Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Daily - 12/2/09

Matthew 7:21-27

21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?'

23 Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.'

24 "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.

26 And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand.

27 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined."
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This is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, and 7). The sermon begins with the Beatitudes, and ends with this. Pretty nice pair of bookends. I recommend sitting down and reading the whole thing sometime during advent.

Only those who do the will of the Father will enter heaven. The difference between the wise man and the foolish man is whether or not they act on God's Word. This is the role of obedience. It is impossible to say that I "believe in" Christ, but not actually believe what He says. And He clearly says that we are to obey Him, here and in many other passages in the gospelsSo ... we are called to do the will of the Father. How do we know what that is? The first place to look is Scripture. We are given commandments, first from the Father in the Old Testament, then from the Son in the New Testament. Those commandments tell us directly what God's will is.

We have the Beatitudes, which also tell us directly what God's will is.We also can find the will of God by seeking it in prayer. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ tells us to seek and we will find, ask and shall be given, knock and the door will be opened. This is done through prayer. Give it a try sometime when you have an important question in your life. Do whatever you need to do to analyze it, there's nothing wrong with that. But also do this ... engage the Lord in prayer. Tell Him you don't know what to do. Ask Him to tell you. Then be still and listen for your answer.

Christ is consistent on this point throughout the gospels -- he expects us to believe AND do. He expects us to live out his commands to the best that we can.