'All along the line we are trying to evade the obligation of single-minded, literal obedience.'

Chapter 3 -Single-Minded Obedience  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- ' If as we read our Bibles, we heard Jesus speaking to us in this way to-day we should probably try to argue ourselves out of it like this: "It is true that the demand of Jesus is definite enough, but I have to remember that he never expects us to take his commands legalistically. What he really wants me to have is faith. But my faith is not necessarily tied up with riches or poverty or anything of the kind. We may be both poor and rich in the spirit. It is not important that I should have no possessions, but if I do I must keep them as though I had them not, in other words I must cultivate a spirit of inward detachment, so that my heart is not in my possessions."

Jesus may have said: "Sell thy goods," but he meant: "Do not let it be a matter of consequence to you that you have outward prosperity; rather keep your goods quietly, having them as if you had them not. Let not your heart be in your goods." --  WE ARE EXCUSING OURSELVES FROM SINGLE-MINDED OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD OF JESUS ON THE PRETEXT OF LEGALISM AND A SUPPOSED PREFERENCE FOR AN OBEDIENCE "IN FAITH."

The difference between ourselves and the rich young man is that he was not allowed to solace his regrets by saying: "Never mind what Jesus says, I can still hold on to my riches, but in a spirit of inner detachment. Despite my inadequacy I can take comfort in the thought that God has forgiven me my sins and can have fellowship with Christ in faith."  But no, he went away SORROWFUL. Because he would not obey, he could not believe.

*

My thoughts-

 Why do we imagine that we, unlike that rich young ruler, will be able to disassociate ourselves from the things that keep us from truly obeying Christ?

We do NOT want to even imagine for a moment- that God would really ask us to give up our current way of life in exchange for one of wandering, preaching, poverty.

Let's read more of Bonhoeffer on this--

'But we in our sophistry differ altogether from the hearers of Jesus' word of whom the Bible speaks. If Jesus said to someone: "Leave all else behind and follow me; resign your profession, quiet your family, your people, and the home of your fathers, " then he knew that to this call there was only one answer-- the answer of single-minded obedience, and that it is only to this obedience that the promise of fellowship with Jesus is given. But we should probably argue thus:  "Of course we are meant to take the call of Jesus with 'absolute seriousness' but after all the true way of obedience would be to continue all the more in our present occupations, to stay with our families, and serve him there in a spirit of true inward detachment." If Jesus challenged us with the command: "Get out of it," we should take him to mean : "Stay where you are but cultivate that inward detachment."  Again, if he were to say to us :  "Be not anxious," we should take him to mean: "Of course it's not wrong for us to be anxious: we must work and provide for ourselves and our dependents. If we did not we should be shirking our responsibilities. But all the time we ought to be inwardly free from all anxiety."  Perhaps Jesus would say to us: "Whosoever smiteth thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." We should then suppose him to mean: "The way really to love your enemy is to fight him hard and hit him back." Jesus might say: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," and we should interpret it thus: "Of course we should have to seek all sorts of other things first; how could we otherwise exist? What he really means is the final preparedness to stake all on the kingdom of God."

All along the line we are trying to evade the obligation of single-minded, literal obedience.'

My thoughts-

TRUTH- 'All along the line we are trying to evade the obligation of single-minded, literal obedience.'

So incredibly true!

Of course now you're asking yourself what the heck this means? Are you REALLY supposed to give up your riches? Are you REALLY supposed to leave your family, your job, your entire life as you know it? And if you are, where are you to go? What are you to do?

Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Eph 4:12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ

Apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, teacher FOR the perfecting of the saints.

No, we are NOT supposed to imagine that we are ALL to do these things.  Some ARE genuinely called to do those things and to those who are- they'd better listen- they'd better OBEY or like the rich young ruler they will be very sorrowful and very lost to eternity. 

Eph 4:7  But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ

Everyone of us IS GIVEN GRACE according to the measure of the gift of Christ.   Not everyone is called to the same path but we are ALL called to LOVE our neighbors and to LOVE God as He commands us. Jesus expounded on this loving we are to exhibit as a REAL way of life, and we are to imitate Him, our great Master!

Bonhoeffer says we CANNOT EVADE what we are being called to do by CHRIST. We cannot make excuses for not obeying.  Or rather, He's saying we can, but it's wrong.

Do we honestly believe that Christ our Savior tells us not to be anxious and yet doesn't really mean that?

There is a song out there and these words remind me of what is being said here--

'You tell me not to worry about tomorrow, but I worry anyway,

You tell me You'll take care of all my troubles, Jesus teach me how to wait.'

