Priorities
Most men don’t understand God’s grace. If you call a man, “Man of God,” most men will look down and look away. When you ask him why, he’ll say, “Because I feel unworthy.” They think God’s righteousness is based on their performance and they realize they have fallen far from God’s glory. However, Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” Salvation is not because of our goodness, but because of God’s grace through his son Jesus Christ who paid the price of our guilty blood with his innocent blood.
Jesus said, there are two roads: a broad way that leads to destruction, and a narrow way through the narrow gate that leads to life eternal. Jesus Christ himself is the narrow gate and the narrow road. Even after we have accepted Jesus as Lord and enter into the narrow way, we will stray from the narrow way. However, God by his mercy and grace allows us to return to the narrow way…. For if we confess our sins, of having fallen and broken fellowship, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and forgive us from all unrighteousness.
How do we live a life acceptable and well pleasing to God? Most men think that it’s our good behavior that pleases God. Men are consumed by guilt and shame when they stray from God’s narrow way. However, God is a loving Father who loves his children even when we fall. God loves us unconditionally. According to 1 John 3, for (even) if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.
Not all men who profess to know Jesus really belong to him. Some say, Lord didn’t we cast out demons and do many mighty works in thy name. Jesus said to them, depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew thee. Likewise, the scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem thought they knew and worshipped God according to the letter of the Old Testament law. However, Jesus said to them in Matthew 15:7-8 “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
Jesus said to his followers, you shall know them by their fruit…. For an evil tree brings forth corrupt and rotten fruit, but a good tree produces good fruit. He also said, you shall know they are my disciples because they love one another with the love of God. Love is a fruit of the spirit. He did not call us to judge others, he called us to inspect their fruit.
In Matthew 28, Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye who are weary and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” He has given us an open invitation to follow him. Entering into his presence is on his terms, not ours. Bonhoeffer said, when a Jesus bids a man come, he bids him, come and die. In order to live for Christ we must die to self. To confess Jesus is Lord means that I give up lordship over my own life to accept that Jesus is Lord.
According to Psalm 37, delight thyself also in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. When we deliberately delight and rejoice in the Lord, his delight will be our delight, his desire our desire, his will our will, and his joy our rejoicing. When we love God above all, then we will be blessed to bless the Blessor by doing His will.
Jesus said, he that hears the word and does not do it is like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. When the trials and storms of life came, the house fell, and great was the fall of it. The house washed away because it was built upon the sand of good intentions without actions. However he that hears the word and then does the word is the one who builds his house upon the rock, Jesus Christ himself. In the doing of the Word…. In following the Lord’s footsteps, Jesus Christ is our sure foundation. Then whatsoever his disciples do in following him shall prosper.
Salvation is not in the Confession of sin, of missing the mark. Instead salvation is the confession of the savior from sin: that Jesus is Lord. In turning away from pursuing sin and unto pursuing the Lord, God through his Son Jesus Christ, is the one who saves, rescues, delivers us, and makes us whole. When the gospel of the good news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is the message of our life, then we will be a testimony and a witnesses of His salvation.
What is it that you love most? There is a hierarchy of love in the kingdom of heaven. A wise man said, the best way to love your children is to love your wife. When you love your wife you demonstrate to your children the essence of a loving relationship. Then the best way to love your wife is to love the Lord Jesus Christ. There are irreconcilable differences between husbands and wives. Jesus Christ is the one who reconciles…. Who brings together that which has been separated. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. When our hearts are joined together with God’s heart, then we can love others as Christ has loved us.
In order to keep that which God has entrusted to us, then give it away…. For it is more blessed to give than to receive. In God’s economy, Jesus said, if anyone wishes to save his life, he must lose it. But he who loses his life for my sake will save it. For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul? When we let go of those things we hold dear, God will fill us…. Blessed are the poor in spirit. As Mother Theresa said, God works best with nothing.
God himself is our sufficiency in all things…. What is it that we really need? All I need is thee. He is our allotment, our best portion, our all in all.
… that in loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves,
We may live to the praise of the glory of our Father’s grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
