What a blessing, the ability reason

Psalm 100

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!   Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!  Know that the Lord, he is God!  It is he, who made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!  Give thanks to him; bless his name!  For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

God, to my knowledge, never made humans robots, but in each person gave them the ability to think.  I know that statement is getting harder to prove, especially when we look to the Congress of the United States of America.  So, if one is not born without brain damage, they have been given the ability to think, and to reason, and out of that always comes making a choice.  Another factor is also at play and its emotions, and they are compelling in each of our lives.  If you ignore them, they will bring disaster into your ability to live the Christ-life.  We are instructed in Scripture to walk by faith and not by feelings, and my friend Bill Gillham taught this concept –All knowledge is the outgrowth of obedience.   Everything else is just information.  Also, this concept-Never looks to your emotions as the leading barometer of spiritual reality.

Now let’s go back and ponder on what Psalm 100 is telling us; do you recall Jesus entering Jerusalem and the Pharisees in the crowd coming to Jesus with this complaint about what the many disciples were saying.  You will find it in Luke 19:37-40, “As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”  

Many who attend a building we refer to as a Church, proclaim to the walls and everyone inside those walls Jesus Christ is Lord, but when the Church leaves the building are we not often more like the Pharisees than we are willing to admit?

So the next question; are you His, are you a member of the Family of God?  Once again, a concept from Bill, “Birth always determines identity.  All you have to do to go to hell is show up on the planet as a descendant of Adam.”  So having a new birth, not by flesh and blood but by the Spirit of God is required.  So you may want to explore these verses, Romans 6:6, Galatians 2:20, and you become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).   All that have entered by God’s grace into faith in the finished work of the Cross are saints, and yet because of choice we choose to sin, but it should break our hearts.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice