Yirat Adonai!

Yirat Adonai is the Hebrew term for "fear of the Lord."   As English speakers, we see the term "fear" as more of a sign of needing to be scared.  It is also seen as being the opposite of trust.  It's synonyms are fright, dread and terror. 

Do you think that God really intends to convey that we should be in fear, mistrust, dread and terror of Him? 

Of course not! 

The Hebrew term Yirat comes from the Hebrew word - Yirah (pronounced YEER-ah) and it means a great many things depending on it's context.   For example, while it can mean fear, dread and terror but can also mean worship, reverence, respect and awe.   The exact meaning really comes from the context the word is used. 

For example, Leviticus 19:3 tells us that we are to "fear our mother and father."   This doesn't mean to literally be frightened of them - it means to respect and revere them. 

Rabbi's often speak of the "fear of the Lord" but they always convey it in the most positive way possible.   They define it as awe and reverence for God that motivates us to do His will.   Further, they point out that fearing God because  of His potential punishment is an inferior understanding and one that is self centered.   It is self-centered in that it doesn't focus on God at all.  Rather it views God only thru the prism of our own interests and asks what will happen to us because God knows what we have done. 

From a rabbinical perspective, if you have the "fear of the Lord" you have an awe and reverence for God.   In having that, you have, what could be argued is a better kind of fear.   For example, think of someone who you look up to.  Someone that you greatly respect.   This could be your parents, grandparents, spouse, a close friend or relative or even your boss.   Think about how you feel if you ever do something that will disappoint them.   You see, when you love someone deeply, you honestly want their approval.   You don't want to disappoint them under any circumstances.   

How much more this should be true with God!   We should be filled with such an awe-filled love of God that it allows us to grow in intimate knowledge of Him.   That love will grow us and show us how to live while providing reassurance of God's power and guidance.   It will give us a high level of respect that keeps us from getting caught in sins that will destroy our relationships and lives. 

You say you love me.....

I was driving my daughter to school this morning and was listening to the radio while we talked.   Small talk mostly, but a 3 Doors Down song came on the radio.   I've heard the song several times but, this morning, it was saying something else to me.   The chorus of the song goes like this:

"You love me but you don't know who I am.

I'm torn between this life I lead and where I stand.

And you love me but you don't know who I am...."

This morning morning I heard those specific lyrics and instantly started thinking about the words of Jesus. 

"If you love me, keep my commands."  John 14:15 NIV

Am I keeping His commands.   While I would like to say that I am, I know that I am still falling short.   I can't do it all, but also know there is much more I could be doing.   I start asking myself:

• Am I helping the homeless? 
• Am I being a Godly example for my wife and kids? 
• Am I treating others as I would want to be treated in all cases?
• Am I truly loving my neighbor?   
• Do I even understand who my neighbor's are? 
• Have I done anything to help the sick/dying?  
• If I were to stand in court, would there be enough evidence in my life alone to convict me of being a follower of Jesus?  
• When was the last time that I led anyone to Christ or at least planted a seed so that it can be harvested later?

These words and questions have echoed in my heart all day.   Then there is the big question.   If I passed into eternity today, would Jesus claim me as His own?   

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.   Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.  Away from me you evildoers!"   Matthew 7:21-23 NIV

How I pray that I am not just playing at being a follower and am not just acting the role of a follower of Christ.   How I hope that I am not just learning about Jesus but am also getting to know Jesus.   Because the more I learn the more I realize that simply knowing about Him is not the same thing as truly knowing Him.   That if I don't truly know Him, then I am just part of the goats who will be sent to the fires of Hell.

"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.   All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.   He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.  

"The the King will say to those on His right,, 'Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.   For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"The the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink?  When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You?  When did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?'

"The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'

"Then He will say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.   For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.'

"They will also answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help You?'

"He will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."  Matthew 25:31-46 (NIV)

My God is a god of _______________________

 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.    1 John 1:6-7 (NASB)

If you look around, you will notice that many people will tell you that

"My God is a god of fill in the blank"

and provide what may be a single or couple of attributes of God that are the most attractive to them.  However, what they also do is completely ignore other attributes of God that they either find unattractive or don't want to believe.   In doing so, they walk around with a distorted or incomplete view of who God is.  This is a dangerous thing because our views of God determine our beliefs/world view, shape our actions and these things determine our destinies and our future for all eternity. 

