Most would agree that FAITH (not works) pleases God. However, work has to be put in through due diligence of seeking Him before FAITH can be firmly established. Also, the presence of FAITH will not allow the true believer to want to sit idly by and not do the good works of God. Again some would argue that mustard seed FAITH is all that is required to move a mountain. But does that passage of scripture refer to just having a small amount of FAITH while also having an abundance of doubt? Is it possible to have partial FAITH? Or is the mustard seed referenced because of its durability and size and the fact that it cant be divided or broken by normal means; yet from it blooms a plant larger than any other in the garden? So too should the seed of FAITH yield abundantly and tower above any other seeds that have been planted around it. Is your FAITH YIELDING abundantly? Again He said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” (Mark 4:30-32) So if you want to be a complacent believer and do just enough to kinda ensure your own salvation and not assist anyone else, dont be surprised if youre denied entry into the kingdom. A mans FAITH in Christ Jesus is rooted in the same place where his LOVE for Him is; likewise are the seeds which he sows on his souls behalf. The ground is either good or its not. For it is written, He who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13:23) The mouth can say anything the mind is programmed to regurgitate, but if the thoughts behind the words are not rooted in the heart, they mean absolutely nothing. For as Paul writes in his epistle to the Romans If you confess with your mouth The Lord Jesus and believe in your HEART that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9) However the prophet Jeremiah writes, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9) So in order for a heart to be transformed from one that is wicked and deceptive into a heart that is loving and faithful, it has to be completely sacrificed to The Lord. As it is written by the prophet Joel, Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:13). And as The Lord God has promised, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26-27) When it is turned over to God, it is completely transformed, and from it flows life giving utterances. For as it is written in the Proverbs, The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. (Proverbs 16:1) Christ Jesus has also declared Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. (Matthew 12:34). And in another passage He says, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38) You cant fix your heart. All one can do is either give it up and let God give him a new heart or hold on to what hes got and let it continue to corrupt his soul. But a fractured, worldly and unsurrendered heart cannot possibly have any real FAITH in Christ Jesus.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 07:22:53 +0000
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