"By their fruits you will recognize them.
Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit."
(Matthew 7:16-18)
Dear Friends –
The “fruit” Christ refers to is not so much a piece of delicious produce to consume, but it is rather a metaphor for the outcome or yield accomplished by our efforts. A carpenter builds a house, an author pens a book, and a musician composes a concerto... these efforts are all visible, naturally occurring fruits and can have good or bad results. Supernatural fruit, however, is not so readily perceived, for those efforts are harvested from our spiritual being as in love/hate, generosity/greed, mercy/intolerance... they are the virtue or vice that emanates from our souls. 
If we are a “good tree,” our “fruit” will designate us as God’s child, whereas “bad trees,” being rooted in the vice of Satan, will be recognized by sinful behavior. Almighty God created a vast array of trees in the natural world, and as I study that variety, they strike me as extremely symbolic of the diversity of people He also created. Some “trees”/people provide the most necessary fruit our diet requires, like having family and friends of similar makeup; other “trees” produce the beauty that leaves us breathless as we gaze upon them from a distance, for they represent the aspirations, goals, and hopes that satiate our spiritual hunger. Good “trees” will look to other good trees for association, while bad “trees” group with those of similar nature. A good Christian person cannot admire, respect, or tolerate sinful behavior; likewise, an evil person rebels against His children's righteousness. When the bad outnumbers the good, chaos exists, therefore, Christian values must be shown the remedy and priority for peaceful existence. That conversion from a “bad tree” into a “good tree” can only happen through the power of Jesus Christ.
When prayerfully asked, Jesus will remove the evil demons possessing a soul, making room for The Holy Spirit to take over: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10). The importance of maintaining a right spirit is clearly edified by Jesus in another one of His metaphors from nature that declares: “Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit.” (John 15:4-5). Remain in Christ and bear good fruit, or stay with the devil doing nothing but 
nasty, evil, self-promoting words and actions to earn eventual destruction because all will eventually recognize your badness to your shame. The existence of good and bad in any culture is ridiculously obvious, so why is it not just as obvious to us that we seek out an understanding of the origin of these two power sources and their control in our lives? Can we really doubt their existence without suffering some consequences? Should we not wonder about the afterlife promised and evaluate what our current fruits are earning to that end? Christ added the following line to His statement above: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Nonbelievers can lead good lives and achieve material success in their endeavors, still, without Christ driving their existence, they do not accumulate any good fruit that matters.
Virtue may be demonstrated in their action, but it’s done for their material benefit only because, again, when it’s not driven by Christ, His spiritual objectives are not met, leaving their fruit worthless. You can exist in the natural world without Christ, but that will always be simplistic, barren, and unrewarding after death. A life in Christ may not be easy, but it’s the only one that opens the gates of heaven. When others look at you, what do they see? A status seeker... a collector of things... an egotist who can’t see past self? Imagine when the God you don’t believe in looks at you, and He will, what will He do with you and your rotten fruit? You had better ask Him for that change of heart; repent and replant yourself in the good soil of Christian belief, and then, you will bear fruit that will get you into heaven.
SHAME ON YOU EVILDOERS
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION (DEI) HOLDOUTS
If your child needed heart surgery, wouldn’t you want the best available surgeon possible? Of course, you would, for merit alone should decide the capability of who you entrust your child’s life to. The Doctor’s excellent medical training is going to perform the operation, NOT his skin color, gender, ethnicity, or whatever criteria the hospital may have to use in hiring to comply 
with DEI mandates. By implementing inclusion quotas for a more diversified staff in any hospital, business, agency, or academia, you will only be guaranteeing mediocrity! and, not generating excellent standards, or maintaining a highly respected reputation! Does it matter to passengers with a fear of flying, that their pilot’s skin color matches theirs, or rather that he graduated at the top of his class and is not a DEI hire that just barely made the grade? When you are about to embark on hiring a service provider, it’s customary to ask around for recommendations so you don’t end up with a dud; when you get several bids for a job, would you take the lowest bid to save money, or the one that presented the best qualifications? By God’s design, the highest aptitude possible is what we should give to others, and what we should expect to receive from others... but not so with the Democratic Party, who under Biden, generated the worst DEI standards possible.
For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with hardly any oversight. The White House recently released a list showing that USAID allocated millions of dollars for programs considered controversial and that frequently involved DEI initiatives launched during the Biden administration. At the top of the list was a $1.5 million program slated to "advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities" and a $70,000 program for a "DEI musical" in Ireland. Initiatives that supported LGBTQI programs were also flagged as an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, including $47,000 for a "transgender opera" in Colombia, $32,000 for a "transgender comic book" in Peru, and $2 million for sex changes and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala. USAID also authorized a whopping $20 million to create a Sesame Street Program in Iraq. On his first day in office, President Trump issued an Executive Order that called DEI efforts "illegal and immoral discrimination programs" and "public waste"—demanding that all governmental DEI programs be shut down by January 23 and placing government employees on administrative leave to be laid off eventually. 
A common-sense attitude and directive by the new president had Democrats ranting and raving across the country with outrageous vindictive anti-Trump offensive remarks because they lacked any defense against the exposure of their diabolical actions. The more they try to excuse their inexcusable motivation, the more the public is made aware of how pathetic their ideology... if they would just keep their mouths shut, but no, they ramble on never expressing any guilt, that they were wrong - no remorse, contrition, or repentance - and they die a very public, humiliating, slow death. Some prominent party members do register embarrassment, and vote with Republicans, while an exodus to the Republican Party is occurring by the rank-and-file as well as the younger membership. It would seem that the generation of a DEI philosophy could only come from inferior logic... from those needing such allowances to obtain votes... for those without merit or religious morals... Democrats.
There is the marvelous Parable of The Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), used by Christ to illustrate three categories of God’s blessings to men. While “talent” was a unit of money in Christ’s time, it interchanges with a definition of “creative abilities” in our time, thus, both explanations are used here to make the point that an accounting of what He has given us will be required. In the parable, The Master (God) gave for investment to one servant five talents, to another servant two, and a third, got one. The first servant increased his five to ten, the second also doubled his, but the third buried it, earning nothing for The Master who, on His return, rewarded the first two, but the third He called “You wicked, lazy servant! ...throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” 
To some, God is more generous knowing that a greater intelligence to that holy soul will be used for His purposes. To another, less intelligence makes room for excessive craftsmanship to bring beauty into the world. God gives in a variety of ways; even the most nominal blessing must be used and not ignored, for the life without purpose is not of His creation but the idleness caused by Satan to capture souls away from God. God’s natural and supernatural blessings, graces, gifts... whatever you want to call them... must be used, if not, your devilish master will rejoice at your death. Whatever God grants you in natural or supernatural talents, discover them and employ their use to His honor and glory and your heavenly immortality; remember, your skin color, gender, sexual preference, or class, will not open the gates of heaven... only the fruitful efforts of merit gain His pleasure, the rest He throws into the fire.
