The FRUITS of God's "TREES"

The INTENTION of God


Matthew 12: 33 (NIV) Jesus speaking: "Make a tree good, and its fruit will be good; or make a tree bad, and its fruit will be bad -- for a tree is recognized by its fruit."

Matthew 7: 16 (NRSV) Jesus speaking: You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every GOOD tree bears GOOD fruit; but the BAD tree bears BAD fruit. 18 A GOOD tree CANNOT bear bad fruit..... nor can a BAD TREE bear good fruit.


Like "trees" referred to in the above scriptures.... "good trees", and "bad trees".... God's human creations are DESIGNED by God.... and ASSIGNED their function... to produce the "fruits" for which each individual was created. God does not intend for all of His human-creations to bear the same "fruit"... or to live identical lives... like "monks"... or like "peas-in-a-pod".


A tablet from the on-going INTERNET BOOK, "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets"
( http://www.terrific-tabs.com )
by John N. Todd III, M. D. (link to "About the Author")

The web-link to this "tablet" is: http://www.terrific-tabs.com/print_fruits.htm
To send a "live" link to a friend, copy and paste this web-link in an email message.

CLICK HERE for related tablets: No one can gain the favor of God... by "works" (link)
AND: INDIVIDUATION by God (link)
AND: FOREKNOWN.... before the beginning of time (link)
AND: RESPONDING to God (link)
AND: What do you POSSESS that was not GIVEN to you (link)

"Doctored"... 5/00; 6/01; 8/01; 10/01; 11/01; 2/02; 4/02; 7/02; 8/02; 9/02; 10/02; 3/03; 4/03l 6/03; 10/03; 11/03; 1/04; 2/04; 3/04; 4/04; 6/04; 7/04; 11/04; 1/05; 3/05; 11/05; 12/05; 1/6/06; 2/8/06

CLICK HERE to go to the "FRONT PAGE" of "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets"
CLICK HERE for ALPHABETICAL INDEX of this entire WEBSITE
CLICK HERE to EMAIL your thoughts to the author

The first two of these verses are repeated from above:

Matthew 12: 33 (NIV) Jesus speaking: "Make a tree good, and its fruit will be good; or make a tree bad, and its fruit will be bad -- for a tree is recognized by its fruit." 35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him; and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

Matthew 7: 16 (NRSV) Jesus speaking: You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every GOOD tree bears good fruit; but the BAD TREE bears BAD fruit. 18 A GOOD tree CANNOT bear bad fruit..... nor can a BAD TREE bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.

Romans 9: 22 (NIV) What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath -- PREPARED for destruction? 23 What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy.... whom HE prepared in advance for glory!

In this section, using the same "metaphoric" comparison that is used in the Bible.... I will try to establish what I consider to be an essential spiritual truth, as follows: God's people (link) -- those human individuals who have been "included" ("accepted", "saved", chosen [link]) by God.... God's people "produce" precisely the "fruit" (the works, the "deeds", the responses, the effects) for which each individual "Godsperson" has been designed and created. For example, if it is God's INTENTION that a human "tree" will produce (metaphoric) "figs", that tree does indeed produce figs; and is therefore considered, by the Creator, to be bearing the "good fruit" for which it was created. God does not expect a "fig-tree" to produce apples or peaches.... even though apples and peaches.... like figs.... may also be considered, by God, to be "good fruits". (See link: "God's Individuation".)

"Good" fruits come from a variety of "good" trees, but not all "good" trees produce the SAME "good" fruit. A "tree" produces exactly the "fruit" that it was created to produce. That is to say, it is God who determines and ASSIGNS the "fruits" (the deeds, the function, the "ministry") that each of His people will produce; and it is God alone who must be satisfied about the nature and quality and quantity of the "fruits" of each of His people. In other words, all other opinions -- the opinions of ourselves, or of other human-beings, or of priests and ministers, or of an earthly "church of humans" -- all other opinions carry no weight with God.... and do not matter.... and have no consequence. We humans do not judge God's "trees" (other humans), for God.

"Bad trees", like "good trees", are also designed and created by God.... for God's own reasons, and purposes. "Bad trees" do not create themselves. The characteristics of the "bad fruit" that a "bad tree" produces, result from the INTENTION and plan of God. To state this a little differently: the "good-ness" or "bad-ness" of a tree, or of its "fruit", is a decision and "judgment" made by God only; and is not a determination made by the "tree" itself, or by some other "tree", or by any earthly human, or by any group of humans, or by any doctrinal organization.

No human-beings, no earthly church, no priest, no rabbi, no preacher, no imam.... can change a "bad tree" into a "good tree". The nature and quality and quantity of the fruit of a "God's tree" are determined by our Creator God.... only.

No human-being can change himself from one kind of tree into another kind of tree. A thistle can never produce figs.... no matter how hard it tries, and no matter how much it pretends, and claims.

