So I was reading in Matthew 7 today and I read that you will know a tree by it’s fruit; an apple tree can not produce oranges, by its very nature, it MUST produce apples. So a Christian will be recognized by their fruit. A Christian MUST produce the good works of study, prayer, fasting, giving to the poor, worship, sharing the good news of Christ…. those things don’t save a person, instead, they show, they give evidence that the person is really saved.
All that is the foundation for what Christ says next. He says that when its time for judgment, only those who did God’s will are going to get into heaven. Many, however, will stand before God and point to the fact that they were uber Christians. They were leaders in Billy Grahams ministry and taught Sunday school all their lives, and didn’t miss a Sunday at church for 20 years… and God will tell them to go away because he never knew them. This is interesting because he just said a Christian will be know by their fruit. But now he is telling those who had much fruit that they weren’t Christians. Why?
This can only mean that the doing is not enough. You can not earn your way into heaven. You can’t twist Jesus’ arm and make him let you into heaven because you deserve it. No. The source of our good works must be from God calling us to it. WE must be doing the will of God, not the will of Stephen. That’s a scary thing. How many times do I really ask God for wisdom in doing something? Not once or twice but over and over to test his will. Do I fast and ask God to give me discernment about what I am to be doing? Or do I use human logic to figure out the best solution and then ‘ask’ God what he wants the night before I do what I have figured out? I think most of the time I just ask God to approve Stephen’s plan. How many times is my plan actually formed because of the information I got from him?
I think that its so important for me to remember in all the things I’ve been thinking about in the last year about us needing fruit in the Christian life, that all this fruit must come from God, the vine. It must all come from God. All the good works must be God’s ideas, not mine. (I’m not sure how that connects with the fact that we are supposed to do everything in scripture because I don’t know that we really have time in the day (even if we did nothing but that) to do all the things we see in scripture. But I’ll work on that…)
I can not DO all the stuff just for the sake of DOING. I need to do the things God has called me to. If other things fall by the wayside, so be it. I must be about doing God’s things, that I receive from God’s will.
(just as an ending side note… part of the sermon I heard on Sunday from Romans 12, when the pastor was talking about laying yourself on the alter and putting yourself and your life and your plans on the alter and letting them die so that God’s plan and will for your life can actually happen … he showed us that in the passage, the RESULT of that was that we would no longer look like the culture around us. The result of that was that you would be able to discern God’s will. So if we REALLY want to know God’s will for our life, first we have to stop looking like the culture around us.)
5 comments:
The way I would summarize your post is this: A Christian MUST produce good works, but just producing works is not enough to get into heaven. You must produce the works that are God's calling to get into heaven.
There are a couple important things that I feel like you've left out or minimized. First and foremost: GRACE! I don't get into heaven based on my works (God-willed or otherwise). I get into heaven because Christ paid my penalty and I accepted. End of story. Now my life WILL naturally show fruit of this grace I've claimed: Love, joy, peace, patience (OK, I'm working on that one), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control (yup, still working on that one, too). Like you said way up early in your post, those are just evidence of my faith. I feel like you barely mentioned the fact that we're not saved by our works, and then spent 4 more paragraphs talking about how imperative they are.
And I'm not sure I would include prayer, fasting, or study "good works." It's probably just semantics, but I feel like good works are things that directly affect others and show God's goodness through you. While prayer, fasting, and study are good, I'm not sure they're considered "good works," nor do I think that everyone is called to particular works. Like you pointed out later, each person has to ask God what he has in store for them.
One other thing I've been thinking through lately (well, a very small part of it anyway), is what exactly "God's will" means. Just in a general sense, I mean: What is God's will for my life? I like the way my pastor explains it - As a parent, you have a plan for your child's life. You want them to be self-assured, successful, to find the love of Christ, to marry someone who will love them and cherish them. Your plan for them is formed out of love and wanting what's best for them. However, if they're out in the backyard playing, does your plan include exactly what toys they play with? Or when they get a little older, does your plan include exactly who they take to the prom or which career choice they make? No, of course not! Your plan has boundaries, but few specifics about the who/what/when/how.
I think God works with us the same way with me. While I think there are some things that he specifically wants for us or wants us to do, I think a lot of other things are left up to us. I don't think free will strictly gives us the choice between good and evil: I think it gives us the choice between a lot of different "good"s as well.
If you're pressed in close to the heart of God, you'll hear his voice about what direction he has for you, and your spirit will be troubled when you're acting outside of his will. I'm not saying that we shouldn't directly ask what He wants us to do, but I don't think that it's necessary to earnestly seek his will on every single little thing in our lives. That would be exhausting! Just because I came up with an idea (or think that I did) doesn't mean that it's a bad one. God gave me his heart and his holy spirit to direct my path. For me, double and triple checking and fasting over every single decision would make me very hungry and borderline paranoid schizophrenic.