"You hypocrites, rightly did Isiah prophesy of you: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.  But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrine the precepts of men.'"  Matthew 15: 7-9 (NASB)

Paul alluded to people having this incomplete view in 2 Corinthians:

"But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.   For it one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully."   2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (NASB)

You see, one of the many schemes of the devil is to get people to heavily emphasis one of God's attributes over others.   For example, if I only recognize and talk about God's love and grace while ignoring or dismissing His justice and wrath, I am defaming who God is and should not expect Him to be close to me or keep me.  To say that God is a God of love and totally ignore his other attributes paints a view of God who is incomplete and ultimately leads people to worship a god that doesn't exist. 

"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."   John 3:36 (NASB) 

"Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness.  If you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off."   Romans 11:22 (NASB)

Some will tell you that as long as you have accepted Jesus that you are covered by grace regardless of what you do.   Following that doctrine seems to encourage new Christians to continue to live in sin and not fully surrender their lives to Christ.  It is no wonder the church today looks so much like the world!   No wonder why so many people consider christians today to be hypocrites.   They act one way while in church, but ultimately continue to act according to the world outside of it.   This is wrong and will ultimately end in their destruction. 

"For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgement and The fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.  Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.   How much severer the punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted by the Spirit of Grace?   For we know Him who said, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.'  And again, 'The Lord will judge His people.'   it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God."   Hebrews 10:26-31 (NASB)

"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."   Matthew 10:28 (NASB) 

"You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever."   Psalm 9:5 (NASB) 

You see, while it is true that God loves each and everyone of us, it is also true that He cannot stand / bear sin and those who continue to sin or do not accept Him will find themselves on the wrong side of eternity.

"Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; For the man of peace will have a posterity, But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; The posterity of the wicked will be cut off."   Psalm 37:37-38 (NASB) 

"The Lord keeps all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy."  Psalm 145:20 (NASB)

"If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."  Revelation 10:15 (NASB)

While we can never know everything there is to know about God and who He is, we can have a much greater understanding than we have now.   It takes years of earnestly seeking Him and studying His word and obeying what it tells us to do.   We can't get there by picking and choosing based on what we want or don't want to hear or believe. 

"that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him."  Ephesians 1:17 (NASB)

The straight and narrow.....

It has been said that many will seek but few will find.   In Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB), Jesus tells us:

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.   For the gate is small and the is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."

He has also told us that there will be many who claim to know Him but will find themselves on the wrong side of the conversation when they cross over into eternity as evidenced in Luke 13:23-35 (NASB):

And someone said to Him, "Lord are there just a few who are being saved?"  And He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many I tell you will seek to enter but will not be able.   Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying "Lord, open up to us!"   then He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know from where you are from.'

The more I read, study and search/reach out for truth, the more Christ's words above echo and ring true.   The sharper into focus what He meant about the way being narrow and it being easier for a camel to enter thru the eye of a needle become. 

Fact is, there is absolute truth and the way to that truth is very easy.  However, the path that has to be followed with that truth is, indeed, narrow.   In fact, many today will indicate that it is so narrow that it is excessively restrictive.   I would go so far as to say that several today would say that the truth is "intolerant." 

However, searching out and finding the truth is the most freedom that you will ever experience this side of Heaven. 

How can that be?   Consider for just a moment a simple balcony.    However, this balcony doesn't have any railing to keep you from falling off.   Would you be willing to go out on that balcony?   Would you let your kids go out and play on that same balcony?    Now, take that same balcony and add railing.   Now how do you feel about it?   I would imagine you will feel much safer about walking out on it or allowing your kids to play there. 

In a sense, life is the same way.   Without boundaries it is very easy to fall off one side or the other and become either seriously hurt or die.   Add some boundaries and things become much clearer. 

Beware of false teachers......