No branch of any tree can bear a fruit, either "good" or "bad", by itself. A branch must be attached to a tree, of one kind or another.... or it will not produce anything. "Synthetic", man-made "fruits", and pretend-works have no true effect -- and are of no particular value.

Note the following scriptural references. Read these out loud, so that you may "hear" God's words, as you see them:
 
Matthew 7: 16 (NRSV): Jesus speaking: You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree CANNOT bear bad fruit, nor CAN a bad tree bear good fruit.

John 15: 1 (NRSV): Jesus speaking: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine; neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me, and I in them, bear much fruit; because apart from me, you can do nothing.

SAME (NIV): John 15: 4 Jesus speaking: Remain in me -- and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit, unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.... 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit.... showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Continuing the same thoughts, for emphasis:
A tree, itself, cannot choose or decide, for itself, what kind of tree it will be; nor what kind of fruit it will bear. What a tree produces is determined by its "Creator". A pear tree produces a "good fruit", but it will never produce apples (to please those human "trees" who claim that only "apples" are "good" fruit) -- no matter how hard the "pear" tree tries. But, the fact that a pear-tree does not produce apples, does not make that tree any less valuable, either to its "Maker" and "Owner" -- or to those who truly benefit from its fruit.
(Note this scripture: Psalm 119: 73 (NEB) Thy hands moulded me, and made me what I am. Show me how I may learn thy commandments.)

A "good" tree is a tree declared "good" by God. When God declares a tree to be good or bad, or a "fruit" to be good or bad, then the feelings and wishes and decisions of humans, and humanly groups -- are inconsequential.
(Ezekiel 17: 24 (NRSV) All the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD. I bring low the high tree -- I make high the low tree. I dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken; I will accomplish it.)
"Grapes do not come from thorns, or figs from thistles", as the scripture from Matthew (quoted earlier) says. A thistle was made to be a thistle, for God's own reasons. A thistle will never produce a fig, regardless of what it wishes for itself. A "thistle" may pretend it is making figs; and it may fool itself, and you; but the "real thing" ("figs") will be produced only by a tree that was created by God to produce figs.

Similarly, with us humans: We "produce" exactly what God has ordained that we will "produce". Or, one might extrapolate and say, God's people "do" exactly what God requires of them.

Note the following additional scriptures which make these very points, precisely:
Romans 11: 18 (NRSV) Do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root.... but the root that supports you.

SAME (NIV) Romans 11: 16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root -- but the root supports you.

Ephesians 2: 10 (NRSV): "For we are what He has made us.... created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, to be our way of life."

Philippians 2:13 (NIV) For it is God who works in you.... to WILL and to DO what pleases Him.

Same (KJV) For it is God which worketh in you, both to will, and to do, of His good pleasure.

Same (NEB) 13 For it is God who works in you.... inspiring both the will and the deed, for His own chosen purpose.

1 Corinthians 12: 5 (NEB) There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. There are many forms of work, but ALL of them, in ALL men, are the work of the same God. In each of us, the Spirit is manifested in ONE particular way..... for some useful purpose.

Same (NRSV) There are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates ALL of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit.... for the common good.

Isaiah 61: 3 (NRSV) They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD.... to display His glory.

Luke 16:15 (NEB) Jesus speaking: You are the people who impress your fellow-men with your righteousness (JNT note: man-made "fruits", or deeds.... to "convince" God of one's own "righteousness"); but God sees through you. For what sets itself up to be admired by men, is detestable in the sight of God.
Thus, it seems clear, scripturally, that God has created some of His people to bear "good fruit" -- for "noble purposes", and for splendour, and for "mercy".... and that God has created others for "common" use, or for "destruction" -- as is said in the following quotation from Romans:

Romans 9: 19 (NIV): One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" 20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, `Why did you make me like this?'" 21 Does not the Potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes, and some for common use? 22 What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath -- prepared for destruction? 23 What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory!

In summary: Can a human-being declare himself to be a "good tree", and thereby cause himself to become one of God's "good trees"? NO.
Can an institutional "church" re-make a "bad" human-tree into a "good tree"? NO.
Can a person cause himself to become "accepted" by God, by performing certain acts or good-deeds ("synthetic" man-made fruits).... or by reciting a creed, or by joining a specific church? NO.
That is, can a human-being "write his own ticket", and thereby join the company of "good trees" (God's people linked)? NO.

Answer this: how many forced human home-made "good works" ("fruits") are enough to convince God that someone should be "categorized" as a "good tree", or that his "fruits" should be called "good"? Can a "bad" earthly human "tree" fool God into believing that a certain "synthetic" work or action is indeed a "good fruit"?

Indeed -- can a thistle produce figs?

The answer.... It all depends upon God's INTENTION.... God's design and plan.... for each of His trees.

2/8/06