Read Matthew 7:15-20.
If man really were left without a simple practical test of religious truth, he would assuredly be in a sad plight; but happily this is not the case. Jesus, the most profound, and at the same time the most simple and practical teacher the world has ever known, has provided for this need, and has given us a universally applicable test for truth.
It is as simple and direct as the acid test for gold. It is the simple question—Does our religious truth work in our lives? This test is so staggeringly simple that most clever people have passed it over. Truth heals the body, purifies the soul, reforms the sinner, solve difficulties, pacifies strife. There is no such thing as undemonstrated understanding.
If you wish to know how you really stand spiritually, look about you at your environment, beginning with the body. There can be nothing in the soul that is not demonstrated sooner or later in the outer, and there can be nothing in the outer that does not find some correspondence in the inner.
By their fruits ye shall know them (Matthew 7:20).
What fruit is our religious truth bearing in our lives. Is it healing our bodies, purifying our souls, reforming our sinful actions, solving our difficulties and/or pacifying our strife? If so, then we can have full faith that we are in fact demonstrating religious truth. If not, then we must determine why not. Either we are following our own desires or something other than religious truth; or we are not truly thinking, feeling, living and practicing what we believe.
On this first week of Advent, we begin the journey from darkness to light. We identify and turn away from those words, thoughts and deeds that keep us lost in the dark and keep bearing the fruits of darkness in our lives. This journey, to be successful requires honesty, courage and strength. It also requires the will to follow the truth wherever it leads.
If we make this journey righteously, we will find the religious truth that works or bears the fruits of light. Or, we will find where we have veered off God’s path to a course that we can correct. Either way, we will be bearers of truth and ligh.Then and our gardens will shine forth with the radiant fruits of peace, hope and love in our lives that God wants for us.
Toward the light,
Z gardener
Good Morning Garden 
Leave a comment