“No
one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
wealth.” Matthew 6:24
|
I
remember an old western, with the title above, filmed in 1969, starring Glenn
Ford, about a former gunfighter turned preacher. This man, Jim Killian,
wanted to put away the sins of his past and follow God, and bring God's word
to others. When trouble starts brewing in his community, with no aid in
sight, Killian straps on his guns, once more, to take the matter into his own
hands. The problem is, to do that, he will be returning to his old ways. The
town's madam, sort of a voice of conscience for Killian, says a line that I
remember, to this day. She tells him he can be "gunman or preacher,
Heaven or Hell", stating he cannot have both, he must choose one path or
the other.
In the book of Romans, chapter 3, it states that all of us, have and are sinners. We are frowned upon by God for choosing that life. However, it goes on to state that through His grace and the redemption of Jesus, we can receive the promise of eternal life. Now, take a look at Romans 6:23. It clearly states, that sin leads to death (Hell). There's no pardon. No "it's ok, I know you didn't mean it." It's death, pure and simple. That's what lies in store for us. God knew this, He knew we could never be without sin, so He sent His Son, to be sacrificed, for us. So that we can step out of the clothes of sin and step into God's light. We are PROMISED Heaven, by living a sinless life, by turning ourselves to God. He, through Jesus, is giving us a chance to make up for our spotted, stained lives. He's telling us all we have to do is set down the "guns" for good and follow Him, and we will receive Jesus's salvation.
Sadly,
this doesn’t just go for those outside of the church. Within the church society, there are those
that “do God’s will” to support their own purpose. They are, in essence, even more corrupted in
their thoughts than those outside of the church. They live for an appearance. They do, based on how it will make them
look toward others. They may sound
knowledgeable by even quoting certain scriptures (though they definitely
overlook others). We cannot be serving
our own agenda and claim to serve God at the same time. It just doesn’t work that way.
We will continue to struggle in our lives. You will, and I will. What separates us from the rest, is our willpower to come back to God, and to fight the sins of our lives and make them part of our past, not our present. |
This is very true and very insightful! I wish that people in the church would focus more on their own walk with the Lord rather than pointing out everyone else's faults. AND faults that are their opinion of fault but aren't necessarily scriptural faults. People tend to forget their past and reach a point of "good" in their own eyes and then they walk around forgetting that we are all the same and on the same journey toward heaven. Uplift and encourage, don't point out others faults for there are fingers pointing right back at you. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised when they are face to face with our Lord, that God has not appreciated them talking for Him.
ReplyDelete