Day 3449 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Matthew 7:18 NIV

While within a world in which we’re judged by all manner of mankind’s maniacal misunderstandings, perhaps it’s best to simply do as called to and not really concern ourselves with this culture’s considerations.

For as this world unravels and ravages itself in the process, a process proven via pride and popular platforms from which folks now scream everything they think without thinking it through, we’re only coming to see and thus understand that where we stand cannot be allowed to define who we are nor what we do even though so many here are so certainly given already unto that concession. Indeed, while we may truly walk amongst a many who live their lives looking for that limelight in which they’re loved by a world that knows nothing of the word, for they know nothing of the Word, we are called to then be all that this world cannot and does not and will not ever understand.

No, we are here to stand upon a truth that confronts our human concessions in ways that alleviate us of our forsaken pride and the vitriolic vanity which keeps such substance still so alive inside so many all around.

Yes, it’s no longer kept as much of a secret nor then allowed to come as much of a surprise in that this world in which we live still lives as if they’ll not die but has instead either the power to have and hold or to refuse and despise. Indeed, there are so many here who spend their every waking moment looking for mankind’s approval as won within their wanting only what their neighbor desires and seeking this sense of competition in which they beat them to said prize that’s blinded so many eyes. They seek out only the substance of those things most socially sought after, and refuse themselves any contentment until they’ve arrived at their socially agreed upon destination.

Or, on the same hand but somehow in another direction altogether, folks look down upon those who are different. They hate those who speak to the futility of such foolishness as following the blind expecting to end up somewhere worth finding. They despise any who speak the Word which brings the truth in ways that do indeed do damage down deep. Indeed, this world loathes those who go against the grain, enjoy the rain, welcome the pain for they’re the ones bearing fruit that, while perhaps somewhat bitter up top, at least it doesn’t sour the stomach.

Indeed, this world’s god is truly their stomach and they live as if they’re here only to glut themselves upon the glitter of gold and glory as if they’re able to add to their story as written within hearts so dark that each dream is designed inside a deception so decrepit that none know anymore what happiness is nor where it’s found as it’s not for sale on a shelf somewhere. And yet they hate those who they see exude that joy they seek, wondering where they got it and if there’s a coupon.

There isn’t as there needn’t be a discount upon a gift given in full. No, contrary to the seed sown by a world overgrown with weeds of want and wrath, the truth is that such things as peace and patience, joy and contentment, they’re all found within the Father who sent the Son to show us how to sow us a harvest of hope that will not fail to yield a hundredfold. Guess the world’s still just holding out for a chance at a thousandfold return upon their lack of investment in anything other than their divestment from such things as truth and consequence.

And they stand off across that distance demanded by deceit and denial laughing all the while as they look down upon us who’ve started swimming for the shore upon which we’re sure to find a good soil upon which to wage a good fight for this good faith that inspired us to say goodbye to who we’ve been so that we can then become so much more than we’ve ever known before. And perhaps it’s understandable how silly we must look what with all the humility and simplicity shown inside such things a modesty and honesty.

But honestly, such differing opinions are the contemplation we’re warned against in Proverbs 29:25. For, “fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” I reckon then it boils down to the discrepancy between an outcome and its aftermath. For there is safety and security and success all promised unto all in life regardless of the way in which we live it.

We’re either kept safe in the Lord, and thus loathed by those who’d still happily repeat the sights and sounds of what we so brazenly call Good Friday despite their best efforts having fallen short, or we’re welcomed into a slightly more hastened reward as won within the pleasing of those people who still hate that their attempts to disprove the truth were, well, disproven of any ability to actually overcome what God intended. Either way, we’ll be both loved and hated.

Just up for us to decide when and by whom.

Now the hard part in such a decision as that defined by the seed we’re planting is that the present proportions are pretty much out of plumb. There is no fifty-fifty in regard to this faith in a faithless world. It’s not even 60-40. 70-30 seems still a bit too high as does 80-20. 90-10 is perhaps somewhere at least near the ball park, though I think it’s looking a little leaner than that as the world goes ahead in the direction it’s chosen to go.

