June 17, 2013

Following Directions

Last week I served as the chairman of the Election Credentials Committee for my local electric association. We go to great lengths to ensure the election process will withstand any and all scrutiny, but unfortunately every year a few members get incensed when their ballot is rejected because they failed to follow voting requirements.

One member verbally assaulted a Customer Service Representative when she told him his ballot could not be dropped off, but rather had to be mailed, or personally hand delivered to the meeting. He became irate and described the ballot in explicit terms telling her where she could put it.

Another member was highly agitated because we wouldn’t accept his ballot after the polls had closed.

And then there were the argumentative people who showed up with multiple ballots that they wanted to submit for friends and family.

It’s interesting how we always want to blame others for our failure to follow directions. As believers we too have some instructions to follow, but you can bet that when the Lord returns there are going to be those who will want to argue with Him.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----That’s a good bet. “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you evildoers.’” (Matt 7:21-23) God has given us very definite instructions for entering eternal life. I would suppose Jesus selected prophesying and casting out demons for connoting the nature of "many mighty works" because prophesying is something expected to come with involvement of the Lord’s Spirit, and demons don’t take kindly to orders given without Jesus’ authority. The seven sons of Sceva were educated in that matter. I am sure Jesus is wanting us to ponder what has gone wrong for these doers of wonders.
-----Most simply observed, they got their directions mixed up. Nowhere does the Word of God intimate that acceptance into eternal life is acquired by doing many mighty works. In fact, in several places it clearly states that no man can do enough works to gain that entry. Theirs was a major mental disconnect, and before the Holy Judge was not a good place for disconnection. The directions Jesus passed for our connection were that we must do His Father’s will.
-----That’s confusing. Doesn’t it add up that the will of a good Father would be for us to do good things? Another good bet in addition to yours might be that a lot of preachers and people will say that these mighty works of the heaven missers were not the right, good things. For if they were doing the good thing of reaching out to the community “with the gospel” they sure would have gotten in! Yesterday, we heard our preacher focus his sermon upon two prominent churches’ contemptible failure to spread the gospel because they cut relations with the Boy Scouts over their cave in to perverse pressures. Of course, he expressed the reasoning in more fragrant terms. But again, reality is real no matter how much you scrub and powder its backside.
-----I think the reality of real is kind of what’s in His directions to get you into the kingdom. For God certainly wills your doing right things, but not as a matter for being right. “For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life.” (John 6:40) His will is that you see Christ and believe. The Greek here is not just happening to see Jesus from across the street riding His Harley, or something like that. It is to peer at for discernment, to study for perception, to consider carefully. Conjunctions are important words. “And” is inclusive of both conditions - seeing and believing. Believing is an attitude of acceptance, but seeing is completely informational. It’s gathered information defines what is acceptable. The acceptance of anything more or less than what is defined falls outside the Father’s will. Therefore, doing the Father’s will is a study of Christ and then a working of exemplified belief. Yet, to study or peer at something for discernment follows only a desire to find discernment in that something. thereforte, even that desire having led to that peering having resulted in that believing which becomes a work is a must in doing His will.
-----If the voters had the desire to participate in the election, they would not have missed the instructions made plainly evident for their peering. If the “But Lord, Lord-ers” had the desire to do the Father’s will, they would not have missed the Instruction made plainly evident for their peering. Error is more in why you do than what you do.


Love you all,
Steve Corey