Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever hears what I am saying and trusts the One who sent me has eternal life — that is, he will not come up for judgment but has already crossed over from death to life! John 5:24
So the teachings of the Lord is more of the same just at a deeper level. Yesterday was an interesting day because the same theme kept playing over and over, and then the verse which stuck out to me today was the one above which sums it up. Tie this in with the verse from a few days back from John 3 “Now this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness rather than the light. Why? Because their actions were wicked. For everyone who does evil things hates the light and avoids it, so that his actions won’t be exposed. But everyone who does what is true comes to the light, so that all may see that his actions are accomplished through God.”
Let’s put these together, keeping in mind these verses are only a few apart. And they both relate to the same point, which is always the main point. That is simply “hear what Yeshua says, do what he says and trust in the one who sent him.”
The other part of it is if you hear the Lord Yeshua, you have no option but to obey him. When you feel his authority, you know. But then this is the part of the light coming into the world and the men like darkness more than light, so they ignore the light, hide themselves in the dark.
Yesterday, the first part was a discussion with my wife alone. Her making her points, and me countering with the ways of God. She knows the ways of God, she did not argue much. But in the end she still went back to her feelings over the truth, things written in scripture she cannot argue against, and things the Lord has shown me and her clearly. More so me.
The second thing was similar, as we had friends over last night and got talking about me being generous, more so than my wife likes, especially if the person getting the generosity is a woman. If it is friends of family like her older son, it is the opposite, she wants to be generous. But our cleaning lady or some worker around the house, not so much.
So the guy who was here said to me, yes what you say is true, but your wife is a Mexicana. Making the point that is also true, the whole thing about human nature, which is the MAIN point. We got into the discussion of how us gringos are different than the Mexican culture and women then men, which is also very true.
But Yeshua never taught anything about taking this into consideration when talking to people about their sex, or their nationality. He instead made one point very clear, which is also written in John 3, which is “unless one is born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.”
We will circle back to this point, because there is another to make. Which is I brought up a few verses to make a point. One is how to be generous to those who cannot repay, which the people my wife does not like it when I give, are ones who cannot repay, they financially are not capable. And the verse about denying ourselves and dying onto ourselves.
There were a couple of additional verses I said, but again the friend just said “yes but your wife is a Mexicana.
This is the problem, we make excuses and do not understand the workings of the Holy Spirit and this whole concept of dying onto ourselves. His point has truth to it, our flesh is not good in the eyes of God, and the bible is full of things we are to learn and then do. Not just be hearers of the word, but doers as well. Yet we read them and hear them and then ignore them instead of allowing them along with the truth Yeshua will tell us when we hear him. We must work these things out in our daily walk, denying the lust of the flesh and our lies we learned because of being male or female or Mexican or American.
In this short message there are many bible verses, or shortened versions of them. The simple point is as always. Hear and obey the Lord. Hearing a man teacher, reading your bible won’t do it. Neither has any authority, so even in hearing you do not hear and will not follow through, because your excuses will come into play. Excuses like it is because I am an American or a Mexican, a man or woman. We make up excuses to be able to stay in our flesh and the lusts of it. Instead of repenting and turning away from the sin.
Many argue it is impossible to not sin, but I argue is it impossible? Yeshua said it is impossible for man, but all things are possible with God. Most all of us have conquered some sin in our life art one time or another. But we lack the discipline and more so authority of the Lord Yeshua to conquer it all. But the question becomes is it really that difficult to stop praying to saints and Mary and Buddha or whoever? To stop having idols and a fake god? Is it really that hard to stop using profanity? To stop going to strip clubs and watching porn? To stop drinking or doing drugs or gambling? To not kill anyone (most all of us can claim this one as I only know a handful of people who killed another man). Or stealing? Or taking your neighbor’s wife or goods?
What really makes it so impossible to stop doing these things? Because in my life I used to do a few of these things, but now no more. How did I stop? By the truth in Yeshua and his authority. I have to obey him, I have no choice but to obey him. He leaves me no choice. Well actually he does give us the choice, but for me. Because I know him and know his power and authority. There is no other choice but to obey. And I see the good fruit I produce when I do obey, in every aspect of my life which really boil down to three areas. My physical health, mental health which both are sub categories of our Spiritual health. All three are in good standing, as well as the everything else part where our financial picture and family life is good. Not without some problems, they are ongoing. There is always a curve ball the devil is throwing at us.
The interesting thing is when I look at my life, the few important things in my life I am easily in the top 1% of people in them. In my physical life I can do many things most 20 year olds cannot do. In my workout for example, I can do a wall sit for over 1 minute which 30 seconds is good, over a minute is exceptional. Very few can do it at my age.
Financially we are easily in the top 1% in the world for wealth, in Mexico we are in the top .2%. Both my wife and I look younger than we are. We have no fear of how to pay the bills… On paper our life looks great, and it is. BUT, it is only because of the Lord, not because I am something special in and of myself. Just today I was thanking the Lord for what he has done, and remembering back to the first half of my life and how it sucked. And how the second half of my life, how great it is. Just like the story of Job. And just like Job I owe it all to the Lord, not our own doings.
And you also can have this! If you seek the Lord, he is not partial and gives to everyone accordingly. According to their works, which if your works are in the Lord, he does bless you. And it is biblical.