Author: Christine Wyrtzen

Becoming a Legitimate Fruit Inspector

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Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Matthew 7:15-18

         Jesus offers this parable to His audience just after warning about judging others. That message, plus this one, addresses what is one of the most misunderstood messages of our Christian culture ~ that under no circumstances should we judge others.

         So is all judging wrong? And if wrong, why would Jesus bother to tell us about false prophets being bad trees? He obviously wanted us to beware of them and He gave us signs to identify who they were. I contend that this is righteous judging.

         My husband’s father, a well-known evangelist, when calling a spade a spade, was often accused of judging. His answer was both comical and truthful. He said, “I am not judging. I am fruit inspecting.” That’s biblical.

         What I can learn from this parable is that wolves do exist and with God’s help, I can recognize them. A righteous person bears good fruit and a wolf, as well as any unbeliever, bears bad fruit. If I believe that good fruit is defined as simply doing good things then I am spiritually immature and run the risk of being deceived by people with an agenda.

         Good fruit is to do good things for the sole purpose of glorifying God. As a child of God, I am to do everything to the glory of God. Period. I don’t do anything good for my own reputation and self-gain.

         This definition is critical and clarifying because I see unbelievers (and wolves) doing good things all the time. But if I possess Spirit-driven intuition, I realize that they are incapable of doing anything good with the intention of giving God glory. That is not their intent. They are, either, driven by human compassion at best or driven to the desire for power and recognition at the very worst. I must be a prayerful fruit inspector to tell the difference.

         What is a good example of a wolf in the Gospels, according to Jesus? The Pharisee who stood up to pray in public and said, “I’m glad I’m not like other people.” He then listed all the other people’s sins. (Luke 18) Not only was he unaware of his own innate sinfulness, he thought himself better than anyone else, and he wanted others to know through the use of public prayer. Jesus was clear that this was unrighteous. Bad fruit.

         Can I truly identify good fruit and bad fruit? Do I know myself well enough to know the difference in my own heart? I need to start there or the deception that goes that goes with my own sin will blind me when I need to understand others in a way where I am protected from spiritual wolves.

Foster and birth greater fruit inspecting skills. In Jesus’ name, Amen

My Need To Make Someone Pay

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Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.  When he began to settle accounts, they brought to him a servant who owed him ten thousand bags of gold.  Because the servant didn’t have enough to pay it back, the master ordered that he should be sold, along with his wife and children and everything he had, and that the proceeds should be used as payment. But the servant fell down, kneeled before him, and said, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ The master had compassion on that servant, released him, and forgave the loan.  “When that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred coins. He grabbed him around the throat and said, ‘Pay me back what you owe me.’  “Then his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he threw him into prison until he paid back his debt. “When his fellow servants saw what happened, they were deeply offended. They came and told their master all that happened. His master called the first servant and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you appealed to me. Shouldn’t you also have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ His master was furious and handed him over to the guard responsible for punishing prisoners, until he had paid the whole debt. Matthew 18:23-34

I see how this plays out. Let me illustrate this by what I envision.

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One day, God allows me to stand on the precipice of heaven. I see the incredible landscapes, but more than anything, I see the King of Glory in all of His radiant beauty. I cannot look at him for I am unclean in His presence. I cry out above the din of the angelic worshippers. “Lord, my sin! I want to be with You but I am a condemned woman and have no access to Your kingdom.”

“What if I forgave everything you’ve ever done against me?” He asked.

“Would You really wipe away all my offenses?” The thought is too outrageous. Knowing how great the chasm between Him and me, I am hopeless that such forgiveness would exist. Yet, I ask again out of desperation. “If that is possible, please do it. I repent. Please forgive me.”

 Jesus comes close and whispers in an intimate way. “I will forgive Your sins and erase Your offenses. I declare You holy, Christine. One day soon, You will come and live with me here. It’s a sure thing.” Overwhelmed by His mercy, I return to my life.

Sometime later, someone close sells me out without a thought. The wound is unexpected, extremely personal, and sends me into a chasm of pain. The betrayal was senseless and no matter how hard I try to figure out the evil done against me, I can’t. I hear the King of Glory whisper in my ear. “Forgive them, as I forgave you. Remember the vastness of your offenses against me.”

