The question of faith in public has reached the forefront in a variety of arenas. In the political arena the faith of some is questioned. A person may claim Christian faith, but as Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit”. Another claims a faith heritage that is seen by some as no different than mainline Christianity, but by others as diametrically opposed to it. Still others claim their faith is simply a return to that expressed by the founders of the United States of America.
Jesus says the following, “"Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, `Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:21 to 27 NKJV).
Claiming faith in Christ, and even serving in Jesus name have no eternal point for us unless the desire is truly to serve the Lord and not ourselves. The hypocritical leaders in Jesus day did a variety of things that if they were done to glorify Jesus are excellent. However, their desire was not to show off Jesus, but show off their own piousness to an audience of human beings. As with prayer, as mentioned in my last regular blog, they should be done for an audience of one, the Holy One. Here Jesus returns to that theme later in His Sermon on the Mount. Here he lays out their fate in no uncertain terms saying, “depart from me”. He compares the person who lives out their legitimate faith to the wise builder who constructs his house, his life, on the solid rock, Jesus Himself. The one with an illegitimate faith builds theirs on a constantly shifting foundation of sand. Their result ends in disaster.
There is an old saying which to some may seem trite or cliche’, but never the less true, “You may be the only Bible some people ever read”. If you worked with a person who was a scoundrel to deal with, who knows and tells the vilest of dirty jokes, who “borrows” all sorts of company owned resources, etc., and then loudly proclaims their Faith and church membership – which personality are you going to believe? If you served on a parent committee at your child’s school with a woman who constantly gossips about or slanders other committee members, and then invites you to her ladies group at church, would you accept the invitation? What if that person at work shows a truly humble spirit, is an encourager to the rest of the staff, or shows a solid work ethic would it make their claim more believable. If the mom builds up those around her instead of tearing them down, her invitation would be more acceptable.
If you had a spiritual mirror in front of you, would you like what you see?
Dr. Oberg
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