“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)
Christ explains very clearly that many things we do can appear that we're in a relationship with God, but looks can be deceiving; not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:9) We have to make sure that we know we are saved and in the family of God. (Acts 2:38) This is not only so we'll be sure of where we will spend eternity, but also so that we'll be able to deal with the obstacles we face while we're here on earth.
Let the following story help all of us see the need of being a child of God, to deal with our "real" enemy while on this earth: Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (Acts 19:13-16) Each of us has to know Jesus for ourselves; someone else's faith won't save us!
Consider listening to Pastor Greg Laurie series "The Almost Christian": http://www.harvest.org/radio/
No comments:
Post a Comment