DISOBEDIENCE

By Rick Mathes

And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

No one ever has to teach a new-born child to be bad as it grows up. Its second nature is to be disobedient. We inherited that trait from the father of all nations, Adam. Its first nature is to be sinless and wholly righteous before the Lord. We who are elect make our feeble attempt. Faith always conquers fear. The Savior always overcomes sin and we are more than conquers if only we will obey.

The biggest enemy to obedience is self-righteousness. We become gods and make up our own rules that wink at our failures and pet sins. We follow pastors that don’t invade our own high estimate of our holiness and join churches where those who are violators of God’s Word to believe and obey. I call this the Roman Catholic mentality of doing more good than bad as a means of salvation.

Too many well intentioned sheep follow the wrong shepherds because of their wrong motives. The most obvious will always follows the spot-light and basks in all the center of attention they can arouse or find. They believe that heaven revolves around them and they live only to sooth their passion for others to admire and fawn over them.

It hurts to admit that I have met countless professing Christians that have a false faith. Most obvious of these are Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Roman Catholics, and Christian Science. My yardstick of a true Christian is: Bible only, Jesus only, Faith only and Grace only, ONLY!

It’s sad that when the going gets tough, I mean close and personal, those with a shallow commitment fall down and drop out of sight. The redwoods of California have lasted these thousands of years because their roots grow out instead of down. They hold on to each other! Those of strong faith do likewise, they hold on to each other in obedience to our Lord’s commands. Go and do likewise as an example for others in your church to follow.