JoAnn's Spiritual Lessons

God says do. Romans 2:13.

Romans 2:13

"for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;"
NKJK

Knowledge of Jesus as your Savior always changes your actions. Always. People who have no fruit (tangible evidence of faith) in their life and then fall back on the fact that they repeated some words in a prayer should be very concerned. It's interesting to note that people who wonder about their eternal security are usually the ones who do not need to, and those that don't wonder at all, should be the ones concerned. In Luke chapter 13, Jesus shares a parable about a tree that does not bear fruit. The owner of the vineyard instructs the keeper to cut down the tree, but the keeper asks for one more year in order to fertilize it; then if the tree does not bear fruit he will cut it down. As Christians, we should be bearing fruit with no excuses. We should be 'doing' the things that the Bible tells us to be doing.

James 1:22-25 "But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." NLT

What do you do with this? Do you set aside God's grace to earn your salvation by works? Absolutely not! Good works should be manifested in your life because you are saved! If you call yourself a brain surgeon, but you never perform brain surgery, are you really a brain surgeon? If you are a Christian and you don't do any of the things that Christians should do; you don't go to church, you don't serve, you don't give, you don't study the Bible, you don't tell others about Jesus, are you really a Christian?

Life Lesson: Bible study should lead to 'Bible doing'.

Dear Father,
Thank You that my salvation is not dependent on my being good enough to earn it. Thank You that because of Your love for me, Jesus bore the burden of my failures and sins. Thank You that salvation is by grace through faith... just calling out to Jesus to put my trust in Him. Please forgive me for not doing things that I should be doing as a follower of Jesus. Help me to be a 'doer' of Your Word. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

Living to tell what He died to say, Pastor David McGee

My Comments: So often people who say they are believers will say they do not have to share the Gospel. I even had one young man tell me he felt it would be best if they (others) did not hear the word then they would be accepted into heaven by their good works. So not true.  We are commanded to go into the world and make disciples. Not sit at home and hope someone else will do it for us and we can just do whatever we feel is good for us to do. Friends do not listen to someone who tells you to do differently than Jesus or differently than His disciple/Apostles who followed and learned from Him and were guided by the Holy Spirit He sent to them.

There are many who deceive themselves and thereby deceive others. They want to believe as they want to believe so they will not have to do what they should be doing. In other words they do not want to stop doing the wrong things they are doing and if they tell themselves and others they are Christian they feel (wrongly) they can do as they please and they will still go to heaven. The proof that they are not Christian is that they do not seek the will of God but their own will which is idol worshipping of themselves as god. God gave His words for us to follow for a reason. We give children guidelines and rules and regulations to follow, our land has rules and laws to follow, the world has regulations to guide it; that is how we all get along so we do not damage each other without consequences. God has consequences built in when we transgress His laws and set up our own (which is the same as setting ourselves up as god’s) and being a just God he has to follow through with the consequences. The only time He can spare us is if we truly accept Jesus His Son as Savior, because Jesus accepted our sin.

Once we have done this then we work, not to be saved but those who are saved work to show themselves as His. For He said by our fruits we shall be known. One cannot bear fruit without work. To love God completely and our neighbor as ourselves covers all the law (Ten Commandments). If we love God completely we will work hard to change and be more Christ like; if we love our neighbor as ourselves we will work to bring them into the kingdom of Heaven through the salvation of Jesus the Christ.

 If we love God we will not seek our own pleasure, we will seek to please Him who gave us everything. We will stay away from things that darken our souls, minds and bodies. We will flee from sin. We will seek to live pure lives and love all who we come in contact with and in that loving seek to bring them into the eternal life with Jesus. We will tell them the Gospel of Jesus and of God’s love for them. We will seek to change the movies we watch the books we read the language we use. We will search out those things in the Bible that are pleasing to God like only having sex with our spouse (one man and one women is a marriage), not watching or being a part of pornography, not stealing or lying or bearing false witness against another, we will honor our Father and our Mother (the only law that has a promise) even if we do not like how they treated or are treating us, we will keep all of the commandments because we love God and our neighbor. How simple that is yet many claim to be Christians and do not attempt or even scorn living this life. This shows what they really are. A wolf in sheep’s clothing seeking to devour the unwary and often even lying to themselves.

How can a person know they are saved? First one knows if they are truly accepting Jesus as their Savior and then if they seek the will of God and read His word diligently and strive to live their lives as Christ Jesus and take His Gospel to the world they will not have any question if they are a Christian.

Abba, I pray you will touch many hearts and minds and open them to Your truth and the Gospel of Jesus Your Son. Thank You Father for Your Love and help us to live our lives as You would have us to live them. Give us the strength, guidance and wisdom to go and make disciples as we are commanded to do. Help us to live our lives to bring glory and praise to You our God. Protect our hearts and our minds and show us in Your Word how we must go and let us not be deceived or led astray. Plant our feet firmly on the Rock of our Salvation, Jesus the Christ. Forgive us our trespasses and help us to become more like Jesus every day. Grant that we may not seek to be served but seek to serve. In Jesus precious and Holy Name, Amen

Rebishka