We worry anyway even when we are told not to. We do the opposite of what we are told to do in so many things and this has become our way of life and we EXCUSE IT.  We truly do need to be taught by Jesus to wait, to DO these things, to be OBEDIENT to HIM. We can't let ourselves get caught up in the LIE of living with excuses for our disobedience. We will be accountable for ALL of our disobedience.  And if we are not recognizing our disobedience how can we ask forgiveness for it? If we allow ourselves to be blind, we will have NO ONE to blame but ourselves!

Please LORD help us to be OBEDIENT TO YOU! Help us to NOT make excuses for our disobedience. Help us NOT to alter Your word to mean what it does not, but to comprehend all the truth You would have us LIVE.

All glory! All honor! All praise to YOU MY LORD and SAVIOR, MY KING!

How many of us REFUSE to believe enough to OBEY?!

Chapter 3 -Single-Minded Obedience  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'When He was challenged by Jesus to accept a life of voluntary poverty, the rich young man knew he was faced with the simple alternative of obedience or disobedience.

When Levi was called from the receipt of custom and Peter from his nets, there was no doubt that Jesus meant business.

Both of them were to leave everything and follow.

Again, when Peter was called to walk on the rolling sea, he had to get up and risk his life.

Only one thing was required in each case-- to rely on Christ's word, and cling to it as offering greater security than all the securities in the world.

The forces which tried to interpose themselves between the word of Jesus and the response of obedience were as formidable then as they are to-day.

Reason and conscience, responsibility and piety all stood in the way, and even the law and "scriptural authority" itself were obstacles which pretended to defend them from going to the extremes of antinomianism (((Antinomianism in Christianity is the belief that under the gospel dispensation of grace, moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation.))))  and "enthusiasms."  But the call of Jesus made short work of all these barriers, and created obedience. That call was the Word of God himself, and all that it required was single-minded obedience.'

My thoughts--

'Only one thing was required in each case-- to rely on Christ's word, and cling to it as offering greater security than all the securities in the world. '

TRUTH!

Mat_6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal

No treasure here on earth offers us any security at all.

We are under the delusion that we can amass great riches and we'll be security but you know what, you will only be secure in things that ultimately mean NOTHING. 

There is only ONE thing that matters in THIS life- LOVE- and the result of that TRUE LOVE- Eternal life with Jesus Christ our Savior.  We cannot have LOVE without knowing Christ's forgiveness.  This is the ONLY thing that matters- JESUS.   Jesus is the ONLY security we have and yet Satan has convinced us that we can find security in this world, in things of this world. 

The rich young ruler was told to give up his wealth but to him the wealth was his security in life and in all.  He couldn't give up that security even for eternal life! He was speaking with the SAVIOR, he was speaking with God's SON and he refused to obey Him. Face to face with GOD and he refused to believe Him! 

How many of us REFUSE to believe enough to OBEY?!

How many of refuse to truly believe the SAVIOR is our ONLY SECURITY?

The Apostles were mostly martyred - does this mean their faith failed them? That God let them down because they suffered?  NO! 

THIS IS TRUTH- Php_3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ

ALL THINGS but Christ mean NOTHING!

Truly ALL THINGS- even our own LIVES!

Bonhoeffer- 'Only one thing was required in each case-- to rely on Christ's word, and cling to it as offering greater security than all the securities in the world. '

TRUTH!

Bonhoeffer-'That call was the Word of God himself, and all that it required was single-minded obedience.'

TRUTH!

By the Grace of God my we TRULY make Jesus our ONLY security.

Money will tempt us!

Food will tempt us!

A roof over our heads will tempt us!

Safety will tempt us!

Pain will tempt us!

Contentment will tempt us!

Others will tempt us!

Loved ones will tempt us!

Our jobs will tempt us!

So much will tempt us to put it/them before JESUS, telling us all the while that Jesus will understand.

Jesus calls us to OBEY Him! OBEY! And when we FAIL to obey and continue in a life of willful disobedience then we are turning our backs on CHRIST'S LOVE!

Oh, how tragic it is going to be when millions of people see Jesus Christ and because they've lived a life in direct disobedience to Christ and His Word, they hear Him tell them He never knew them. They've deluded themselves into believing that they don't have to obey just because they believe. They forget these verses-

Jas 2:17  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Jas 2:18  Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

Jas 2:19  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Jas 2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

The works with faith are OBEDIENCE, they go hand in hand, one without the other does NOT work.

