Send to Kindleby Jim Hughes
Matt. 15:10-11 Then Jesus called to the crowds and said, “Listen to what I say and try to understand. You are not defiled by what you eat, you are defiled by what you say and do.”
Practice trumps procedure. It is not the rules and regulations that we try to keep that make us right with God; it’s what comes out of our hearts. The heart determines what we say and do. If the heart is not right with God, it doesn’t matter how strict a person may be in his behavior. We are not holy because we act or talk a certain way.
This can be a very difficult thing to balance out in our lives because we know that our works are essential to our faith. We tend to do the right things because we know that is what pleases God. The danger comes in when we get the idea that we are saved because we do those things. Rather, we are to do what we do because we are saved. We are made righteous in Christ alone. Our relationship with Christ is what motivates us to do what pleases God.
If you are relying on how you are living for your salvation, you need to humble yourself before Christ and let Him be your salvation. You cannot make it to heaven based on how “good” of a person you are. Jesus alone can make us righteous before God. If it were any other way, Jesus died in vain. There would have been no reason at all for Jesus to come to earth. Everything we know and understand about God, life, and salvation would be a lie. If works could save us then there would be no such thing as forgiveness or true peace with God.
Jesus is THE way, truth, and life and no one will ever be made righteous and holy before God except by 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.
