Less Law, Much Less

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."

(Matthew 7:24-27)

The person who hears and acts on the words of the Lord is compared to a wise man who builds his house on the rock, thus enduring the storm. Is it necessary to live out the words we hear, or can we get by just knowing about them? I mean, do we have to do acts of love toward others or can we just say loving words and have nice emotions? Can I tell God I repent, but never change the way I behave?

What if we live in a time when most of us want to live on the beach and enjoy life? What if our plan is to have God save so no matter what we do because He loves us? What if we live in a day when we don’t want to be wise, we want to be happy and live on a beach. Beach life sounds better than life on a rock.

Besides, the church will come and help me repair my home – right. I mean, even if I don’t do what I should, the people of God are suppose to come to my aid and fix my house, right. I am sure that those who love God will love me enough to take care of me too.

Look at the words right before this instruction.

"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

(Matthew 7:22-23)

I care about speaking the words of the Lord, I care about being delivered from evil, I care about God’s miraculous intervention. I don’t think much about being lawless.

The lawless do not follow the rules or laws. In the basic form, if I will not be ruled then I am lawless. In the above passage, I can do many things that look like I am ruled by the Master, the Ruler, the Lord. But in the reality of things, I am not a part of Him and I am not known by Him if He is not my Lord (Master). Ouch!

Tomorrow I am going to try and record at least 5 things that God is telling me to do. Tomorrow I am going to intentionally let God rule me. I would start tonight but I am busy praying.