6:27 AM
No, I'm not talking about the one who's said in his heart, "There is no God." I'm talking about the one who built his house upon the sand. The foolish man built his house upon the sand. (repeat two more times in a sing-song fashion...)
Here's a summary of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-27 as He was speaking to crowds of people: those who not only hear my words, but obey them, have a solid foundation. However, those who hear my words and don't obey them have a worthless foundation.
I grew up thinking that Jesus' story spoke only of a Christian vs. a non-believer. And it does, indeed, work that way in application. However, both scenarios (the wise and the foolish) apply to those of us who call ourselves Christians.
James echoed what Jesus said (see James 2): faith without good deeds as a result is a dead and useless faith (v. 17). The number of real-world applications of this theme is absolutely staggering. My favorite one to use is the well-dressed Sunday afternoon restaurant patron who goes to eat with a chip on his shoulder, spreading his vile attitude to the non-believer who serves at his table. It is apparent to all (except him, most of the time) that his walk with Christ is a farce -- useless and dead. Another might be the project manager who regularly berates his co-workers and subordinates and then piously passes out flyers to his church's missions fundraiser cookout or invites one of his co-workers to a Promise Keepers event.
These are examples of dead faith spreading a diseased and distorted view of what it means to follow Christ. While Jesus was speaking in Matthew 7 of how the lack of obedience negatively impacts the person who hears the Word, it's obvious that it impacts those around us. Just as the world can sense a true follower of Christ, they can also smell rotting "faith" a mile away.
If I can stay on topic tomorrow (I didn't today), I'll go further into how I believe Jesus' story applies to the life of the individual Christ-follower.
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Manga, anyone?
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[image: Serious Post Ahead warning sign]
Not my usual post, thought it needed a warning!
I was in Barnes & Noble the other day, and noticed something that ...
1 comments:
I was listening to a podcast this morning by Greg Boyd and he was speaking about the transformations we make from the "Inside-Out" as part of our conversion from sinner to saint. He brings up the point that so many have a real misunderstanding about this very subject. I agree with you Dean that sadly it often results in a misunderstanding of the biblical concept of grace. It seems over the past 500 years or so - "works by faith" has gotten a bad connotation, where as "Grace" seems to have become a blanket that is used to cover peoples continual UnChristlike behavior. James 2 brings a good balance of grace/works through faith.
My favorite real-world analogy is of the criminal. Let's say a hardened criminal has just been recently pardoned from prison. Would it be fair to the rest of the civilized population if the criminal could go back into society and still commit the same crimes against his fellow man (not to mention the judge that pardoned him!) and yet be free from any further penalties or justice? When the police go to arrest him he informs them "Hey I was pardoned you can't touch me!". Clearly society and the justice system would see that this pardoned criminal is abusing the mercy that was showed to him. The point here is this: Jesus did not die on the cross to ONLY free us from the penalty or consequences of sin - but to set us free from SIN ITSELF! When we abuse the very pardon that Jesus provides through the cross - do we really want to abuse that amazing mercy and grace???
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