The Root Of the Fruit - News With Views

By Rob Pue

June 24, 2023

There is an immutable law of nature and Nature’s God, known as “cause and effect.” Everything we do — or don’t do — has an effect. An effect on ourselves, on those close to us, our community at large and even the nation. For every effect we see, there is a cause. Sometimes the cause is easy to see and sometimes it takes more effort to find it.

You might also call it the “root and the fruit.” The fruit that is borne in this world only blossoms because there is a root. Whether the fruit we’re dealing with is good or bad, there is always a good, strong root that started it all.

The world has abandoned God and His Word like no other time in history since, perhaps, the days of Noah and Lot. And that’s the cause of the effects we’re seeing today. That’s the root of the rotten, bitter fruit our world is bearing today. When a people and a nation reject God Almighty, the effect is that they lose their moral compass. Without a moral compass, we wander in confusion, insanity and delusion. Without God’s moral compass to guide us, we just do what we want — regardless of the consequences, regardless of the effects.

And so today, by “following our own hearts,” we have come to the point that Paul spoke of to Timothy. Perilous times have come. 2 Timothy 3:2-7, “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

The Bible speaks of this in Isaiah 5:21, “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” Prior to this statement, Isaiah writes, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” It is a picture of a world devoid of morality, a world turned upside down, where confusion reigns and the concept of right and wrong is abstract and irrelevant. It’s a picture of our world, in this generation. No moral absolutes. Everything is relative to each individual, with no moral compass.

The questions that have thrown our culture into turmoil today seem so basic and so simple, it’s hard to believe we’re even debating them. Questions like: “what’s the definition of marriage and family?” “Are children a blessing or a punishment?” “Should people work to provide for themselves and their families, or should the workers be viewed as greedy, and their wages confiscated to provide for the non-workers?” “Should we honor the God of our forefathers or the hedonistic, demented god of this world?” “Should children be exposed to blatant pornography in the name of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion?” And perhaps the most difficult of all questions for today’s Leftists to answer: “What is a woman?”

The answers you give to these questions will come from your worldview. Your worldview is your foundation of ideas, attitudes and beliefs, based on your life’s experience. Our personal worldviews are formed by our schooling and education, the influence of parents, friends and family, our religious backgrounds and multi-media indoctrination. I dare say that each of these things have changed in recent years, causing a polar shift in the worldviews of many people. What was once good is now considered evil. What was once darkness is now considered light. And what was once bitter, is now considered sweet.

The one thing that hasn’t changed and does not change is God and His Word. Nor do the immutable laws of nature and God, Who created all things. This is why God and His Word can always be trusted as a truthful and reliable moral compass. But today, we “follow our hearts” instead of following God’s instructions. How’s that working for us? Our hearts cannot be trusted. Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person,” Jesus said.

In Jeremiah 17:9, we have this: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?”

If you’re a young person — perhaps a young woman — maybe you can understand better with a word picture. Have you ever followed your heart — your emotions — and felt you were deeply in love with your boyfriend? So deeply in love that you surrendered your body to him, only to find soon after, he never really loved you at all? He told you he loved you. Your heart told you that you loved him. But you were lied to, taken advantage of and grossly violated. That’s what following your heart gets you, when your heart is not in line and under the loving guidance of God and His Holy Spirit. — a moral compass.

In today’s world, perhaps that scenario is a bit different. Are you a young person feeling a little awkward as you enter the years of adolescence and puberty, and everywhere you turn, the world is whispering in your ear that you’re not really a girl, or you’re not really a boy — you were born in the wrong body. This thought pounds on the door of your mind and heart day and night. In school, on social media, in entertainment, in every area of pop culture, perhaps even in your church. It’s everywhere you turn. Then your mind affirms your heart. You believe you’ve found a home and a community as a “transgender” person. And when you embrace that, you’re rewarded with all manner of worldly enticements — instead of being a “nobody,” suddenly you’re told you’re a courageous hero and there’s a “community” of millions that you can now be a part of, so you can stop feeling awkward and lonely. But only later, when it’s much too late, do you come to understand that you were lied to, taken advantage of and grossly violated. If you’d had a moral compass, you wouldn’t have become the devil’s prey.