For these odds which are seemingly stacking against us, at least as far as our eyes can see, they’re a result of the bounty that this world is presently reaping of all this sleeping and sheeping they’re doing. Indeed, this world is just one big herd in which you can only speak what the masses want heard, and as the pressure to conform and confirm that you’re sowing the seed of dissention that they’ve this weird intention to keep inventing, it’s only inspiring people to give up any semblance of anything that anyone could in any way not agree is a good work.

Yes, this world is ramping up the persecution of any and all who don’t abide by their all but blasphemous idea of what good is. And it a most concerning version to be sure.

Because you see, we have officially entered the times of which we were so graciously warned, almost as if to ready us for what we’d come to see inside a rebellion with no bottom. No, folks here, and there are many of them and even more every morning, have been given over to a debased mind which inspires them to put bad for good, dark for light, wicked for righteous, lie for honest, and even hate for love. Indeed, we are seeing people completely obliterate every ounce of anything morally decent to the degree of utterly despising those who still seek to plant good in this life.

We’re now given labels the likes of bigot, racist, supremacist, extremist, misogynist, even masochist simply because our beliefs do not seem to reap the sort of harvest this hopeless world seems to insist upon engorging themselves upon. No, we simply abide by a Word that is so utterly logical, morally superior, eternally hopeful, and fully joyous that they simply think we’re out to ruin their lives simply because His Word doesn’t abide by man’s desires but instead calls us all to turn and repent back to our senses that this world’s sense of selfishness has singed.

And they hate us for nothing more than the simple fact that the seed we sow as seen and shown in good works, honest words, hopeful outlooks, humble hopes, joyful generosity, unabashed modesty, and, probably worst of all in their opinion, an unshakable resistance to all things deplorable. Actually, in what is a most ironic turn of hypocritical measure, they actually call us that one too, the deplorables. Sticks and stones have become the weapons with which they seek to fight against the God who wages war with a Word that won’t yield.

To each their own.

But you see, as this all gets harder, this here calling we see today, to understand the difference between the sort of fruit being planted in life and where it’s so obviously coming from, I want everyone to understand that there is a silver lining to be found within all the darkness encroaching all around all the time. It’s that when those bearing bad fruit as found in the form of hatred or division or deception or depravity, whatever breed of darkness a lost soul may prefer to sow, it only shows that we’re in fact different. And that’s a gift that this world affords us even as they despise us.

For if we were of the world, doing as the world does, they would love us as their own. This fact is both show within the Word of God, John 15:19, but it’s also seen within the ways in which this world works. It’s felt within what this world hates, and too within what this world apparently loves, however it is that this world pretends to love. Anyway. My point is that it’s a wonderful thing to be hated by a world that loves sin.

It really is as simple as that.

It’s a great thing to be despised for speaking the truth in a land that loves lies. It’s an amazing evidence as to the substance of our character and its trajectory when we’re so clearly not feeling all that welcome within this world. We shouldn’t be welcomed within this world that welcomes such things as men physically beating women in the Olympics, the mockery of our Lord and His Last Supper as shown within the opening gambit of those very same games, the perversion of sexual immorality strewn before children, the depravity of public nudity paraded through city streets while families look on.

And I could go on, you get the picture, and it’s an ugly painting indeed!

Point is that we’re here to plant something different than this pitiful pile of politic and pride that this place is painting via pronouns and perversion. For those things come not from good trees. Dishonesty cannot be born of a tree planted in the truth of God’s Word. Modesty will not be won within a tree watered by the lust of a debased mind. Honesty will not be endured, sound teaching thus hated, simply because this place has planted a forest of foolishness and they run wild through it as if that’s what freedom is found.

As if freedom can be something so little as to be found inside each individual, resulting in a different outcome or some different degree depending then upon the person.

