A Challenging Message This Morning

The one thing I most certainly will miss when we move again in spring is the congregation at the little church we currently attend. What an incredible blessing that church (and by church, I mean the people) has been to me and my husband. I firmly believe that God has used several families in that church to encourage us and challenge us to grow in our faith. Being conservative in our beliefs, we find it very difficult to find like-minded friends our age. Most professing believers from our generation prefer to have one foot in the world and one in the church. Having grown up in this post-modern age, my husband and I are constantly being challenged to keep ourselves separate from the world. Age is no longer very important when you share fellowship with like-minded believers. Some of our dearest friends are more than a decade older than us and have several children.

At church this morning another challenging message was preached by a friend of ours. We are currently going through the book of Luke. The message this morning was from Luke 6:27-49. The message addressed loving our enemies and also looked at Stephen's response when he was martyred and our Lord's response when He was on the cross. The message also addressed righteous judging versus hypocritical judging and the foundation on which our faith is built (true vs false conversion). I really thought the speaker did a good job of explaining that ever-so-misused verse "Judge not lest you be judged." One should not base one's doctrine on one single verse, but needs to look at the context of a verse. He looked at several passages about judging. It is clear that we are not to judge hypocritically, but we are to judge righteously.

Anyway, the verse that especially stood out to me this morning was verse 46.

"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

This verse is specifically addressing professing Christians. As our speaker pointed out, the Bible often makes the distinction between true and false converts; wheat vs tares, sheep vs goats, wise virgins vs foolish virgins, those with a foundation built on the rock vs those with a foundation built on sand.

This verse poses a challenge for all professing Christians. If we truly believe, we should be obeying His commandments.

This is not a works-based gospel. We are saved by grace. What the Bible says is that if we truly believe and have received the Lord Jesus, obedience will follow. If you call someone "Lord" but do not obey him, then he is not truly your Lord.

I am attempting to memorize the book of 1 John, which also talks a lot about the evidence of our faith.

"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." 1 John 2:3

I am looking forward to next Sunday when we will hear another Bible-based message froma dear brother in Christ and fellowship again with these wonderful people who love the Lord.