Please LORD, help us to make this a reality when we are confronted with all the things that would tempt us away from YOU!

By YOUR LOVE, YOUR GRACE!

Sealed Servants of God

Rev 7:2  And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

Sealed servants of God.

Before our Savior returns, before the time of trouble-  Dan. 12:1  '...and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time',  God's servants will be SEALED.

Remember Abraham asking God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were only 10 people that were God's in the cities?  None were worthy of sealing and ONLY Lot and his wife, along with two virgin daughters were spared- and then his wife turned back to Sodom. 

Before God destroys He will SEAL those that are His. He spares those that are His. God doesn't call for the destruction of the good along with the evil in the final judgment. Those that are God's will be sealed before the time of trouble hits. Does this mean they won't suffer? Absolutely NOT! It means they are God's and Satan can no longer touch their eternal life.

We know the time of trouble is coming, we've been watching all the signs, we've been praying for our Savior to return. We know that it will come to pass. Belonging to God is EVERYTHING!

2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

We've been discussing the book 'Cost of Discipleship' by Bonhoeffer.  So far we have been shown over and over that we are expected to obey even after we've received the grace of our Savior.  Reading this verse here about the Lord knowing them that are his- THOSE WHO DEPART FROM INIQUITY, we are again being shown that we much SHUN evil, shun sin, shun all iniquity.  We cannot be complacent with our besetting sins!

We cannot say, 'Oh well, that's how I am and I'm not changing.'  If we say that or anything like that then we are not departing from iniquity at all! We are stating that we are sinners involved in a besetting sin and we aren't going to stop committing that sin it has too great a hold over us. We are giving in to SATAN and his claim that God is not just!  Our God is JUST and our God WILL give us victory but He'd not going to take away our power of choice to do so.  You cannot give up your power of choice, but must daily choose to follow Christ. Daily, hourly, minutely CHOOSE to follow Christ. 

Whenever we are confronted by the choice to sin or not sin  (because it is always a choice) we have to ask ourselves if we are choosing Satan or Christ.  We KNOW if we choose to sin we are choosing Satan. 

We don't WANT to ask ourselves this question though. We'd much rather not even think about the question. We don't even want to think about the choice because we are accountable then- but so to are we accountable for NOT wanting to think about the choice.

Satan would have us be his and he'll stop at nothing to that end.

'Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.'

This is BIBLICAL! This isn't me speaking those words!

We must depart from iniquity and we depart from iniquity when we obey the moral law of our GOD!

Do we long to be sealed as Christ's?

Then we must BE CHRIST'S!

All by HIS GRACE!

'We must get into action and obey'

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

The following encounter between Jesus and the lawyer is another example of someone trying to tempt Jesus into a religious debate, rather than someone seeking honest truth in order to obey.  In this example it says outright that the lawyer was tempting Jesus- his intentions obviously not good ones.

Luk 10:25  And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Luk 10:26  He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

Luk 10:27  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Luk 10:28  And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

Luk 10:29  But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

Bonhoeffer has this to say about those who live to dispute, debate, and generally do all they can to question the truth rather than obey it.

Bonhoeffer- ' The first round is already lost, so the lawyer must try again. Like the rich young man, he tries to escape by raising his moral difficulties. "And who is my neighbor?" How often has this question been asked since, in good faith and genuine ignorance! It is plausible enough and any earnest seeker of truth could reasonably ask it. But this is not the way the lawyer meant it. Jesus parries the question as a temptation of the devil, and that in fact is the whole point of the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is the sort of question you can keep on asking without ever getting an answer. Its source lies in the "wrangling of men, corrupted in mind and bereft of truth"; of men "doting about questionings and disputes of words." From it "cometh envy, strife, railings, even surmising's" (I Tim. 6:4). It is the question of men who are puffed up, men who are "ever learning, and never able to come to knowledge of the truth." Of men "holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof" (II Tim. 3:5). They cannot believe, and they keep on asking this same question because they are "branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron" (I Tim. 4:2), because they refuse to obey the Word of God, Who is my neighbor? Does this question admit of any answer? Is it my kinsman, my compatriot, my brother Christian, or my enemy? There is an element of truth and falsehood in each of these answers. The whole question lands us into doubt and disobedience, and it is a veritable act of rebellion against the commandment of God. Of course, I say, I want to do his will, but he does not tell me how to se about it. The commandment does not give me any clear directions, and does nothing to solve my problems. The question "What shall I do?" was the lawyers first attempt to throw dust in his own eyes. The answer was: "You know the commandments, do you not? Well then, put them into practice. You must not ask questions-- get on with the job!"  And the final question "Who is my neighbor?" is the parting shot of despair (or else of self-confidence); the lawyer is trying to justify his disobedience. The answer is: "You are the neighbor. Go along and try to be obedient by loving others." Neighborliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves. Every moment and every situation challenges us to action and to obedience. We have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbor or not. We must get into action and obey--we must behave like a neighbor to him. But perhaps this shocks you. Perhaps you still think you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to do. To that there is only one answer. You can only know and think about it by actually doing it. You can only learn what obedience is by actually doing it.  You can only learn what obedience is by obeying. It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth.

