A Call to Listen to God!
Hebrews 12:14-15
14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
God has taught us through His scripture and His son that our eternal salvation is a gift, it can't be bought or earned so that no man or woman can boast.
So often, we find ourselves in the church in a battle between works and faith. It is very simple to keep straight if we would slow down and let the Lord speak to us and read His word.
Our eternal salvation is a gift, period. It's a one time act between you and the Father. Our works here on earth are part of God's plan for all of His children, each one of us have special gifts given to us out of Love from our heavenly Father.
The reason God instructs us to WORK at living in peace and Work at living a holy life is not for His benefit but for ours. God knows if we Work at the things of the Lord we will live a life filled with internal peace, hope and love. We will live blessed lives by developing our special gifts.
Look at it like this: take an Olympic athlete for example. everyone of these men and women had a God given gift, the only difference between an Olympic athlete and an average athlete with the same God given gift, boils down to one word, WORK & Sacrifice.
We need to ask ourselves what is my gift from God? What can I do to Work on making that gift better to serve Him? What is my calling? Just like that Olympic athlete, he didn't just wake up one day and try out for the Olympic team. He or she spent many, many years training to achieve this goal. It starts with baby steps, conditioning, a plan and a desire that stops at nothing to achieve your goal. It's no different in our walk with the Lord, if we've accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life. God wants more for us than just to make the Olympic team, He wants us to finish the race with a gold metal. He wants great and wonderful things for our lives. He has given each of us gifts and all the instructions and tools to achieve our gold metal, its up to us to Work and often times make Great Sacrifice to fine tune our Gifts God has given us.
I believe the last part of this verse is taken differently by most and causes the battles between works and faith: for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. If we believe and trust the Lord, that nothing can pluck us from our Fathers hand and salvation is a Gift and not earned, then the only way that this last part of this verse makes sense is this. I will paraphrase the words: for those who don't work to be holy, because none are holy or pure of sin, we will not see the Lord in our daily lives. We will not experience the Lord's presence or see Him revealed on our time here on earth. It has nothing to do with our salvation.
I want to thank all of you that still log on to read the blog, I have made a commitment to make the time and make some sacrifices to make sure I write more often regardless of my current busy schedule.
Thanks again for starting your day with "God's Cup of Coffee."
Godspeed,
James Boening
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