Little apples of death

In the same manner as yesterday's look at logs and eyes, I read this today: We are not meant to judge others, but we can be fruit inspectors.

Jesus said, "In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, and every rotten tree produces bad fruit."

Well, sort of . I read this in doing research for this blog (amazingly I really did). There is a tree that is quite common in the Caribbean that is called a Manchineel Tree. They often grow near the beach and seem to offer great shade. But there is only one problem. The fruit, which look quite innocuous, are poisonous. Even standing under the tree during a rainstorm can cause a rash or blistering of the skin. Appropriately, the fruit, which looks a lot like an apple, is referred to as the “little apple of death.”

Jesus also talked about those prophets who were wolves in sheep's clothing. I think we have many of those living today. I pray from time to time I'm not one of them.

Bottom line is this: the only way to test a ministry, to test a life, is to see what fruit has been produced. We are called to be many things, but fruit-bearing is certainly one of them. If we have no fruit, we have no witness, we have no ministry.

That's the position today of many. They talk great battles. They walk none.