But I don’t connect with the memory as I should. My anger is too stirred up against my nemesis and I feel the need for swift justice. “I know! I’ll withhold forgiveness and turn my back to them.” I say to myself. “I will decide when they’re really sorry. Until then, I will make them pay.”

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The degree of another’s sin against me, no matter how heinous, is nothing like the degree of my sin against God. The key to being willing to forgive others outrageously, just like Jesus forgave me, is to stay in touch with my own fate without my King’s mercy. Jesus said it this way, “He who has been forgiven little loves little. But he who has been forgiven much, loves much.”

Oh King of Glory, My King of glory, show me again what I would be without Your salvation. In Jesus’ name, Amen

You Who Are In Heaven

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So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. Genesis 37:23

Joseph was stripped of his royal kind of robe. Jesus was stripped of his robe, too. The momentary humiliation didn’t change the destiny or the spiritual identity of either. Jesus stayed in touch with that but I suspect that Joseph did not. History would prove that the brother’s destruction of the robe of many colors and treating their brother like a criminal would do nothing to stop Joseph’s ascension to a royal position in Egypt. Their sin against him only propelled it.

Jesus was God’s Son whether anyone acknowledged it or not. If the accusation flew that he was only the illegitimate son of Mary, Jesus was still God. When the crowd publicly humiliated him by accusing him of demonic possession, Jesus was still God. When His family eventually turned on Him and believed Him to be mentally unstable, Jesus was still God. When He hung on a Roman cross and died the most degrading death in existence, His spiritual status did not change. Jesus was still God.

If ever there were a world in which I needed to settle my spiritual identity, it’s this one. It is growing more and more unfriendly to the name of Jesus Christ and anyone who is associated with Him will experience discrimination. If a barb from a parent can lay me low for four decades, how will I survive if a community ostracizes me? If unfair criticism from a local spiritual leader sends me into hiding, how will I sustain the intentional diatribe of non-Christians who are looking for things to mis-represent?

No ill-treatment in this world can change my status in heaven. Heaven is what counts; it is eternal. Earth should be discounted; it will pass away. Though I am hated here, not one ill feeling comes from the Father who calls me His. While earth bestows the basest kind of shame, God bestows the heavenliest kind of honor.

The only way to stay in touch with these beautiful realities is to read a Word that is eternal, not temporary. Whatever it says, I can stake on it being true forever and ever. Today, I may be Joseph in a pit. Tomorrow, I will be reigning with Christ.

Every time Jesus was crushed, He looked up until He felt Your favor. I lock my eyes on You. Amen

More Than An Artisan

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Genesis 1:1                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  John 1:1

When I make something, I begin with pre-existing pieces.  Make a cake and I have a list of ingredients that already exist.  Fashion a piece of pottery and there is clay to mold.  I don’t make the clay.  While I am only an artisan, God is a Creator.  He made the earth out of nothing.  There was a void for Him to work with except omnipotent power.  If He wanted water, He made water where there had been nothingness.  Water had never been and didn’t even have a name!

This is what makes God ~ God.  This is where He excels.  He has not changed with time.  His power has not diminished.  This same creative God of Genesis spoke again through the prophet Isaiah and said, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”  Isaiah 43:19  Once again, something out of nothing.

Throughout my life, I have stood (and am standing) on this powerful truth in prayer. My Father can bring something about when I see absolutely no evidence that such a thing will ever exist.  He can bring reconciliation when there is hatred.  He can bring repentance when there is stubborn rebellion.  He can bring opportunity when others haven’t yet thought of it.  He can bring provision when cupboards are empty.  He can bring hope to the hopeless and honor to the shamed.

What needs to be created that, as of now, doesn’t exist?  If we are God’s, His power and promises are at work over the expanse of our lives, over the deep and the unseen.

