"And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do."
Today's lesson is a powerful one and often ignored by modern "Christianity".
In the first part of this lesson Jesus reassured His Apostles that if they only had the faith of a grain of seed, they could do anything. Some often mistakenly accept the faith of a grain of mustard seed to be a small amount of faith. To believe that the faith of a mustard seed is small is horribly wrong. The faith of a mustard seed is an excellent example of the ultimate faith. A mustard seed can make no decisions about what happens to it. It must accept its fate by TOTAL FAITH, relying totally on God for its ability to grow into a mustard plant, or to live at all. So you see, the faith of a grain of mustard seed is no small faith.
In the last part of today's lesson Jesus warned His Apostles, and thereby us, that just doing the things that are expected of us does not justify our receiving any special attention or some kind of an award. In order to be gain favor with God, we are to go the extra mile, always reaching out to take every opportunity to do something special in our work of the Lord.
Its sad that today the vast majority of "Christians" act as if they have accomplished some great and significant work just by driving luxury cars to air conditioned "church" buildings to sit on ultra padded seats once or twice a week.
Again, I firmly believe that every child of God should be an active member in their local Church, however, there is much, much, more to being an obedient child of God than simply doing nothing but abstaining from the obviously bad.
I know I've quoted this scripture many times during the course of these lessons, but it seems to apply exactly to modern "Christians" and to the premise of this lesson.
"These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.' (Revelation 3:14-22 in part.)
When you are at work, at play, or just out about with others, just mention the loving grace of God. There are millions of people who are eager to talk about it. One need not preach, just promote the thought and let folks ask questions yourself being fully prepared to answer them.~
No comments:
Post a Comment