Our public school system, which once used the Word of God as its basic text for teaching children to read, has now shifted its focus to indoctrination toward globalism, tolerance of everything (except Christianity) and a secular humanist, communist state, run by tyrants. Meanwhile the influence of parental guidance is diminished as concerned parents are now considered “domestic terrorists” if they object to the abuse of their own children. And at the same time many of our churches have become “woke,” so now, sin does not exist, God loves everyone and requires nothing from anyone. Is it any wonder this generation has a problem answering the question, “What is your moral compass?”

If you were to ask the average person on the street about this today, I’m sure you’d get either blank stares or defensive anger as a response. Because today, morality, for most people is ever evolving, and relative to each individual. There are no moral absolutes because we no longer have a moral compass.

Getting back to “cause and effect,” “root and fruit,” let me give you a couple practical examples of the significance of this. If I were to sit down at my computer to write an article, but begin with my eight fingers just one key over to the left or the right from the proper starting point on “home row,” and never look up to see what’s right before my eyes on the computer screen, I can write the most profound and informative of messages, but the result will be nothing but un-readable gibberish.

Some of you know I also play acoustic guitar. If I were to begin playing something but I begin with my fingers just one fret above or below where they should be to play a proper chord, the sound I make won’t be pleasant. It will be ugly and disturbing. You see, your starting point is essential — to all things in life.

God gave us that starting point when He gave us His Ten Commandments, written with His own finger on tablets of stone. These Commandments were not given to restrict or limit the “fun” of the Israelites — or us — needlessly. They were given for the good of all mankind and meant to be a blessing to all who would receive and follow them. And God’s holy law has been the starting point — the foundation — of godly government for thousands of years. Even in our own country, the Ten Commandments are depicted as tablets on the doors of our Supreme Court, and any student of history knows they formed the foundation on which our nation was built.

But as we’ve rejected God as a nation, we’ve also rejected His ten laws, and so today we have tens of thousands of laws, yet we’re one of the most lawless nations in the world. If only we’d follow God’s ten… We are to have no other gods to which we give more time or honor, than the one true God of Creation. We’re not to make graven images or worship idols. We’re not to blaspheme or take the Lord’s name in vain. Keep the seventh day, the Sabbath, holy, and honor our parents. We are not to murder, commit adultery or steal. We are not to lie, or bear false witness against others, nor are we to jealously desire that which belongs to others.

Now, you’d think those ten things would be pretty simple for all to comprehend, right? Surely everyone could agree these are all good things, right? Not anymore. Long ago, our public schools removed the Ten Commandments from view of the students… because school board members were afraid the students might see them and actually attempt to follow them. Instead, now our schools celebrate “pride” month, and the libraries are stocked with homosexual and “transgender” pornographic books… so that students might see them and follow them. How sick.

Today we follow false gods of all kinds but few know or care about the one true God of heaven. We make graven images or worship our favorite sports teams, movie stars and political parties. Everywhere in society, the name of our dear Savior is used much more often as a curse word than it’s used in reverence and thankfulness. We don’t even bother to honor or think about God one day out of seven anymore. Parents are not honored, but have become the “enemy” — because children have been told they’re the enemy and government has labeled them as enemies of the state for daring to question the demonic regime that’s stealing their kids. Murder rates continue to rise in every part of the country. There are websites now, specifically designed to facilitate adulterous affairs for unfaithful spouses.

Theft is also rampant. Even in small towns, but in larger cities, companies are closing their doors because of unbridled shoplifting, which is now allowed by law enforcement. And “Thou shalt not lie?” Everything we hear from the government, mainstream media, Big Pharma and the industrial medical complex is a lie. “Bearing false witness?” Look at the double standards between those innocent individuals rotting in the J6 Gulags and the Biden crime family. Or the social media “fact checkers” that censor truth and destroy people’s lives for profit. Talk about false witnesses. And when it comes to “coveting,” the New World Order Globalist agenda and those that run it have cornered the market on that too.

Friends, everything we’re laboring over and struggling under is the result of cause and effect… the fruit we’re choking down comes from a root of Godlessness. “Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

E-Mail Rob Pue: Rob@WisconsinChristianNews.com