With our consciences distracted by sin, we are confronted by the call of Jesus to spontaneous obedience. But whereas the rich young man was called to the grace of discipleship, the lawyer, who sought to tempt him, was only sent back to the commandment.'

MY THOUGHTS-

People love the idea of loving a God they can control, a God they dictate terms to, a God who they decide is only truly concerned with their 'TRYING' to lead a 'GOOD' life and nothing more.  They love having a God in their back pockets, someone to pray to whenever the mood strikes and is expected to listen at all times. The love the God who placates them. That old fire and brimstone God preached from the pulpits is outdated and transformed and has been for a long, long time. Extremism in any form makes for a God of their choosing.  And more often than not, the God we say we believe in, ends up being far from real. People love to call God a fable, and it's no wonder so many do when people have spent many, many years, even a couple millenniums offering up their versions of God rather than the TRUTH of God.

This is when people JUMP into the conversation and begin to ask questions like- 'Who can know what's truth?', 'Isn't it all just a matter of private interpretation?', 'What does it matter as long as you believe?'  And on and on. They want to trip you up, they want to bring their evil surmising's and such into play all because the very bottom line is- THEY DO NOT WANT TO OBEY.  Make up your own God and forget about having to OBEY.  It's NO wonder at all whatsoever that Jesus is going to say to many people in the day of His return that He never knew them. He couldn't possibly know them because they've NEVER truly been His at all in any way, shape, or form. They've allowed themselves to be deluded, deceived, damned by the devil himself, all because the idea of TRULY OBEYING goes against the kind of God they want to believe in.

I'm not telling you to make God your old fashioned, fire and brimstone preacher- because like I mentioned earlier, extremism is wrong in both directions- cream puff, marsh mellowy and malleable as well as rigid rock, fire, and damnation without any compassion at all. 

God is what He says He is… love.

Love is God.

And our God says these words-

Joh_14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Keep them.

Not- just learn them.

Not-just recite them.

Not- just keep one or two.

Not- make up your own versions and keep them.

Not-just think about them.

Not-abandon them.

KEEP THEM.

And that is an action- the keeping.

These aren't piece of stone we shove under our beds and keep hidden, these are living, breathing commandments of living! These are commandments meant to be lived by.  These commandments are to be a PART of us, a part of our daily lives as surely as our breathing is. These commandments are supposed to be kept with every beat of our heart.

Why did the rich young ruler and the certain lawyer ever question what they are to do to inherit eternal life? They did it because God's love wasn't fully realized in them in His commandments. They didn't take the commandments to heart or else the rich ruler would have already been using his wealth to LOVE His neighbors so much so his wealth wouldn't have been a barrier to the realized love of the SAVIOR. The lawyer would know that his neighbor included all his fellowman and not those of his own choosing, if he were obeying, if he were keeping the moral law of God in his heart of hearts. Way too many people carrying on believing as their parents believed, never making their belief a real, personal thing at all. Generations of people continue on performing rituals- physical, spiritual, and mental rituals that hold not a single shred of LOVE, of GOD.  They live God-less lives because the God they claim to be worshipping is a false god, nothing like God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit- three who fully agree as ONE.

Joh_14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Obeying.

'We must get into action and obey'

By the GRACE of GOD!

Obedience to the Son of God

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- ' The call to follow means here what it had meant before--adherence to the person of Jesus Christ and fellowship with him. The life of discipleship is not the hero-worship we would pay to a good master, but obedience to the Son of God.'

My thoughts-

Truth.

Obedience.

Not lip service, not our own contrivances of worship, not any thing other than OBEDIENCE.  The call to FOLLOW Jesus is a command for us to obey. The teachings of Jesus Christ are given to us to obey, not to discard. How many of Jesus' teachings do we choose to discard because we'd rather just remain who we are? 