You love to create.  I just look at the world and see the glorious detail in all You have made.  Speak Your Word over my life and bring into existence what is not yet there yet.  When it appears, I will fall to my knees in worship.  Amen

On Two Fronts

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I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word.  Psalm 119:107

The worst kind of affliction is the kind that impacts a person in their external and internal world.  I was reading earlier this morning about the great suffering currently playing out in Yemen.  War torn for the past two years, there is now mass starvation.  The spread of cholera is out of control.  People there have watched their world collapse.  They’re grieving great losses of family members, security, and a place they once called home.  Their affliction is crippling without Christ and the Gospel.

What about the person today who suffers internally but gives no hint that their soul is in torment?  Their external world looks fine yet their heart is breaking.  Many pass us every day in their cars, in the grocery store, in the halls of our workplace, and while they smile and sip their coffee, they are really wondering how they will make one more day.  Not all who suffer do so on both fronts.

Those whose worlds have visibly collapsed have a chance of someone extending help to them.  Right now, the world is beginning to respond with medical aid and food to Yemen. Children, the most vulnerable to malnutrition and disease, are being treated in make-shift hospitals.  With such widespread need, it’s easy for those with missions of mercy to plug in their gifts.  But what about the person who needs comfort today but shows no indication of a broken heart?

Is it you?   You may have shared your pain with others and it went badly.  Perhaps it was minimized and you swore you’d never open up again.  You realized that, horizontally, it can be difficult to get a sympathetic audience.  King David gives us the primary answer to our dilemma.  God is the only one who has compassion on those who have never experienced compassion.  His Word speaks life on many healing levels.

    1. The Word validates pain.

2. The Word gives more insight about our pain than we currently possess.

3. The Word offers a strategic diagnosis of what is wrong.

4. Jesus, often, outlines a way out of the pit.  By obeying, we are delivered.

5. When asked to suffer a season of affliction, Jesus offers Himself as our companion.

6. We are never left without someone to pray for us.  Jesus, Himself, intercedes for us right now in heaven.

7. We have the Word to read out loud over our situation.  By faith, we can speak it over our disbelief and failing faith.

David knew affliction from without and within.  I don’t know if he was suffering both when he wrote these words.  What is certain is that he knew where life came from.  To survive his ordeal, he knew he needed to live in the Word and make God his home.

There have been times your Word is all I have.  It has been more than enough it has saved me.  Amen

Swept Off My Feet

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The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 9:9

I was three years old. After one of my bath times, I held out my arms to my mother. I wanted her to wrap me up in the towel she was holding. I longed for her to keep me warm and hold me close. I asked in my three year old language. “I want to come and see you.” I waited with arms extended. Time froze. But intimacy was not to be found in our family ~ even though kindness was ever present. I can tell you that they are not one in the same. My mother answered but without moving toward me. “Take a good look! Here I am.” I put my arms down. For how long? Another forty years! I concluded that my experience with God would be identical to my experience with my mother. A heavenly Father would also keep His distance so I better not ask for much.

Four decades later, in my forties, I had a vivid dream that healed my soul. I was a child in a dirty blue dress.  I was standing in the middle of a bombed out city like Berlin in WWII. Rubble all around me. It was post-war and I was lost, not knowing where to go or what to do. Way down the street, there was a man kneeling in the dust. He was facing me, down on one knee. Looking at me intently, he opened his arms to me in invitation. It was Jesus. That day, in my dreams, after much deliberation, I ran to the refuge of His embrace. I came with all of the baggage of my past story. Shame, rejection, self-doubt, and disappointment. I came out of hiding. Since that day in my forties, I’ve been internalizing what Jesus is really like. His love is not like any person’s love. It is perfect, divine, healing, and safe.

Take in the beauty of His heart another way. The name of the LORD is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe. Proverbs 18:10

I can be a Christian all of my life and still be shy of God’s love. I dare believe that some of it is true – but in the places I’ve been burned most – I doubt that He can be trusted. Oh, but He can. He’s kneeling. Inviting. Reassuring. And He’s patient. I need not run in any other direction but to the One waiting at a respectful distance.

Thank you for sweeping the girl in the blue dress off her feet. Amen

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Predicting With Accuracy

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…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Ephesians 1:17

Intimacy means that I will probably have an idea of how someone I’m close to will react to something ahead of time. “Oh, he will like this or hate that. Or, be angry over this; even moved by that.” There are no shortcuts to knowing a person that well, either. Time and investment are required.

