Children, think of what you do. Making a covenant with God is not something to be taken lightly. We will not cheat God. Abraham made the first covenant with God and look how true he stayed to God. In obedience, virtue and works.
When we want to make a covenant with God, we have to be as faithful and obedient as Abraham was. Now what did that cost him? It cost him his own will, his relatives and his homeland. He was tried and tested to see if he held faithful and true. God promised Abraham a son and heir and he delivered on that promise. Then God asked him to take his beloved son and offer him unto Him on Mount Moriah. Abraham did not council with flesh and blood, his love and obedience to God made him want to obey.
God loved Abraham for keeping his covenant. God even confided in him what his plans were with Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham bartered from 50 souls down to 5. 1 Genesis 18:17-19 gives us witness "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord."
Children, where can we find a man that kept his promise and covenant as faithfully as Abraham did? With Abraham God began to gather a people. Our Saviour in his time could say to the Jews "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham" John 8:39
It doesn't help to call oneself children of God and not be them. The church needs loyal followers if it should stand. Community is like a house built upon souls, and when one soul after another falls, so must the house fall.
And children, love your neighbour as yourself. Community life is not an easy life, when we wrong our neighbour or get wronged by him we can't just say "I never want to see you again or have anything to do with you, get out of my sight and life" Well, guess what, tomorrow morning you will sit at the breakfast table with him at the Colony kitchen, work during the day with him and evening come to church with him. You must forgive, even though you may have been wronged. And that goes against every grain of self-righteousness in our body. But how can we find it in our heart to love our neighbour as ourself?
This is a hard one and it helps to look at this this way. How do we love ourself? When we work hard, accomplish things and do good things for our fellow man we truly do love ourself. When we slack at work, lie, cheat, sin and get into ugly arguments with our fellow man we do not love ourself, in fact we can get downright disgusted and even hate ourself for a time. But in the end we never really hate ourself, we just hate what we do. 'Love the sinner, hate the sin" is a saying that comes to mind.
With that in mind; love your neighbour, help wherever you can and don't slack. Strive always to be on time and not a straggler at work. Remember you are working for those who can't, for those who are too young, too old, too feeble and those who ail and are not able.
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40
Till next week , God bless
No comments:
Post a Comment