This post is mostly scripture, but wanted to share as there is a good bit of false teaching in the world today and, unfortunately, not all of it is easy to tease out as it does a good job of preaching love.   However, pay close attention, as even the devil knows scripture.   This is evident in that he used scripture when tempting Jesus as described in Matthew 4:1-11.    Further, the bible also calls out that even demons know who Jesus is (and shudder) as told in James 2:19.   

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared by those who believe in truth. 1 Timothy 4:1-3 (NASB)

Note for 1 Timothy 4:1-3: the reference forbidding people to marry and staying away from foods  is a sample of the false teaching that was occurring in Ephesus.   As is the case with false teaching, there is generally elements of truth but the deception, in this case, is in making human works a pre-requisite for salvation.   This is a distinguishing mark of all false teaching.   Personally, I also wonder if the use of the term food could be considered a metaphor as we are also taught that we are to "live by the word of God alone" - Matthew 4:4 and Deuteronomy 8:3. 

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. Romans 1:28-32 (NASB)

Note for Romans 1:28-32:   The assertion here that "God gave the over to a depraved mind" indicates that God has tested man's mind and found them worthless/useless.   Also, given that we have free will, God will not force us to follow him.   The reason for this is due to love.   Just as you can't force someone to love you, God will not force us to love Him.   If He did that, then it is not love for Him that we experience and give to Him.   It would make us more comparable to mindless drones.   God wants us to follow him of our own accord and not because He forces us to do something.   

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NASB)

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, brining swift destruction upon themselves.   Many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgement from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.   2 Peter 2:1-3 (NASB)

Note for 2 Peter 2:1-3:   Please pay attention to this.   While it may seem that false teachers are raised to esteem or allowed to continue in their teaching, their judgement is coming and is not idle.   It will come.   If not in this life, then certainly in eternity when they have to answer for their teaching and actions.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NASB)

For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. Hebrews 6:7-8 (NASB)

"The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance." Luke 8:14-15 (NASB)

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the firsts spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. Hebrews 2:1-4 (NASB)

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will ensure salvation for yourself and for those who hear you. 1 Timothy 4:16 (NASB)

But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:6-11 (NASB)

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness. 2 Timothy 2:15-16 (NASB)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Titus 2:11-15 (NASB)

Note for Titus 2:11-15: Our salvation is via faith and our following of Christ.  Any other path leads to destruction.  Please realize that God loves us too much to force us to spend time with Him in eternity.   From my perspective, He doesn't send us to hell rather we choose to go there.

Faith vs. Works

I am sure that you have heard this debate a number of times.   Are we saved by faith?   Works?   A combination of the two? 

I number of us have likely heard it said that we are saved by acceptance of Jesus and placing our faith in Him alone.   However, is placing our faith in Jesus alone enough to save us? 

My belief is that having faith in Jesus is not enough.   While it is a great first step, James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe and know who Jesus is:

James 2:19(NIV)  "You believe that there is one God.   Good!  Even then demons believe that and shudder."

However, the demons are definitely not in the express lane for heaven.   So, any gospel that speaks of needing faith alone, I would humbly submit, is a false gospel. 

I also think that we can all agree that we can't work ourselves into heaven.   No number of works, apart from repentance and acceptance of Jesus will get us into Heaven.   Think about the Pharisees and the Sadducees for moment.   Each kept the law to the letter, but neither group had any faith in God.   They were all too busy trying to earn their right standing before God by carefully following the rules.   They did so without actually honoring or loving God in their hearts.   I don't think it is a far stretch to believe that they would ready and willing to stand before God on judgement day and boast about their works.     This is evidenced in the parable Jesus gave us regarding the prayer of the Pharisee vs. the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14 (NASB):

"And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.   The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people; swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.   I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get.'   But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'    I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

I don't think it is a far stretch to be able to imagine the Pharisees and Sadducees pushing themselves to the front of the line on judgement day and boasting of their works.   In fact, Jesus provides us guidance that indicates that they and, unfortunately, other Christians will likely hear, "Depart from me, I never knew you" on that day.   This is evidenced in Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB):

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.   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 I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me; you who practice lawlessness.'"