Ron and I have been married for 44 years. Yesterday, I walked in the kitchen and said, “You know what?” He chuckled and gave me four possible subjects I might address. He then continued with a couple of points I’d make about each topic. I was laughing and undone. He could have easily been right on all counts but this time, he didn’t guess it. My point is, there is nothing like longevity in a loving relationship.

Do I know God that well? I should. If I’ve spent enough time hanging out with Him, getting to know what He loves and hates, becoming acquainted with what makes him angry or sad, familiarizing myself with what kind of person He blesses and whom He shuns, I should also be able to predict pretty accurately what He thinks about a certain situation. Not only do I have history to lean on, or the Word to refer to, but I have His Holy Spirit inside of me emitting His feelings. The latter is not talked about enough.

Have you ever felt God’s sadness over someone lost? Have you felt His disappointment at the news of a failed marriage? Have you felt His grief, even anger, when a church has grown cold? I believe that I should pray more, “Lord, let me feel what You feel about this.

After a long life with Jesus, there should be a certain amount of predictability. Time and investment affords that.

Re-write my mind with the washing of the water of the Word. The outcome ~ intimacy with You. Amen

Amazing Honey

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How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.  Psalm 119:103

I grew up in a large extended family.  Some of my distant cousins had a bee operation and made their honey available throughout the valley where I lived as a child.  It is still in operation today.  ‘Hewitt Honey’ is available in glass jars and it is sold in an old fashioned market in upstate New York, a rare old store with oiled wood floors.  When I visit my home town, I make sure I leave room in my suitcase to bring home enough jars to last us for a year.

Honey is golden, literally and figuratively.  A local honey is beneficial for those with allergies.  It also provides a moist healing environment for wounds.  It has antibiotic properties, making a form of hydrogen peroxide when left on a wound.  It also keeps the dressing from sticking.  An archeologist, T. M. Davies, found a 3,300 jar of honey in an ancient Egyptian tomb and it was still in remarkably good condition.  We all know that bears will sustain many bee stings just to get their paws around it.

How desperate am I to consume God’s words?  Will I rearrange heaven and earth to make sure I get my time with God?  Do I understand that God’s Word heals, that it preserves my spirit, that it provides a healing environment for my soul when arrows from others have caused a wound to fester?

Some would say, and I used to be among them, that God’s words taste bitter, not sweet.  Only for a season, I would answer.  If taken to the heart, it leads one to repentance, then to joy.  There is absolutely nothing more intoxicating than to hear God’s voice wooing you to a certain passage, only to discover that the ‘Word’ was customized to my need that day.  Upon meditating, it only got more valuable with time.  The prophet Amos also spoke of eating the Word.  His hunger caused him to consume it.

I’m finally hungry.  All of the time.  I know only the edges of the Word’s value and its infinite possibilities when eaten.  But having indulged for 13 years now, I will add my testimony to David and tell you that it is indeed sweet to the taste.

You are awesome.  You made the bees – which made the honey – which gave me a context for what your Word tastes like.  You want to make sure I understand what I’m eating and anticipate the experience.  It’s already sweet but how much sweeter will it be as the years pass.  I’m going to find out, Lord.  Amen

I’m Not Really Over It Sometimes!

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“You nullify the word of God by your tradition.”  Mark 7:13 

What God leads my conscience to do, or not do, is entirely specific to me.  The problem comes when I feel that every other child of God should make the same choices.  My father in law, the evangelist Jack Wyrtzen, came to Christ out of a culture of dance bands and nightclubs.  He was a musician and played in a band.  Every time he heard jazz, the sound took him back to the clubs he had left behind for Jesus.  To him, jazz was a stumbling block.  Jazz however, in and of itself, is a neutral thing.  It is just music; an assembly of notes, rhythms, and instrumentation.  How many churches have split over the issue of music styles when the real emphasis should be on the Spirit behind the music and whether the people who lead it have been anointed to do it.  Talent and style of music are secondary issues.

