In our previous study we listed several verses regarding bearing good fruit. It is obvious from these verses that followers of Jesus Christ should bear good fruit. There are dire consequences for those who do not bear good fruit. Most of the verses are addressing behavior and actions more than they are addressing doctrine. 

Many who are legalistic and critical believe their job is to be fruit inspectors and point out the sins, errors, and faults of everyone (of course they say little about their own sin). As we address this topic, we want to make it clear that there are certainly times for ministry leaders to confront sin and address errors and faults of those under their leadership. However, many of those who are critical and legalistic are not leaders within any ministry. They have taken upon themselves to be fruit inspectors and in the midst of their 'confronting of sin', they do it in a hurtful, hateful, and judgmental manner. Many times what they are really addressing is issues of preference rather than of doctrine. They normally make assumptions about a persons motives and their heart condition.  (More)  

My wife Carmi just had two biopsy done on her breast. One came up as nothing. The other one is a ductile tumor. It is benign but over time it has been diagnosed that it will become cancerous. They cannot remove all of it because it is very close to a muscle. So she is going to have to receive radiation therapy every day for six weeks. The good news is that it is less than Level 1 cancer at this point.

Because this is the second ductile tumor Carmi has had (she had a mastectomy to deal with the other one), they want her to start hormonal therapy.

Another challenge is that in the midst of their exams they decided to do a cat scan of her upper chest. In the cat scan they have found some type of lump on the back side of her windpipe. They cannot determine what it is. Because of her having cancer in the past, they are very cautious and what her to have an MRI to see if they can determine if it is just a glob of fatty tissue or something to be concerned about. So, we are scheduling an MRI.

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Some people have asked if we have considered starting a Christian or Family Friendly Social Networking Site like Facebook. This is something we are considering if there is enough interest.

If we were to do such a site, we would not have all the quizzes and questionnaires like Facebook. The main purpose of these features is so that Facebook can gather data on their users. Facebook also gathers data on users through their profiles and bios.

Facebook also has dating and other ads that are not family friendly. If we were to create a Social Networking site, it would only have a sponsor ad.

Facebook prevents non-members from viewing any Facebook pages. We would allow non-members to visit any pages on the site (Individual members would be able to decide what they would want to be public.)

Our goal would be to provide a Christian or Family Friendly alternative to Facebook. If we provided a Christian Social Networking site we would need to charge a fee of $5 per month to help cover expenses.

We would like to know if our current blog subscribers would be interested in a Christian Social Networking site if the fee was $5 per month. Please fill out the poll on our blog to let us know if you would be interested in us building a Christian Social Networking site.

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The following are verses regarding bearing good fruit. It is obvious from these verses that followers of Jesus Christ should bear good fruit. There are dire consequences for those who do not bear good fruit.

Almost all of these verses are addressing behavior more than they are doctrine. That certainly does not give justification for false doctrine. There are certainly several verses regarding confronting false doctrine. But in regards to fruit bearing, the main emphasis is behavior and actions.

Yet many who are judgmental, legalistic, or critical love quoting these verses. They believe their job is to be fruit inspectors and point out the sins, errors, and faults of everyone (of course they say little about their own sin). What is interesting is there is hardly anything in all of these verses talking about any person being the fruit inspector. It is clear that God is to be the fruit inspector, not man. In the next lesson we will talk more about fruit inspecting.

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The following verses on judging are addressing various issues and some of the verses would only be applicable to a specific situation. However, any sincere reader would have to agree the overall principle of Scripture is that we are not to judge others-especially when it comes to what is in their heart and their motives.

The overall principle that can be found in these verses on judging is that we will reap what we sow-if we sow judgment upon others, judgment will come upon us. This does not mean that we should never judge behavior or actions. We will discuss this aspect of judging in our next post.

Matthew 7:1-5 (NASB95)
¹ "Do not judge so that you will not be judged.
² "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
³ "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
⁴ "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?
⁵ "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

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Our next set of Bible Studies will be on the topics of Judging, Pride, Legalism, and Gossip. You might wonder how all of these be related. Think about it. Those who are known for judging the heart and the motives of people are usually very prideful-they think they are the ones with the truth and they are called by God to not only point out the sin of others, but to judge the heart and motives of others. Normally these are people who are very legalistic in their beliefs (even though they would just say they are standing for truth). Invariably these individuals will then gossip with others who have the same traits. An example of these type of people were the Pharisees.  (More)  

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