Send to Kindleby Jim Hughes
Matt. 15:8-9 “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. Their worship is a farce, for they replace God’s commands with their own man-made teachings.”
I wonder how many people fall into this category. I often have wondered how many people who go to church and are involved in it really are honoring the Lord in their lives. It’s easy to talk the talk of salvation. It’s easy to give the Lord praise and thanks. It’s easy to tell of what the Lord has done and even what He means to us. But, what we say is not always what is really in our hearts. We can go through the motions and be very deceptive to both others and ourselves.
How can we really know that we are right with God? I believe this is probably the most crucial question we can ask of ourselves. God clearly tells us that if we really do love Him we will obey Him. So therefore, we must determine whether or not we are really obeying Him. The only way we can know is for us to know what He commands us to be and do. We must evaluate ourselves in light to God’s Word. There is no room for debate on this. What God says we must do.
We often make up our own rules for Christian living. We determine what we can live with and what we can’t. We adjust what God says to fit our comfort levels. We try to legislate faith instead of living by it. We tend to impose our standards on God’s standards and if there is a conflict, our ways generally win out.
All of God’s commands are doable when we live fully surrendered lives to Christ. He gives us the power and will to do them. He changes us so that we humbly strive to conform to His ways and not our own. We learn to live in Christ’s righteousness and trust Him to work out His holiness in us. Honoring God in our lives is simply letting Jesus be our Lord and living to please Him.
About the Author:
Spending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.
C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chapter on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one’s self from such failures.
I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn’t broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.
