Wednesday, June 22 “By their fruits you shall know them.” Matthew 7:20
Our Blog is inspired by The Holy Spirit.
In today’s reading, Jesus talks about knowing a person by their fruit.
Just so, every good tree bears good fruit,
and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,
nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Matthew 7
In an earlier blog, we stated that I thought for too long that the thorn bush could never produce good fruit.
How wrong I was!
As I was thinking about today’s blog, the thought that clearly came to my mind, Holy Spirit, was we wanted to tell the story of “Here Animal.”
This thought for me was really great because Gail and I would be away Monday and Tuesday and I wouldn’t have the same time to prepare this blog.
What also excited me was after I read the Gospel reading I realized that “Here Animal” really tied perfectly into the Gospel reading.
God taking care of me!
“Here Animal”
No prison system likes a prisoner who attacks their guards.
“The animal” hated everyone.
This prison had a concrete cell sixteen feet deep that was eight feet long by eight feet wide with a small steel door at the top.
“The hole!”
State law allowed that a prisoner could spend only seven days in the hole.
After seven days, most prisoners came out changed.
“The Animal” went down for his first stay of seven days, came out and within twenty-four hours slugged a guard.
He went back into the hole.
After weeks and months of repeated trips to the hole, the man was called “The Animal” by the guards for his behavior.
One day, months after this had started, a guard read Prison to Praise, and felt if anyone needed this book it was “The Animal.”
He hated “The Animal” so much that he kicked the book between the grates in the trap door and said, “Read this Animal.”
Alone with nothing to do, the prisoner read Prison to Praise, by the faint light that came through the steel bars sixteen feet above him.
“The Animal ” mocked everything Merlin had written, he scoffed at the idea of thanking God for the things that had happened to him.
In derision and scorn he said, “Okay God, I thank you for that three-foot cement wall…. See, it’s still there. Thanking You didn’t do anything.”
Laughing and mocking, “The Animal” thanked God for the damp coldness, the numerous cockroaches, his hunger pains, and his aching bones.
Exhausting his thanks for what he could see, he thanked God for the guards he hated, the prisoners who despised him, the judge who sentenced him, his worthless attorney, the witnesses who lied about him, the policeman who arrested him, the people who kicked and beat him when he was a boy, and for his drunk and abusive parents.
When “The Animal” finished his list, he went back and started all over. Hour after hour he repeated this prayer. He laughed and dared God to do something.
Anything!
On the seventh day, the ladder was lowered, and “The Animal” crawled out.
The guard was flabbergasted.
“The Animal” was smiling.
His eyes looked happy.
He was a different man.
Something had happened.
“The Animal” later explained to Merlin that a man appeared to him in his cell and said three words,
“I LOVE YOU!”
What a story. I hope you reread it and notice the wording describing the difficulties “The Animal” had.
What jumped out at me?
He thanked God for the guards he hated, the prisoners who despised him, the judge who sentenced him, his worthless attorney, the witnesses who lied about him, the policeman who arrested him, and the people who kicked and beat him when he was a boy, and for his drunk and abusive parents.
Sadly, this is where the Animal’s problems started.
His prayer, with derision, scorn, laughing, and mocking, are not words I would use to describe my prayers to God, and yet I’m wrong; when things get really bad, this is a proper form of prayer; this is the start of an authentic relationship with God.
Prayer for me, in the past, was always reserved and held back, and I was not going to let my true feelings come out for fear I would upset God.
I didn’t realize until I hit bottom and called out for help, how wrong I was.
GOD CAN TAKE IT!
Let God have it when you are really down in the dumps, that’s where you will find Jesus, at the bottom, waiting to lift you up, and sadly for many of us, it’s not until we hit bottom, as I did years ago, that we are willing to listen and do what we have to do to start a meaningful relationship with the Triune God.
The second point we want to make is, that if you judged the animal as the guard did before the animal read Merlin’s book, you judged him as bad fruit, and for me, in my, not our, past life, I condemned him to a life as bad fruit.
How wrong I was, and how shallow my, yes my, thinking was.
I didn’t know then, but I do now, that my job is to catch them ( luke 5:11) by my living in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus will sort (judge Hebrews 10:30) them.
“The nine” We pray you will grow in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
The Sidebar is also going to be different today.
We are first suggesting you go to Netflix if you are a subscriber and watch the movie The Best of Enemies. This movie is about integrating a school system, in 1972, in a rural town in North Carolina.
Gail and I watched The Best of Enemies a few nights ago, and I couldn’t believe the anger between blacks and whites at that time in that part of the south.
And,
The movie ties in beautifully to the topic of this blog, Good fruit comes from good trees.
And,
Trees can change from producing bad fruit to producing good fruit; when they change,
watch out!
The Animal became a prison minister, and I don’t want to spoil the ending of The Best of Enemies.
Only the love of God can produce these types of results.
We are mentioning The Best of Enemies today because Netflix said they would stop showing the movie on June 30th.
We next suggest getting the book Centered by Jason Brown.
Overview:
Jason was a center in the NFL who turned his back on a thirty-six million dollar contract to answer the call from God to become a farmer in North Carolina and give food to the hungry.
God had to prepare Jason for doing God’s work, and if you’re like me, you will be surprised at all Jason went through.
You will learn how God provided Jason with a new tractor and took care of planting and harvesting the first crop.
Most importantly, the story takes place in rural North Carolina, and the change in the people in North Carolina over fifty years is unbelievable; this once again is testimony that change can and does happen.
Because
Love always wins!!!
In eighty-one years of living, I have never witnessed the amount of hate that we are experiencing every day in our country. I now know that I, we, can only change me and become a light in a dark world, and maybe my, our light, others will be encouraged to live in the “Spirit World.”
I sent Mike, our oldest son, a copy of Centered and he loved it.
Both books Prison to Praise and Centered are available on Amazon.
Picture:
The Allegheny River Trail in Penesavania is thirty-two miles long and goes through two tunnels one is 3,350 feet long the other is 2,868 feet long. There is NO LIGHTING in the tunnels. BRING LIGHTS and Batteries. We didn’t and I pray we can get back and ride threw them sometime in the future. This trail is beautiful! We are mentioning this because riding a bike and walking with the phone off, and no earbuds is a fantastic way to link up with God.
www.avta-trails.org
Acknowledgment: Foundation of Praise Merlin Carothers, type this in your search bar and you will come to Home Foundation of Praise, where you can buy the pamphlet “Here Animal,” and the book Prison to Praise.” I know of people who have bought bulk quantities of this book at a discount, to give to others. Yes, it is that powerful! Prison to Praise has sold over nineteen million copies. Prison to Praise changed my life!
