TOTAL OBEDIENCE
Readers, has it ever crossed your mind that God demands total obedience from us? Nature totally obeys Him. When He created the world all what He had to do was to issue a command, and things happened immediately. “Let there be light” and there was light, instantly. Are we totally obedient to God?
Read this, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; "but of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God has said, `You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make [one] wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.“ Genesis 3:1-6,22-24.
Jesus said, "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.“ Matthew 7:21.
Jesus commands us to do the will of His Father if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven. There is no grace available to us. Saul of Tarsus on the other hand wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; [it is] the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.“ Ephesians 2:8-9. Saul said we don’t have to follow the will of God to be saved based on the one unusual story of the thief on the cross who was dying. Faith is more important than doing the will of God, Saul said. But we know that Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden because they ignored the will of Jesus’ Father. God knows that the thief on the cross has no other option to save his life other than grace from God. So He saved him. But we do, right? We are still alive. We are not dying. What do we have to save to merit His grace? Our lives? No, so we don’t deserve God’s grace, just like Adam and Eve.
I believe that as a rule grace must be earned. If not, then how do we explain why Jesus saved one thief on the cross and not the other? And what really convinced me is this, “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is [the Book] of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written “ Revelation 20:12. "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. “ Revelation 3:5.
Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments.“ John 14:15.
"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.“ Matthew 7:21.
Anything different that you hear or read comes from your preacher, not from my writings.
Read this, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; "but of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God has said, `You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make [one] wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.“ Genesis 3:1-6,22-24.
Jesus said, "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.“ Matthew 7:21.
Jesus commands us to do the will of His Father if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven. There is no grace available to us. Saul of Tarsus on the other hand wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; [it is] the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.“ Ephesians 2:8-9. Saul said we don’t have to follow the will of God to be saved based on the one unusual story of the thief on the cross who was dying. Faith is more important than doing the will of God, Saul said. But we know that Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden because they ignored the will of Jesus’ Father. God knows that the thief on the cross has no other option to save his life other than grace from God. So He saved him. But we do, right? We are still alive. We are not dying. What do we have to save to merit His grace? Our lives? No, so we don’t deserve God’s grace, just like Adam and Eve.
I believe that as a rule grace must be earned. If not, then how do we explain why Jesus saved one thief on the cross and not the other? And what really convinced me is this, “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is [the Book] of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written “ Revelation 20:12. "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. “ Revelation 3:5.
Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments.“ John 14:15.
"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.“ Matthew 7:21.
Anything different that you hear or read comes from your preacher, not from my writings.
HKHOE2023@GMAIL.COM