Walking Thoughts

What's the difference between commitment and involvement? 
 
Ham and eggs... the chicken was involved - the pig was committed!

We've all been asked, and have even asked others, why they think they will go to heaven. The prevailing answer to the question of entry is being good enough.


"I haven't murdered anybody... y'know like I'm not Hitler."


"I've never tried to hurt anybody, or I don't try to lie and steal and stuff."


"I try to be nice... I think if you do what's right, God will like that."


These are all answers I've heard, and remakrs that at one point emanated from my own mouth, from within my heart. I thought that if I could be good enough perhaps God would look at the good and ignore the bad. I didn't have to be perfect because after all - that's impossible!! So the best anybody can ever do is their best, even though it's not all the time, right?


It makes "logical" sense. If nobody is able to score a 100% on God's Ten Commandments, then He has to be like your local University professor and grade on a curve... But here's what happens, the more we try to live right (according to His rules), the more we find we can't keep them so we change the rules or just pick a few rules of our own we can follow (read the bible, go to church, pray with big words, no drinking, no smoking, no sex before marriage, no curse words, no movies rated higher than PG...) and become prideful. We think we're doing well because we aren't doing "wrong" things but the whole time we have no concern for and continue to break God's Laws (1.) Not letting Him rule our lives [with whatever He decides good and bad] 2.) Having other gods and making idols [out of hobbies, people, or things] 3.) Using God's name wrongfully 4.) Not keeping the Sabbath holy 5.) Honoring your mother/father 6.) Not murdering [equal to calling somebody a fool/jerk/idiot/moron] 7.) Committing adultery [equal to undressing somebody with your eyes or checking somebody out] 8.) Stealing [regardles of value or hurt caused] 9.) Lying [regardless if it's a white lie, bad lie, or hurtful lie, or even a joke!] 10.) Not wanting what somebody else has [including a car, a house, a spouse, a job, or even a pen or a paperclip!])


Truth of the matter is, we can be doing all the "right" things on our list of do's/don'ts and still never once do one thing on God's list of COMMANDMENTS!! When we're asked why we would go to heaven, however, we still come back to His list and pick the ones that we might have a slim chance of managing to possibly have upheld such as murder, or lying and stealing to some degree. We justify our obedience by a disclaimer of "too much";  I don't lie or cheat "too much" in relation to this guy over here...


Here is where we find ourselves in trouble. God is not comparing us to each other, He's assessing us according to His perfection by His law. Can you measure up? I know I can't. This is what Jesus said for the qualifications for entrance into heaven,


"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Matthew 5:48


This is something most poeple don't realize. They agree that to get into heaven, one should abide by His law. What they fail to realize, however, is that by agreeing that obeying His law means going to heaven, you are by default agreeing that not obeying His law will earn you hell!  God cannot ignore the bad because if you agree that good gets you to heaven, you agree with God that the bad will keep you out!  Not only that, by saying you accept the law as your standard you are holding yourself accountable to the punishment of failing to uphold the law - which is eternal damnation.


Please pay careful attention now - this is the CURSE OF THE LAW. Remember what we said earlier, it's impossible for anybody to be perfect and ever follow His law. So if you decide to live in obedience of the law as your measure of successful entry to heaven you are putting yourself under its curse as it will condemn you. Anybody who agrees to the obedeince of the law is agreeing to condemnation in hell because that is what the law will do to imperfect sinners! It is its curse! This is not my opinion, mind you, but a clear proclamation in the Bible!


For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book fo the Law, and do them." Now it is evident no one is justified before God by the law
Galatians 3:10-11


Friends, if your holiness, your righteousness, your Christian life, is marked as a success by your actions in relation to others, your disengagement from things others partake in, or your abstinence from unholy activities, you are living under the curse of the law because you are trusting in what you have done rather than what the Savior has done for you.


Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith." But the law is not of faith, rather "The one who does them shall live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us
Galatians 3:11-13


If you claim to be a Christian, know that you were once under the curse of the law.  You were striving to be a better person, good enough to maybe eek out a slim chance of making it into heaven. But God loved you so much, knowing that you could never do it, He sent His only Son to take your punishment for all the sin you ever committed and will ever commit, so that by trusting in and being sactified by His sacrifice and blood, you could live with Him through His resurrection.


And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience -- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved -- and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:1-10

If you are not Christian, then don't wait, the Savior has His arms open to you right now.  He loves you very much and wants you to be with Him for eternity - so much in fact that He died for you so you would never have to see death.  He does not want you to be cursed but redeemed!  Run to Him now, pray and ask Him to give you His grace and forgiveness.  Tell Him now that you are willing to make Him the Lord of your life and want to turn away from the death of sin in your life. He is here right now for you to hold you and take you with Him to heaven.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever blieveth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
John 3:16

"Gather your family and go visit a junkyard or a dump. Look at all the piles of 'treasures' that were formerly Christmas and birthday presents. Point out things that people worked long hours to buy and paid hundreds of dollars for, that ... marriages broke up over. Look at the remnants of gadgets and furnishings that now lie useless after their brief life span. Remind yourself that most of what you own will one day end up in a junkyard like this. And even if it survives on earth for a while, you won't.


When you examine the junkyard, ask yourself this question, 'When all that I ever owned lies abandoned, broken, useless and forgotten, what will I have done with my life that will last for eternity?"
-- Randy Alcorn