We get used to ourselves, so much so that we start to believe that there is NOTHING in us that needs changing.  We get comfortable with who we are, so much so that when we start suspecting there are things about us that don't quite line up with Jesus' teachings, we start making excuses for them rather than add them to the LIST of sins that they really are.  We don't like calling our non-Jesus-like behavior - a sin.  When we label our actions, our words, our thoughts even- sin, then we realize that we have to seek forgiveness and NOT accept the sin in our lives.  We hate not being able to just put our sin blinders on and go about our business. The thing is… Satan has sin blinders ready for us and he is very eager for us to put them on. We make our choices and when we choose to accept our SINS having labeled them just minor annoyances, then Satan slips those blinders on us and suddenly we are finding it very easy to excuse our sins. As soon as we excuse our sins we are choosing to be spiritual blind.   It's such a slippery slope is it any wonder our Savior gave us such amazing teachings to follow so we can KNOW when we are NOT following Him by our behavior, our lives, the fruit we produce.  We need to STUDY how Jesus wants us to LIVE, and make it a LIFE LONG STUDY. When we have our conscience pricked we need to thank the HOLY SPIRIT then and there as we feel the weight of our sins- the tiniest ones to the largest sin. We need to thank the Holy Spirit and then we need to seek forgiveness from God, repenting of those sins and seeking to OBEY our God.  Our obeying is keeping His commandments to LOVE Him and Others and that is clarified for us in the Moral Law of God. 

We believe and we OBEY.

We aren't to let our worship of God become hero worship by setting aside our obedience to Him.  He won't be mollified by our songs of worship and songs of praise to Him all the while we keep disobeying Him at every opportunity.  He wouldn't be pleased with that or accept us that way any more than we would accept that in our own children, or SHOULD accept that in our own children. How would we as parents like our children loving us to our faces and yet turning around and disobeying us as soon as they can? We know in our heart of hearts that disobeying is wrong, the disobeying of God or parents is wrong.  When we disobey we declare the one we are disobeying as unworthy, and when we declare God unworthy we've stopped believing in Him as our Creator, our Redeemer.

Please LORD help us to obey, teach us the need to obey, not just once in a while but ALWAYS.  

Save us from ourselves Lord, please, save us.

All in YOUR LOVE, YOUR FORGIVENESS, YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!

Practical Obedience

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'The one thing that matters is practical obedience. That will solve his ((the rich young ruler)) difficulties and make him ( and all of us) free to become the child of God. Such is God's diagnosis of the man's moral difficulties.'

My thoughts- We DON'T want to believe that 'practical obedience' is the answer. It's too simple but at the same time,  much too hard for us to follow. If we were told that we had to undergo a special quest, travel here and there, recite special words, buy certain things and all that would guarantee us eternal life, we'd do it! We'd gladly do all of that as long as we didn't have to truly obey God's commands. People would be lining up to undergo that quest waiting to lay their hands on that golden ticket to paradise. Once they had that ticket and were assured of eternal life  that would leave them free to behave any way they choose. They would never have to worry about sin, never have to worry about anything at all. Some people want us to believe that CHEAP GRACE is a golden ticket we put in our safety deposit box and no longer have to really worry about anything concerning eternal life ever again.

Tell me, why would Jesus tells us to STRIVE against sin?

Why would Jesus tell us to PICK up our CROSS DAILY?

Why? If we have His grace?

Why would He tell the sinners to go and SIN NO MORE, if it didn't matter is they did sin, as long as they just believed in Him and His dying for them?

Clearly, beyond ANY doubt whatsoever SIN is still in play after we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, His grace forgiving us, saving us.

Luk 18:18  And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Luk 18:19  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

Luk 18:20  Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

Luk 18:21  And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

Luk 18:22  Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

We ASK this same question don't we?

And Jesus makes sure that this ruler knows that GOD is good, and it is GOD he is talking to asking this question. Then Jesus says- 'You know the commandments.'  And the ruler countered with the fact he'd kept them all from his youth till then. 

So WHY did Jesus bring up the moral law? Was it to tell the ruler that it wasn't going to guarantee eternal life, just keeping the moral law? 

Jesus went on to say, 'Yet lackest thou ONE thing.'  

You've got most of it right but not all of it.

Jesus didn't say forget about the moral law, stop keeping it, you don't need to obey that old moral law any longer.  Jesus said that ruler was doing good but there was one thing missing.  That one thing was a REAL desire to follow Jesus above all else- above all the money in the world, above everything, believing in Jesus as if He matters more than ANYTHING, literally anything in the entire world and beyond!

