Saturday ~ April 28, 2012

Saturday ~ April 28, 2012

Ezra 7:10

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. 

Jesus, in Matthew 15:8, quoted Isaiah saying, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”. The scribes and Pharisees he was speaking of had substituted their own laws for those of God’s, simply giving lip-service to the Lord. We are guilty of the same when our actions do not follow the truth our lips declare we believe. When the way in which we live does not reflect our professed beliefs, I have news for you, we don’t really believe them! It’s like a man talking about the power of gravity but then walking off of a cliff because he didn’t really think he would fall.

When we don’t live out the truth we say we believe in, our faith is dead. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26). The life, the essence is gone from our faith when we don’t live according to it. All our Christianity is in this condition is an empty husk, a mausoleum for our decaying words. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” (1 John 2:6). It is the Spirit led flow of a believer’s life to “do”, or put into practice, what we learn from Scripture. Be encouraged to live out the truth that we profess.

Ask yourself these questions today and answer honestly both to yourself and the Lord:

• Is there a lack of joy in my Christian walk?
• Do I neglect prayer because I don’t actually believe it does anything?
• Do I neglect the Bible and simply listen to what others have to say about it?
• Do I, like the Pharisees, honor God with my lips but not with my heart or actions?