How Can I Know if It’s Real?
Regardless of what you may have heard or read, Frank and Jesse James, two of the most famous outlaws of all time, were cold-blooded murderers. Their father, though, was a Baptist pastor and the founder of William Jewell College in Liberty, Kentucky. Their mother was raised in a Catholic convent. Both parents espoused values very different from those that their sons held. Yet, Robert James, their father, deserted his wife and sons while they were still very small so that he could search for gold in California.
But enough about the Baptists. Another of the men who terrorized the West was named John Wesley Hardin. Guess where he got his name? Hardin was the son of a Methodist circuit rider who also taught school and practiced law. Hardin's father, a fervent Texan, raised his son to hate the North. When Hardin, at age 14, shot and killed a black man in honest self-defense, his father sent him away, not trusting the justice of the Northern Reconstruction government in Texas.
Hardin subsequently killed Federal soldiers on a number of occasions, though the Civil War had ended years earlier. He also spent 17 years in prison for shooting a deputy. Perhaps John Wesley Hardin would have taken a different path if his father had not hated the government so much and if his father had not shielded him from facing justice when he shot his first victim. Regardless, it is clear that though the fathers of Frank and Jesse James and of John Wesley Hardin were men of the cloth, they were not great role models.
Have you ever wondered how to tell if someone has truly committed his life or her life to Jesus Christ? There are so many phonies nowadays. So much that goes under the name of religion is exploitive. So many have been misled by religious leaders who did not "walk the talk." How can you tell genuine faith? Time and time again Jesus gave us the formula. "You shall know a tree by its fruit." That's it ! It is as simple as it can be. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit and a good tree will not bear bad fruit. You can always tell.
Questions to Ponder
What type of role model are you?
Do you "walk the talk " ?
What kind of fruit do you bear?
In His Service,
Terry Phillips