It's like all those times as a kid you tried not to step on cracks or lines in the sidewalk for fun, but then can't stop thinking about not stepping on the lines or cracks to the point that it's all you think about while you're walking.
Yes, I know I'm weird.
/end my $0.02
OK, I think I agree with most of what you said.. so here are the sepcifics
1. Focus on Grace - You are correct, I didn't focus on grace because it wasn't the point of the post. The focus was on the works side of the relationship. All the grace stuff goes assumed. (haha, my posts are long enough... do you REALLY want me chasing every rabbit trail that comes into my mind? I didnt think so :) )
1. Prayer & Fasting / Good Works - Umm... maybe you are right. Maybe they are not specifically good works, but they could be considered to be fruit, and James says that if you are saved you will have fruit in your life. So regardless of whether or not they are good works, you will still have those in your life if you are saved (evidence). Also, yes, we are all called to different things, but that doesn't mean that you are exempt from everything else. Just because I am called to be a prayer warrior, doesn't mean you don't fast as well. Your fasting just isn't as long or serious as someone who that is their focus. Regardless, we are still EXPECTED to study, fast, pray, memorize scripture....
2. I don't know what I think about this... yes, you have a general will for your kids, but you are not omnipotent or omniscient. I think that it is entirely possible that God could have a plan A plan B plan C for today... it's not beyond him. But at the same time, it seems that it would be just as consistent with his character to have a general idea for our lives.
4. As for searching for God's will on everything, I would agree. I think that the closer we draw to God the more we just know his will. Just like the longer I am married to Bwige I just know what she likes and wants. While we should pray and fast more, I don't think we should take the morning to pray about where we eat lunch. But I do think that we should all pray more about what God would have us be doing...
this has NOTHING to do with Stephen's blog - just wanted ya'll to see this and I put it on Stephen's caz he was an Eagle Scout
http://www.theeagle.com/texas/Boy_Scouts_get_tough_on_bullies
I think that you both have missed the point. You both got very close, but you missed it. You're looking far too closely at your actions. This is why I say it so obnoxiously often. Look at God.
You were wrong when you said "I Must be about doing God's things, that I receive from God's will."
The Presbyterian catechism asks "What is the chief end of man? To love God and enjoy Him forever."
Ecclesiastes says "Fear God and keep His commands, for this is the chief end of man."
What you "must" do is look at God.
The good works aren't important. They're what happens when you imitate God. The good fruit isn't important. It's what happens when you imitate God.
Also, don't confuse good WORKS with good FRUIT. The FRUIT of the Spirit is an attitude that pervades your entire life and guides your reactions to life. Good WORKS are what happens when this good FRUIT is growing.
AHHHH! But what else do we know about growing? Fruit grows on branches that work really hard to growing fruit, right? Or does fruit grow on a branch because the branch inspects all of its fruit to be sure that the fruit looks good? No, the fruit grows because the branch abides in The Vine. Abides. It has NO OTHER concern than that it be as firmly connected to The Vine as possible. You can't MAKE fruit, you can't MAKE your works good. They have to be coming out of something besides yourself.
Additionally Spart, you need to be very careful with that particular verse. The people who didn't get into Heaven were FALSE PROPHETS, not merely misled. Do you think it's even remotely possible for you to be a false prophet and not know it? I don't think so either. These people KNEW that they were being selfish, they KNEW that they weren't abiding in God, they KNEW that they were trying to set up their own kingdom, and their blubbering was merely last-ditch desperation when they realized that they really would be called to account.
Again, you're focusing on your works and allowing that to cloud your view of God. Don't analyze yourself, just abide in God. Don't scrutinize your works, just abide in God. Don't count the number of hours that you spend reading the Bible, just abide in God. Don't do THINGS for God, because putting your thumbs in the batter isn't going to help. Just abide in Him. Again, the image of a mother letting her child help to make cookies is perfect. If you (the child) scrutinize your cookies, then you're going to miss the opportunity to get to know your Mother. If you pick at the eggshells in the batter, you'll forget that your Mother is there. If you worry that you're not making enough cookies, then you're going to pull yourself away from the other thing that your Mother is doing. The cookies aren't the point. The good works aren't the point. Abide in your Heavenly Father, that's the point.
Never put anything before the glory of Christ, not even good works.
I just noticed something else. Your last sentence is wrong too.
You can't start by not looking like our culture, because that can send you in all manner of unseemly directions. Don't just run away from our culture for the sake of running away. Wickans are running away from our culture, so are Mormons and so are Emos.
So if we REALLY want to know God’s will for our life, first we have to stop looking _AT_ the culture around us!
Look at God.
_LOOK_ at God.
Look _AT_ God.
Look at _GOD_.
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