No, friends, we’re in Christ called to bear fruit, good fruit, honest fruit, joyful fruit, hopeful fruit, as discussed yesterday, fruit that lasts. Indeed, we are call to sow fruit in this life that leads to life, to light, to love as learned and given in the truth and in the Spirit. Yes, we are called to bear fruit, the best fruit as defined by the blessings He’s planted in us and in our lives. But friends, a bad tree cannot bear good fruit and nor can a good tree bear bad fruit.

We thus cannot be who He calls us to be, bearers of the good fruit, the good news, servants of the good Lord if we remain bad trees. And while such is what we’ve so undeniably been, and are still so undeniably so surrounded by, such is why He prunes the branches in us that don’t bear fruit. He removes the bad trees from our lives so that their lies don’t grow up with us, in us only to then choke us. Yes, that’s why He cuts out every part of us that bears bad fruit and throws it into the fire.

In fact, He leads our whole body, our whole life into that fire of refinement so that all that doesn’t bear fruit or bears the wrong kind of fruit is done away with so that what is left that is good in us can grow unencumbered by the weeds of wickedness and want all around. And it hurts sometimes. And we don’t understand it some days. And this world is filled with those who will never see why we agree to this sort of humility that refuses to allow us to go along with anything that isn’t going anywhere.

But it’s because of the fruit they’re eating, and we know this well as we’ve bellied up to that same buffet before. We’ve bought the lies and told our share of them. We’ve chased the goals in which everyone else hopes to gain this whole world, and we’ve also cheered others on in that regard. We’ve wanted what this world has and hated what this world doesn’t want to understand. We’ve refused the changes we needed to make and denied the mistakes that we made instead.

We’ve been every bit of this world, and we’ve sown some rotten fruit because of it. Thanks be to God who, through Christ, opened our eyes to see the harvest we’d reap in the end. For everyone will indeed reap whatever they sow. But it may not all be as confused as this world so often contends. Indeed, Galatians 6:8. “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

And thus we’re different, both from who we were and too from where we are. We are not of this world anymore, and this world will hate that as the truth we speak, this good fruit we sow, it will confront the lies in which they’ve grown complacent. The call to repentance as demanded for any to find life after this death we’ve lived, it will seem an affront to the fear of change in which so many are somehow so sadly comfortable. We will be everything this world doesn’t want to see or hear or understand. And they’ll hate us for it, no matter how much good we may be doing.

But when the bad fruit threatens to spoil the batches of hope and peace and purpose and meaning and life and love than you’re here planting, remember Psalm 126:5-6.

“Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” For weeping may endure for this night through which we walk, but joy is coming upon that morning when we awaken to life and watch the Lord gather the harvest of those welcomed home into Heaven, those we lived this life trying to point in that direction.

Friends, that is why we’re here, to bear that fruit of life and love and hope. And even though God’s versions of all the above are so different from those deceptive replacements that so many bad trees are planting in the hearts and minds of those around them, we cannot give up and give in to again doing the same as them. No, “let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

It may not seem like what we’re doing is making all that much of a difference in this world. And compared to the rapid growth of sin and darkness, it may feel like we’re accomplishing less and less as the world grows colder. But friends, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how big the splash, just the fact that we picked up a rock and chucked it into the water believing it might somehow start a tsunami.

Our lives will be weighed by the harvest we reap, and contrary to the efforts given unto blurring the line between them by the world around us, there is a big difference between good and bad, right and wrong, dark and light, life and death. Let us then remember always that the tongue holds the power of life and death and that any who hear any of what we say may indeed eat the fruit we plant in their lives. And so too may someone else see something we do which forms a seed that inspires them to repeat what they’ve seen in us.

Let us show them, tell them what is good. Yes, let us sow in this life such things as love, truth, modesty, morality, responsibility, reality, humility, for when all of them combine and grow together, they show the world that our faith has indeed made us different. Indeed, let us be different.

Because what we sow shows who we are, and we simply cannot settle ever again for being who and what this world has chosen to remain. Even if at some point we’re the last tree standing still trying to bear good fruit despite the decay closing in.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold