decent muffins, so secretly, you give the recipe another chance.

This time you follow the recipe perfectly, and you get some good results. You get wonderful muffins that taste so good! You cannot believe it, so you make up some nonsense about it just being a fluke, and throw the recipe away.

But eventually you crave those muffins again, and you search out the bakers who are following that recipe, and you ask them to share it with you. They do, and you start baking the best muffins of your life.

With time, you get better and better at following the recipe, and your muffins taste better and better!

Bearing False Witness

“There is no salvation in believing an evil report against our neighbour.”

~ Joseph Smith, Jr.

Unfortunately, there always seems to be someone saying something bad about someone.

In the scriptures, we are instructed not to gossip, nor to bear any type of false witness about anyone, yet how often do we find ourselves listening to gossip?  Why should we even contribute to such evil as to listen to it?  There is no honour in believing gossip.  There is no goodness to be found in repeating gossip.  Gossip only causes contention.

How sad it would be to be a child of the Devil, which is the father of contention!  Why would anyone want to stir up the hearts of men against one another?

Instead, let us promote peace!

Do not gossip, nor bear false witness in any way!
Do not listen to, nor contribute to gossip.
Do not break your covenants by believing an evil report about your brother.

Do not look for evil in anyone.

Be sure to completely forgive all who have ever borne false witness against you.

"Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God!"

How wonderful, to be called the child of God!

Racism And Hatred

It is always so sad to me, when I hear of people putting others down because of their genetic background.  It is an unfortunate part of world society, but it does not have to be so. We can choose to interact with each other kindly, without prejudice.

"When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent.  Do you see why it is violent?  Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind.  When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence.  So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind." 

~ Jiddu Krisnamurti

Not many people know that I myself am not originally from the main culture of Canada.  I find it best to not to focus on things that separate people.  Although, I must admit, it does bother me when I hear people denigrating any culture.  Having travelled to many countries around the world, I find there is good in every culture, and that good far outweighs the bad.

There are so many good things in every culture, which are really all a part of the one macro-culture of the entire planet, and those good things are amazing to explore!

Complaints, Murmurings, Persecutions, Revilings

 As a religious counsellor, I hear all kinds of things, from all kinds of people, and I would like to address one of these things today; it is the topic of persecutions.

Now, many members of the church do complain of "persecutions", that is nothing new.  Usually this complaint comes from people who are quite controlling and vindictive, often complaining when they do not get their way.  

Yet, sometimes, a humble member comes, with tears in their eyes, asking for help and guidance, because they are being pressured by the more popular members to lower their standards, especially in the area of morality.  These humble members of the church are not so popular, because they live a higher morality, and try their best to "keep every word which proceedeth forth from the mouth of God."

Of course, this behaviour irks the popular members in just the wrong way.  They take offence to the behaviour of the faithful members, who quietly follow the Saviour, without ever saying anything against the choices of the popular members.  Then of course the popular members lash out against the humble members, bearing down in false witness against the humble followers of Christ, accusing them of unrighteously judging the popular members.  The popular members start to apply a great deal of peer pressure, and spend a great deal of effort winning over the other members of the church to their side, against all those who would keep the commandments of the Lord to such a high standard.  Of course, the hypocrisy is easily apparent to an outsider, but not so apparent to the popular members, who suffer from this solipsistic view.

The interesting phenomena is the humble member, comes for counsel, asking how to stay strong, never seeking for justice, never complaining, just asking for guidance and prayer.

Whereas the popular members come complaining, ... Often!  Often asking for justice, accusing the humble follower of persecution and all sorts of crimes, etc.  The most common justification of the popular members is:  Everyone is allowed to have their own opinion (Everyone, that is, except the humble followers of Messiah!)

To the humble followers, those who do not revile back, only humbly continue to follow the Saviour, I say:  Do not be discouraged.  You are loved by God.  Continue to pray for those who revile, persecute, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for the Lord's sake.  The Father sees you, and you will have place with the prophets in heaven.  Keep the Faith!

Passover/Last Supper

I have not been posting much on my blogs, forum, or social media this past week, on account of all the preparations for the Passover/Resurrection celebration.

It is at this time of year, which we celebrate the ordinance of Passover, which was a foundational ordinance of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God. It is at this time which we celebrate not only the Saviour living each day for us and dying for us, but also showing us the way back to the Father, even overcoming death by His triumphant resurrection! This wonderful gift is offered to all those who will repent and live as the Saviour lived. What an amazing promise!

Tonight, we will be having the Passover meal, the Last Supper, and our hearts will be fully drawn out in thanks for our Lord and our Saviour, even Yeshua the Messiah, for overcoming all things, thereby teaching us how to overcome all things as well.

See you tonight,
and May God be with you!