OBEY

Obedience is the act of obeying. Obedience is what our parents struggle to teach us second only to love. As parents, we all want our children to value us first, and then obey us for their safety. We all know that if a child loves you he will do as you tell them to do. Your child will keep your commandments.
Jesus said:

Jn 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Jesus expects us to be obedient to Him, as a child should obey their father. In my recent topics of Learn, Believe, and Trust, I discussed what faith is, what makes up faith, and how to build your faith. As you read this topic, I will tell you how to prove your faith in Jesus. 

Our Gospel of the Kingdom is an action-oriented gospel. In order to prove your gospel to yourself and to Jesus, you have to put your faith into action. This requires obedience to the Lord’s commandments and surrendering your will to God’s will. 

Our natural inclination is to rebel against the Lord’s commands, just as our children do when they first test our commands, given for their safety. Telling a child "no" for the first time, without any knowledge of the consequences of what the command “no” may bring, the child will continue with his behavior. As a new child of God, we must be learning that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God should be our first priority to building our Faith. When we do not have a foundation of the commands of God, we will continue in our natural fleshly behavior, just as children will continue to act unchecked. We have to learn the “yes and no” commands our Savior has given us, as our children learn to follow our commands, before we can have true faith.

Once we learn the commands, the first step in proving your faith is to believe in the commands of Jesus Christ. We must surrender our thoughts to the thoughts or commandments of God in all things, denying ourselves to His will and not our own. We must take His word into our hearts and believe that the Lord rewards those who seek Him. We must please God!

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

You must have faith in what you believe. You must be confident that Jesus will be faithful and true to everything to which He has committed. You must have a firm belief that God tends to your needs as a father tends to his child. You must put your hope and your expectations in the hands of God. You can deny your doubts and fears, expecting without pretense that God will deliver and fulfill everything He promised. Then deny your imagination of defeat and proclaim your victory in Christ Jesus. 

2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

2Co 10:6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Obedience proves your love for Christ. Obedience is the measure of your walk with the Lord. Obedience is the bottom line for perfection in Christ. It is only through obedience that you can become exactly like the Lord in your walk with Him. When Jesus prayed for His disciples and for us in the future He prayed that we would be “made perfect” in one with Him and God. God must have a plan for us, then collect the materials, and finally construct us. We must be open to being put together by Him, accepting his ideas for us, and understanding his agenda. This is accomplished through Jesus Christ. God will make us complete. We must obey God’s guidelines or His "commandments" in order to attain the fullness and stature of Christ. God judges us equally with Christ. Christ is our measure. If we do not meet the qualifications of Christ, we have disobeyed God's will. Man’s first sin, where man fell into the grasp of death, was disobedience.

John 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

John 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Thank God, we have the ultimate tool to overcome our disobedience.

Written by Charles E. Cohenour Jr.

Trust

TRUST

The Holy Bible, King James Version                                                              

Ps 91:2 I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

When you place your trust in someone, you entrust your entire life, your hopes, and your beliefs to their care. You have unwavering faith that they will act in your best interests, valuing and respecting your life above all else. You recognize that those who are trusted will sacrifice everything for you, just as Jesus did for us.  

Trust, a quality of someone acting in a particular way, is a fundamental aspect of human relationships. We all desire to be trusted by our loved ones, including family, friends, and associates. Additionally, we place trust in God and his son, Jesus. 

I’ve already discussed two of the four essential components of faith: learning the word of God and believing in it. The third essential component is “trusting” the word of God.

Before Jesus can “save” a sinner from sin and death, that sinner must first learn about Jesus and believe in Him. No one can save themselves; it’s necessary to have a Christ-like mindset to overcome a sinful one. A forgetful person can’t remind themselves of forgotten things, and a sinful person can’t be saved from sin or find God’s son without a saved teacher to instill faith in Jesus. A sinner must learn and believe in the word of God to trust that Jesus can redeem them from sin.

Faith, defined as a conviction based on wisdom and knowledge, coupled with an awareness of the limits of knowledge and supported by experience, leads to the anticipation of new and unexpected revelations from God. Through our trials and tribulations, He reveals these surprises to us.

The religious world defines faith in this context as “the awareness of and trust in God’s saving grace.” However, their definition ends abruptly with “God’s saving grace,” leaving out the crucial aspect of faith: the awareness of one’s own salvation from Hell. The religious world holds onto the belief in God’s unconditional love and the redeeming qualities of God.

A Critical Review of Pop Religious Truism

The Conditions in “Unconditional Love”

Does God’s Love Have Conditions?

By: Timothy S. Morton

The phrase unconditional love entered mainstream, pop-culture English during the 1960s LSD drug culture. What the flower children originally meant by unconditional love had to do with "love the one you are with" in the sexual revolution sense. But the phrase did not last long even among the hippies because it is inherently contradictory: to love is to care deeply about the condition of the one loved. However, "under the influence" many things made sense that did not later. After the drugs wore off, psychology flirted with the pop-phrase in the 1970's in the "transactional analysis" fad, but this was ephemeral and quickly dropped from view. Just about then, a few susceptible Christian teachers stepped in and took the baton, and the rest is history.

The religious world then translates God’s “unconditional love” into God’s “unconditional forgiveness!” This is the old doctrine of “once saved, always saved.” This doctrine excuses individuals from accountability and blindly leads them to believe they won’t fall into the pit of sin. I would call this “blind faith.” Blind faith does not and cannot guide you in the right direction; it can only lead you in one direction—the ditch! 

There is no “unconditional love” from God. All of God’s testimony about his son, Jesus, the word of God, is based on conditions.

Matthew 15:14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

You can’t “will” yourself to trust, and that’s precisely what blind faith demands. Blind faith or naive trust requires you to commit and invest yourself in someone or something without any prior knowledge or experience of that person or entity.

Trusting in God means you’re not afraid to acknowledge him and have faith that he’ll guide you towards righteousness, as Proverbs 3:6 says; he’ll direct your paths. 

To trust in the Lord, you must have a “concrete” belief system. This belief system must remain steadfast, and no matter what challenges arise to test it, you must be certain that it will not fail or lose its credibility. You must have a “concrete” faith in your concrete belief system. Once you have this faith, the next step is to apply your belief system. You must apply your beliefs to trust in them.

A stranger is neither inherently good nor bad. However, to trust someone, you must know them. We teach our children not to talk to strangers and never to leave with one. We don’t trust strangers because we fear the unknown. The unknown can be perilous. 

Our faith in the word of God fosters and maintains intimacy in our relationship with the Lord. Trust in the Lord creates the ideal environment that sustains and intensifies our connection with Him, dispelling any doubts about His “saving grace or plan.” God yearns for our trust as much as we desire His. 

Trust is the foundation of loyalty, and loyalty is rooted in faith. To be loyal, you must surrender complete control of your life to God. If we know God and His son Jesus, they are not strangers. We can only know them through the word of God. This gives us the tools to believe in God and Christ, enabling us to trust them. Once we learn about God and believe in Him, we must prove ourselves through obedience. 

Written By: Charles Cohenour Jr.