So far, I think that we can see that faith alone nor works alone are sufficient.   You see, Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 7:24-27 (NASB):

"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 the house; and yet it still 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 ran fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell - and great was its fall."  

The emphasis (bold) to hears and acts/does not act above are mine.   I added those to help highlight the point that when we "hear" God's word, we don't always listen/absorb what we are told.   Just because we use our sense of hearing, doesn't mean that we actually hear - if that makes sense ;-).    When we hear, understand and accept God's word, that results in action on our part.   When we hear God's word, but either don't understand or accept it, those words don't sink in and we continue to grope around in the darkness, leaning on our own understanding or the worlds teaching.   This leads us to place our faith in false doctrine/knowledge and ultimately builds our house on the sand - a house that will eventually fall. 

Perhaps the most clear teaching on this comes to us in the book of James.   James 2:14-26 say:

James 2:14-26 (NIV): "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?"   Can such a faith save them?  Suppose a brother, or a sister is without clothes and daily food.   If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?   In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by actions, is dead.   But someone will say, 'You have faith, I have deeds.'   Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.   You believe that there is one God.  Good!   Even the demons believe that - and shudder.   You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?   Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the alter?   You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.   And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called God's friend.  You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not faith alone.   In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

Another illustration that I will share with you comes from Michael Chriswell (https://relentlessheart.com).   I ran into this illustration in one of Micheal's bible study's and that it was a very clear illustration regarding our need for faith and works:

"Let's say Bill Gates grafts you into his will and says you will inherit his $10 million second home when he dies, as a free gift.  You could never afford this house, but he even lets you go ahead and move in and all he asks in return is that you maintain it.   Not only could you not likely ever afford to live in that house, but you couldn't even afford to maintain it.   However, you have no worries because he even gives you a cleaning, maintenance, and improvement budget to do so.   He then promises that no one from the outside will ever be able to take the home from you, or to sell it out from under you (think Romans 8:38-39). 

Romans 8:38-39 (NASB): "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

So you move in and soon after you start having friends over to see your new amazing free house from Bill Gates, that not of them will believe until they see it.   During one visit you take a break from your friends to sit down at your beautiful office kitchen to take care of a few maintenance projects you have going with the house.   One of your friends walks by and sees you and asks what you are doing.   You explain that you are writing out a few checks for various projects on the house.   Your friend, with a frowned look on his face, says, "Wait a second, you said this house was a free gift....this isn't a free gift if you have to pay money to maintain it."   You then explain, "Oh, it was part of the agreement and actually Bill deposits money into my account each week so that I can maintain the house."   My responsibility is simply apply the payments. 

Could anyone now rightly say that if you agreed to these maintenance terms, you are now earning the free gift?  Not at all!   You are simply obeying the agreement of maintaining the gracious gift he is giving you, and you can't even take credit for that, because he gives you money to maintain it. 

Now, suppose you start taking the gift for granted and you start leaving the doors unlocked when you leave, having questionable individuals over, or spending the maintenance money and your time on other things, at the neglect of caring for the house.  When Bill comes to make his final settlement with you and transfer the deed over to you, would he not be justified in taking back your inheritance since you lost respect for it, and you didn't do his will in the agreement?   Yes, he would."

You see, while we have done nothing nor could we ever do anything that would earn us our salvation - we are saved by the grace of God alone (Ephesians 2:8 (NASB): "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;") - we do still have an obligation to maintain the gift.   We maintain our gift with the grace that He has given us - Romans 8:12-13: "So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live."   Scripture tells us in Matthew 7:21 and 1 John 2:17 that only those who do God's will are going to make it to heaven:

Matthew 7:21 (NASB): "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father, who is in heaven will enter."

1 John 2:17 (NASB):  "The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."

No one can do God's will apart from God's enabling grace - so at no time can it be said that we earned anything by our doing.   If we don't do our part - empowered by His grace - the time will come when it will be said that we squandered His gift and grace, even if we didn't do it intentionally.

Do we know who we are?

