Thursday, July 18, 2013

Please Lord, say you know me

Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Mat 7:25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Mat 7:26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Mat 7:27  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Mat 7:28  And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
Mat 7:29  For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Chapter 20 - The Conclusion

Bonhoeffer-'We have listened to the sermon on the mount and perhaps have understood it. But who has heard it aright? Jesus gives the answer at the end. He does not allow his hearers to go away and make of his sayings what they will, picking and choosing from them whatever they find helpful, and testing them to see if they work. He does not give them free rein to misuse his word with their mercenary hands, but gives it to them on condition that it retains exclusive power over them. Humanly speaking, we could understand and interpret the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his word. But again he does not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal, he really means us to get on with it.

The word, whose claim we recognize, this word which issues from his saying " I have known thee," this word which sets us at once to work and obedience, is the rock on which to build our house. The only proper response to this word which Jesus brings with him from eternity is simply to do it. Jesus has spoken: His is the word, ours the obedience. Only in the doing of it does the word of Jesus retain its honour, might and power among us. Now the storm can rage over the house, but it cannot shatter that union with him, which his word has created.

There is only one other possibility, that of failing to do it. It is impossible to want to do it and yet not do it. To deal with the word of Jesus otherwise than by doing it is to give him the lie. It is to deny the Sermon on the Mount and to say No to his word. If we start asking question, posing problems, and offering interpretations, we are not doing his word. Once again shades of the rich young man and the lawyer of Luke 10 are raising their heads. However vehemently we assert our faith, and fundamental recognition of his word, Jesus still calls it "not-doing." But the word which we fail to do is no rock to build a house on. There can then be no union with Jesus. He has never known us. That is why as soon as the hurricane begins we lose the word, and find that we have never really believed it. The word we had was not Christ's, but a word we had wrested from him and made our own by reflecting on it instead of doing it. So our house crashes in ruins, because it is not founded on the word of Jesus Christ.

"The multitudes were astonished…" What had happened? The Son of God had spoken. He had taken the judgment of the world into his own hands. And his disciples were standing at his side.'

My thoughts--

I feel at a loss for words because this is all truth, the plain, unadulterated truth of CHRIST'S WORD.

I could copy it again, word for word, but what would that do?

Either we DO as our God tells us to do, or we don't, and we can make all the excuses in the world we want for not obeying God in the smallest to the largest thing we know He is asking of us, because He does ask us individually to obey Him.  One man's test isn't the same as the next man's. Your personal temptations aren't the same as the next person's, but they are ALL the same temptation to NOT obey God in some way.

Eve sinned in NOT obeying God. We ALL sin in NOT obeying God.

LORD help us to LOVE YOU, help us to OBEY YOU in ALL THINGS, not just in the things we find easy, but in every little aspect of our lives help us to OBEY, to LOVE YOU as YOU LOVE.  LIVE in US LORD so we may LOVE. Help us to surrender to you!

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