The ruler did NOT believe that much and he went away sad, unwilling to give up his riches for eternal life.

He was willing to obey the commands but NOT believe in Jesus.

We are more than willing to say we believe in Jesus but NOT obey the moral commandments given to us by Christ.

He wanted the obey without the believe and most people today want the believe without the obey.

Bonhoeffer- 'The one thing that matters is practical obedience. That will solve his ((the rich young ruler)) difficulties and make him ( and all of us) free to become the child of God. Such is God's diagnosis of the man's moral difficulties.'

Practical obedience.

We'd rather do just about anything other than truly obey God as His word tells us we need to obey Him.

Do you remember all those studies on what Jesus was teaching us about life and how to live it? How much of it have we retained? How much of it do we follow? Are we living our Savior's words?  Are we seeking constant forgiveness for falling far short of the mark set before us? Are we striving against the sins that would take from us our desire to follow our Savior all the way to eternal life with Him?   That's what happens when we disobey without any striving, without any seeking of forgiveness and grace, we LOSE our desire to belong to Jesus.  Please LORD help us to NEVER lose the desire to be YOURS!

Save us LORD, save us!

When we decide to forsake obeying we are also forsaking true belief.

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'Doubt and reflection take the place of spontaneous obedience. 

The grown-up man with his freedom of conscience vaunts his superiority over the child of obedience.

But he has acquired the freedom to enjoy moral difficulties only at the cost of renouncing obedience.

In short, it is a retreat from the reality of God to the speculations of men, from faith to doubt.'

My thoughts--

Spontaneous obedience.  We love to question God and His commands at every turn. The serpent in the garden had Eve questioning God and ever since man has questioned God.  You'll have a whole group of people who will gladly say, 'Shouldn't God be able to stand up to questioning?'  In truth, God should NOT have to stand up to anything. We are the CREATURES HE is the CREATOR! When He was obeyed mankind felt no pain, there were no tears, no hatred, nothing that is born of the evil that Satan is. It was only when man decided to disobey that all the horrors of sin were allowed into the world. Our disobedience and continued disobedience brings the pain. Yet people love to say all that God asks of us is TOO hard! That God is evil for even wanting us to obey! These are the awful things people say to excuse their desire to sin and live in a world of sin, continuously disobeying. Every single human being in their right mind knows what it means to obey and disobey. And they know that true good only comes from obeying.  The trouble is that people love to sin and enjoy the sin. They love to disobey and feel joy from that evil, they are twisted people who are controlled by Satan.   'Spontaneous obedience'  Obeying spontaneously. 'DOUBT and REFLECTION take the place of spontaneous obedience.'  As we question obeying, allowing room for doubt and reflection we are inviting Satan to play in our heads. We are inviting Satan to fill us with all sorts of things that will lead us from obedience, not towards it.

'The grown-up man with his freedom of conscience vaunts his superiority over the child of obedience.' 

My thoughts--

People who love to debate truly do vaunt their supposed superiority over those who live a life of simply obedience.  They love to call those who believe and obey - stupid, unintelligent, naïve, foolish, all because they have this notion implanted by the author of deception that God is not even real, and if He is real then He surely doesn't deserve blind obedience.

All through history those who are controlled by Satan have demeaned the simple obedient man, and it's that man who is closest to God and will gain SALVATION truly the most treasured of anything in existence.

'But he has acquired the freedom to enjoy moral difficulties only at the cost of renouncing obedience. In short, it is a retreat from the reality of God to the speculations of men, from faith to doubt.'

My thoughts--

At the cost of RENOUNCING obedience we use our freedom to enjoy moral difficulties. We pride ourselves on being able to challenge God's teachings but in reality we are only hurting ourselves - in  a very eternal way. When we stand up and shout to God (even silently) that we don't have to obey His commandments because they are just too hard, not meant for us human beings to keep, they are what denies us the happiness we deserve, their restrictions are just too constraining.  When we give all our speeches going into great detail about why God's commands are unjust we have given up our ability to truly obey God. When we give up that ability to obey, we are truly retreating from the REALITY of GOD and into mere speculations of men. We ARE in TRUTH caught up in DOUBT having forsaken FAITH.

Obeying and belief go hand in hand.  When we decide to forsake obeying we are also forsaking true belief.  So many DO NOT BELIEVE this and they are deceiving themselves! 

LORD please, please help us OBEY.

Please.