Miracles

I often think that if I could only see Jesus, if I could only watch Him perform a miracle, if I could only touch His holes and observe His perfection then I would follow Him whole-heartedly and never stray. I often think I could survive fully on Him if I could do all these things and never need another explanation or experience another 'if only' moment- I would have full faith. But interestingly enough, that wouldn't be the case. "Then Jesus began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent" Matthew 11:20. Idiots. It's amazing to me that they could see Jesus restore a sick girl's life, make 2 blind men see, cast out demons, clean lepers, rebuke the winds and the sea and who knows what else and yet they still did not repent. And as amazing as it is, I'm forced to sit back and view my own life and shudder at the many times that I've experienced God and still react in much the same way as those lost souls. I've seen God stop a car so that it didn't run me over in Africa, I've had an attempted robbery that I walked away unharmed, I've watched the power of prayer daily and marveled that God would reach down and care about such small matters. Even in all His miracles that He's performed right in front of my eyes, I still can't gather myself to follow perfectly in His footsteps.

We need to take very seriously all the times we've experienced God. We're accountable to those moments. I think we forget in just how many ways God is great because evil tries to wipe it from our memory. If deception is one Evil's greatest tools, then I think one of the main objectives is simply for us to forget the goodness of God. I once had a friend tell me that every night before she goes to bed she writes down 5 ways God was good that day and 5 good things about her life. It's not such a bad idea if that's what it takes to make us remember the goodness of God, remember the great deeds He performs in our lives every day.

Going to Heaven

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” Matthew 7:21-23.

Most people, particularly Christians, wonder at some point in their lives if they are truly saved. We all think we’ve trusted in Jesus as our Lord and Savior; we’ve tried to follow in His ways; we’ve strove to love other people and do good things. We actually sometimes even pat ourselves on the back and think of the good deeds we’ve performed, but are we really saved? Are we really washed in the blood of the lamb or just in the water?

I love this passage in The Scriptures because I think it lays our saving foundation so well. Jesus answers our questions and clears our doubts about salvation all in the guise of pointing out those that are not. He shows His point in three ways (and maybe more!): 1) saying “Lord, Lord” to Jesus 2) Doing the Will of the Father 3) Being Lawful.

The first requirement for going to Heaven is believing in Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus says that not everyone who does this will enter Heaven; thereby we are able to assume that the opposite is true that if you don’t do it you surely will not enter Heaven. Jesus is Lord and Savior of this world that we live in and He came down as 100% God and 100% man to be able to pay the price for our weakness and inability. We must call Him Lord to receive that great gift that covers our depravity.

The second requirement for going to Heaven is doing the Will of the Father. That Will can be found in the Bible as well as revealed in our prayer, fasting and meditation times (and all the other times the Spirit is with us...). To do the will of the Father is a very difficult thing but praise Jesus that by calling Him ‘Lord’ we are able to fall back on Him each time we fail and know that we are righteous in our pursuit of the Will of God because we first call Jesus “Lord”. That pursuit of the Will of God is just as key to our salvation as calling Jesus “Lord,” which in my opinion is where many people miss the boat.

The last point I see Jesus referring to in this passage shows His rebuke of lawlessness. Jesus says that one day He will exclaim, “Depart from me you workers of lawlessness” to those whom He never knew. So in order for us to be known by God and be called as His child we must be lawFULL people. We must obey the law of the Lord and not stray from Him. Now here again we fall into the grace of first calling Jesus Lord and therefore being able to stumble along our path of being lawful. It’s the same as following the Will of the Father for your life in that it’s the pursuit of the law and your determination to do so victoriously instead of the actual outcomes of each attempt. Yes, we will fail. The good Lord knows just how many times we will fail each and every day. Our attention and willingness to adhere to EACH law presented by our good God determines our ability to be lawful or lawless. Here again many people miss the bandwagon (or should I say many people jump ON the bandwagon and therefore jump OUT of lawfulness?). We pick and choose which rules and regulations we will and will not adhere to. We take some very seriously and others as things that don’t matter if we break. It’s not right if you think about it and completely unbiblical to do so. I think we would adjust some of our ‘fun’ and amusement in life if we acknowledge the weight of our lawlessness many times in those situations.

Do you realize that by blatantly committing sin you are being lawless, therefore violating a prerequisite for eternal life? Do you realize that following your own path counteracts the better path of God, therefore violating a prerequisite for eternal life? Do you realize that using the Lord’s name in vain is showing your lack of knowledge of the power of that name therefore violating a prerequisite for eternal life? Thank the good Lord that His blood cleanses even the caked on mess we make of our sins and violations of God’s law. Don’t let these last questions send you back into a tail spin of wondering if you’re saved. Let the first part make your path certain and these last questions make you realize the serious nature of each decision, each choice, each step in any direction. It’s really easy to make the right decision when it’s going to get you something good or bump you up in life. It’s really difficult to make the right decision when you might get away without anyone knowing or it will cost you something great.