Or maybe we should check it first? When you meet people, how do you know their intentions? Can you look at the outside? Could you tell by the way they talk or by the words they choose? Maybe you should study their actions. All this is fine but to get to the root, study their fruit. What have the people of interest really accomplished in life? Just like studying a tree to know if it is a good tree, you do not stare at the branches, leaves or not even the flowers! A good looking tree can produce some nasty tasting fruit. But then again, a tree that doesn't look like much at all can have the sweetest fruit to offer.
I believe the best kind of fruit to look for today is very rare. People just don't carry it anymore, not even "so called" Christians. It comes from the same tree as the passion fruit and it is very far from the lemon tree. What I am talking about is the fruit of unconditional love. Everybody wants it but no one cares to give it away.
Corrie Ten Boom was a christian girl that lived through the torture of the Nazi's concentration camp. Her family was brutally killed and she watched her own sister slowly waste away inside the camp. Her sister died but Corrie's life was spared.
She became a living testimony of a life put back together by my heavenly Fathers love . His words of forgiveness guided Corrie and His grace and lessons in forgetting those things from the past helped her to go on, until one day when she stood face to face with the very same Gestapo officer that had kept her and her sister in torment for years. My Father asked of her to forgive the man. As he reached out to her for forgiveness she hesitated but then the fruit of unconditional love kicked in and she accepted his apology and forgave him.
Sign the agreement. You must fulfill these conditions. If you don't agree then we can't help you! Does this sound familiar to you? Is there anything in this world with "no strings attached", "no red tape", "no fine print"? Anything? Where am I going with this, you wonder? I'm asking you to join me in this everlasting race! To receive and give unconditional love. This is a noble task! Impossible without God. Bound to fail if we have not killed ourselves in our selfishness. There is nothing, absolutely nothing in this for me!! HA! The only reward is the smile on the faces that you continually extend your unconditional love to. Even when they act like fools. Let them have the fruit they so desperately need. Be a good tree!
Ingrid Howard