"For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified..." NKJV
Knowledge of Jesus as your Savior always changes your actions. Always. People who have no fruit (tangible evidence of faith) in their life and then fall back on the fact that they repeated some words in a prayer should be very concerned. It's interesting to note that people who wonder about their eternal security are usually the ones who do not need to, and those that don't wonder at all, should be the ones concerned. In Luke chapter 13, Jesus shares a parable about a tree that does not bear fruit. The owner of the vineyard instructs the keeper to cut down the tree, but the keeper asks for one more year in order to fertilize it; then if the tree does not bear fruit he will cut it down. As Christians, we should be bearing fruit with no excuses. We should be 'doing' the things that the Bible tells us to be doing.
James 1:22-25: "But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." NLT
What do you do with this? Do you set aside God's grace to earn your salvation by works? Absolutely not! Good works should be manifested in your life because you are saved! If you call yourself a brain surgeon, but you never perform brain surgery, are you really a brain surgeon? If you are a Christian and you don't do any of the things that Christians should do; you don't go to church, you don't serve, you don't give, you don't study the Bible, you don't tell others about Jesus, are you really a Christian?
Life Lesson: Bible study should lead to 'Bible doing'.
Dear God,
Thank You that my salvation is not dependent on my being good enough to earn it. Thank You that because of Your love for me, Jesus bore the burden of my failures and sins. Thank You that salvation is by grace through faith... just calling out to Jesus to put my trust in Him. Please forgive me for not doing things that I should be doing as a follower of Jesus. Help me to be a 'doer' of Your Word. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
