Month: November 2020

1 Samuel 15: 22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Lev 26: 3 If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your food to the full and live securely in your land.

Deut 28: Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God:

John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands.”

Romans 2: God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

Basically, obedience is the key to success in this life and in the life to come as it relates to God. If you are not truly inclined to obey and making at least some progress in this area in your life, despite perhaps many failures, then you may be self-deceived. Jesus tells us that we do not love Him if we do not obey Him. His disciples hear and obey His word. For me this has been a long journey with many failures, but I have seen his love and forgiveness the whole way, and I now have very little desire to sin.

Obedience is the key to receiving blessings from the Lord. Deuteronomy 28 gives an exhaustive list of all the blessings that come from obedience (v 1-14) and a different horrifying list of things that may happen when we disobey the laws of God. Now thankfully the New Testament tells us in Gal 3:13 that we are “redeemed from the curse of the law”, but the chastising hand of the Lord will be heavy upon us if we are His.  

Obedience is a strategy that helps protect us. If we are doing right the Bible tells us we need not fear God nor the laws of man. Disobedience opens up spiritual doorways that give Satan the legal right to impact your life in some cases.  

The Bible tells us that there are “courts of heaven”. In those courts, Satan acts as the prosecuting attorney (the accuser of the brethren). Jesus acts as our advocate or defense counsel before the father Who is the Judge. Willful sin can complicate our standing in the courts of heaven. Walk in the light as He is in the light, and the blood of Christ will continually cleanse you from all unrighteousness. 

Obedience to the laws of God also enrich our life experience. When we sin, there are often consequences in this life that are hard to escape. While we are promised forgiveness, we are not always able to avoid the real-life consequences that result from adultery or divorce or any crime that results in punishment. Additionally, God will deal with His children firmly and, as many can attest, it is not fun at all.

The secret to success is obedience, and the secret to obedience is learning to love God. We love God because He first loved us and died a miserable death on the cross for us. We can be assured that IF WE ARE TRULY HIS, His grace will always be there and He will willingly offer forgiveness to the true believer. And the true believer will always seek to honor God with obedience, despite frequent failures. Walk in the love of God and reckon yourself alive to God and dead to sin. Your life experience will improve dramatically.

ROM 6:14 (KJV): For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

COL 2 (KJV): And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. 18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. 20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Once men get a hold of something wonderful it will soon be spoiled. God gave the law to the Hebrew people through Moses and before long the religious leaders added so much detail and extra work that it became unbearable to live up to it. Jesus railed against this many times when telling the Pharisees that they themselves could not keep the laws they made, and he asked them why they laid these heavy burdens on others. It made Jesus angrier than He ever was at anything else. He hated religious legalists who were short on mercy and long on condemnation.

The same thing happened to the Christian church, which ultimately resulted in Martin Luther and the reformation. The list of religious laws added by the church on top of the Holy scripture was enormous. And the church assumed the place of God in the world. Both sets of leaders are actually quoted as saying that they were more authoritative than the scriptures.  

Both the Jewish and Christian leaders were guilty of “over-managing” their flocks. They laid heavy burdens on the people and exercised religiously based control over them.

The Bible tells us that by grace we are saved though faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is a gift we cannot lose. Such knowledge frees us to love God and obey Him willingly. When we are always fearful of doing the next correct law, we rarely arise to the place where we love and honor God in the deepest way possible.

Congregations that are legalistic in nature can never live up the standards they set for themselves. This results in people who are often sad, very critical and controlling of others and quite judgmental. In order to meet their own standards of legalism most often the standards of what is right are changed. Victory is declared after “moving the target” and then hitting it.

My purpose here is simply to say this. JESUS is the whole story and He should get all the glory. He gave His life for us. He said He will never leave us or forsake us. And He empowers us to obey the law of love. Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.

If you do not learn to love and trust God Himself you will likely never be a joyous Christian. Your good days will be based upon your perceived good behavior. Your bad days, which will be by far the majority, will be based upon your ever-present true human failure.

The Bible tells us ALL of our works are as filthy rags and will earn us nothing toward our salvation. (They do count toward rewards at the believer’s judgement however, only if done for the right motive – love). The Bible also tells is God will never leave us or forsake us and that our sins are constantly being forgiven. We should rejoice.

So, what’s left to focus on then? LOVING GOD.

Then the world gets to be a much happier place.