Matthew 19:17

"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life obey the commandments."

Back to some basics, again. This has been the theme in my mind for the last few days. Keep it simple and work on my relationship with God. Prayer, Bible Study and some fellowship. I have had very little of the Small Group and Discipleship which I know can't last very long, but the Basics are where my relationship is formed. When I start to do things my way. When I believe that I can go it alone, then I begin to have problems.

Yesterday I spoke of the Cross, it all starts there for Christians. You must know in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that He hung on the Cross to pay for your sins. Without that in your heart your faith is dead. Without that foremost in your heart the rest becomes just mechanical religion. Yes, dead, mechanical, religion.

So for those of you who are "good" people today is for you. You know how many times I have heard the statement "I believe in God and I am a good person, so I know I am going to heaven." Well just so you don't have to scroll up to look again let me write this verse again. "Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life obey the commandments."

What Jesus is saying is that God is the only One that is good. He is the standard of goodness, and His expectations of what good are are the only ones that matter. Jesus did not answer with "Oh I see what you are saying, you also determine what good is along with God. You believe in Him and you are also sharing in the officiating of this ball game. Not the way it is or can work.

See in that statement that people use, "I believe in God, and I am a good person" You either use your own standards and forget about God or you forget about you and use Gods standards. You can not have it both ways and you can't keep justifing yourself in this way. Jesus spells it out in the end for us. "If you want to enter life obey the commandment". This is a definate statement of definate standards. Gods!

Don't fool yourself into thinking any other way on this. Satan have you live you life doing some nice things here and there but never really placing in your heart the need to follow God. The need to obey, with the best of your abilities, Gods Commands. You must move from the dead faith that tells you that a "good" work here and a "good "work there is alright. Move from a life from where you only attempt the easy external changes that make people think that you are "good" to the internal, hard change of the heart, that moves you mor eto the image of Jesus Christ.

None of us are perfect, us Christians even make mistakes. I make mistakes. What is really going on here is the setting of a standard in our hearts that we strive to live to. Not one that is easy and of our own making but one that is of God and is truly good as God sees it to be. We place in our hearts love for God, and in that respect for His word. We are given life by what is in our hearts, and set free by the knowledge that God will look into our hearts on the day of judgement. Did we truly set it in our heart or did we just leave it on the outside? Did we have a life of faith in His word or were we dead in our own faith?

In the end only you and God will know the difffernce about how hard you tried. How much you loved Him. Only you and God will know how good you really are. If you believe in God and you haven't commited yourself to Him you may just have stay far enough away from Him to make the difference of your outcome in eternity.

Lord, for me, continue to bring me into obediance to you. Strengthen my resolve to follow your perfect example of Goodness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Open the ears of those who don't want to hear and the eyes of those who chose not to see your goodness. Lord, allow them to enter life.