In Paul’s day, there were similar hot topics.  Jesus’ ministry was conducted almost exclusively within the Jewish community.  Keeping kosher was an important part of Judaism.  But Jesus stretched his fellow Jews out of their comfort zone when he and His disciples ate without washing their hands ceremonially.  Jesus even sent His disciples into the town of Sychar (in Samaria) to buy food for lunch.  A Jew would never touch food that a Samaritan had prepared.  When the Pharisees erupted over Jesus and His group breaking the law, He answered them by attacking their legalism.  “You nullify the word of God by your tradition.”  Mark 7:13  Then He talked to them about their hearts, that it’s what in the heart that makes a man clean or unclean.  But we’ve always tried to make our Christianity about external things; what we do and don’t do.

Having grown up in legalistic circles, there were many rules. Don’t go to the theater because someone seeing you exit won’t know if you saw a PG or an R movie.  Don’t order a glass of wine at dinner because someone watching won’t know if you drink excessively in the privacy of your own home.  Don’t even play the game of Rook in your own home because someone driving by might see you playing cards and assume they’re real playing cards.  Of course, as a teenager and young adult, the only things I wanted to do were the things that were denied.  Human nature.

Am I over legalism?  Nope.  I still fight it.  The rules have just changed.  I can avoid those circles who are legalistic and want little to do with them.  My bias can easily do a 180 degree turn and that’s just as sinful.  God is constantly dealing with me about this.  He often sends me to legalistic churches to bring the healing message of grace to them.  To teach them, I must forgive them.  To teach them, I must ask for forgiveness.  To be effective, I must love them.  And to be effective, I must let God love the sinful Christine.  Oh, I’m a work in progress and it’s humbling how far I have to go sometimes.  You can pray for me.

Legalism kills.  Others killed my faith but I often still do it to others in new and creative ways.  Show me.  Forgive me.  Change me.  Amen

What Would We Do If Life Were Perfect?

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In His days the righteous will flourish; prosperity will abound till the moon is no more. He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. Psalm 72:7

What drives man’s propensity to sin? Is it the effects of the fall on this world? I can think so. I believe that when I’m not loved well, I must rise up to take care of myself and do whatever I need to do to be loved. When life is not fair, I must rise up to seek and enforce justice. My sin erupts from a personal need to fix a broken world, right?

If that were all correct, the converse would be true. A perfect world, one where God is King, would be so wonderful that no one would need to sin. Perfect love would exist. Perfect justice would rule society. Sin would be unnecessary and the compulsion to sin would disappear.

Let’s fast forward to the millennial reign of Christ. Satan will be bound. (Revelation 20) Jesus will be King. The rulers under Him will be the appointed saints who have already died in Christ and been glorified. (Rev.20:4-6) Perfect love. Perfect justice. Perfect authority figures. But in this thousand year span, humans will still live on the earth. They will procreate and have children who will grow up to father new generations. These people will still be under the effects of the fall while living under an umbrella of perfection. So what will they do? Will they sin?

Can you see the deja-vu here? Adam and Eve were created and lived in the perfect environment. God walked with them in their world. They didn’t experience lovelessness, loneliness, unfairness, cruelty or danger. Yet, in spite of this perfect existence, they still sinned. And in the millennium, under the next umbrella of perfection, man will sin again. The presence of Holiness won’t ensure righteous responses. Adam and Eve wanted autonomy and so will many of the children of men under Jesus’ reign. When it comes right down to it, what we seek is not a perfect world. What we demand is the right to decide who rules us. We are repelled by the idea that we must bow the knee to Jesus. Even in the presence of Perfection, our need to be our own god rises up to tempt us.

Today, we hear all kinds of excuses when people sin. “I just needed to be loved.” “I needed to make things fair.” May we not be fooled! These rationales were not the driving force. It was the failure to surrender to a holy God who rules all things well. It was the failure to trust Hope deferred.

Today, this will also characterize my battle with my own flesh. I cut to the chase and I ask God for the grace to surrender to His Will above my own.

Lord Jesus Christ, I ask you for Your grace today so that I am able to surrender in all the places I have set myself in charge. I lay down my pride and forfeit all rights to challenge Your Kingly rule over my life. Amen