Do we truly know who we are in Christ?   Do we actually show any real evidence that we do?  I am sure many of us can say that we show several of the following traits:

• We show evidence of profound words and teaching to others, speak truth in the tongues of men and angels........    Yet, we rise up in anger at our brother, making as as guilty as any murderer.  
• We show evidence of knowing the scripture and associated doctrine and all knowledge.........   Yet, we do not love the lowest person as Christ, making our knowledge worthless.....
• We give all of our possessions to the poor and surrender our bodies to be burned and actually have faith to move mountains and heal the sick........  Yet these profit us nothing if His love does not rule our hearts.
• We call ourselves born again, having been baptized in the water and the Spirit.   We are consistently take communion, sing in choirs, serve the church, pay tithes, read the scriptures, fast when called to humble ourselves, gathering in Bible studies, attending conferences, going on missions, submitting to authorities, and rehearsing our arguments......   Yet, if rivers of love, joy and peace do not flow from us like living waters, all of the above mentioned things profit us nothing.  

If you can identify with any of the above, if you feel like you are still missing something, you likely are.    

While it has been said that self-involvement and selfishness are the root of man's problems, I would submit to you that it is more likely pride that keeps us from being who we are meant to be in God.   What do I mean by that?   Well, we are all insecure to varying degrees.   We are insecure because it is born into us.   From the moment we are born, and the doctor cuts our umbilical cord, we are in a state where we were warm, well taken care of and felt loved into an alien world that feel hostile.   We are cold, may be hungry and are trying to figure out how we can get back to the place where we feel loved.  Not that any of us can remember this far back, but I can easily see ourselves frantically screaming, "Who is going to take care of me?   Who is going to keep me warm?   Who is going to protect me?   Who is going to feed me?   Who will love me?"   All of these things likely culminated in our screaming and crying at the top of our lungs.   

This likely isn't so different from the feelings Adam and Eve experienced after they had been expelled from the Garden of Eden.   You see, the sin of Adam and Eve resulted in being cut off from the only life source that they had ever known.   At that moment, all of our spiritual umbilical cords had been cut.   This has resulted in a deep insecurity, which aches in all of us from the sin that separates /separated us from Jesus.  

As such, we find ourselves unable to fully embrace our identity.   We search for not only our identity but also acceptance and love by finding other ways to reach what we so desperately need.   We determine our significance based on other peoples perspectives of us.   We find ourselves thinking: 

• If I can only do well in sports.   If I could excel, then I will be honored.
• If I can do well in school, I can measure up to the expectations of my teachers and parents.
• If I did well in romantic relationships, if this one person loves me, I will have found love.
• If I achieve wealth, if I can just land this new job and climb the corporate ladder, then I will have security.  

We find ourselves chasing after our identities and who we are by following society's blueprint.   And what many of us find, some because we have reached some of the above stated things, is that we are still lacking.   There is something inauthentic about the blueprint that we are following, because no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we gain or how much love and acceptance we gain from the world, it is never enough.   

Why is that?   It is because God created us to find our love and value in Him, not apart from Him!   We have forgotten who we are in Christ!  You see, it is as Jesus taught, that I am in Him and He is in me, in the same way that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him.   This is a profound union that He said could only be known with the help of the Spirit of truth, whose main purpose is to help us walk in that union.   If we do that, then we will show evidence of it but the love we show, as it will be a direct reflection of the love He has shown for us.  

You see, many of us in trying to be good christians are still living in our sin while professing that we are in Christ.   We miss the point that Christ has covered our sins and that we should literally be dying to our old way of life and letting go of our old sinful behavior.   We should not still be saying things along the lines of, "sure, I still have my vices, but at least I'm not like so and so sitting over there.   That should be worth something - right?"   That would be wrong.  Because in doing that we are still denying Christ control of our lives.   It is Him that is supposed to live in us - not the other way around!   You see, as christians, for me to live is Christ - just as Paul said.   To fully gain the love, security and happiness we are all so desperately yearning for we have to let go of our pride.  To do that, we have to let go of ourselves and let God have control.    We have to live lives of courage and realize that God is the same God that he was yesterday, today and tomorrow and that He is fully in control.    

Until we do that, we will continue to deny who we were created to be.   Until we realize that humility a major key to finding deep security and joy in Christ, we will continue to grope around in the darkness.