19/07/2012 - Mind your works!

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And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.

I Peter 1: 17

To the world, The Lord is God and to some people He is a vindictive and wicked God, Someone who is always ready to cast into the eternal flames all those who do not stick to His Commandments. To us, He is more than God: He is our Father. Therefore, we identify ourselves as His children, His heirs and heiresses, people that are always willing to do His holy will in all things. That is the reason why we must not stop invoking Him and respecting Him as our Father.

Yet, we need to meet some specific requirements to be called children of The Most High. Only those who receive Jesus as the Lord and Saviour of their lives get to conquer the power to be made children of God (John 1: 12). Therefore, He is The Father of those who are willing to be His children. Those who do not have His commandments – they may have them but they do not keep them – do not fit this profile. He is The Father only to those who take the role as His children.

The Apostle Peter gives us a quite important revelation as He says that The Lord judges each one’s work and there is no partiality in Him. In fact, God makes no distinction between this or that job. The fact of my being a pastor does not indicate that our Father has to deal with me differently from how He deals with someone else not bearing that title. As I understand His determinations to me I must get hands-on when it comes to my mission and do everything according to what has been said. Then, I will be honoured, not condemned.

It is crystal clear that we will be judged by our works. If I speak in line with His command it means that I am doing the work to perfection. Yet, if I am intimidated or if I pay no notice to what I was told to say I will be contributing to my disqualification on The Judgment Day. The work can be of words or actions, but it must be in accordance to the command of The Lord. Those who do not fulfil what they have been told will be accountable for on The Great Day.

The right thing to do is to always fear The Lord which means paying respect to the divine command. Moses took water from the rock twice; yet, the second time he did not do as he had been told. That caused him a huge harm: he could not enter The Promised Land although he had led the Israelites through the desert for forty years specifically for that purpose.

Moses’ pilgrimage lasted forty years; ours lasts the period in which The Lord is conducting us to fulfil His will. Mind your steps so you will never turn away from the ordinances of The Most High and you must not fear His Word either! He will not take as innocent those that will not fulfil His directions and determinations.

Those people who pay respect to The Word of God will be before The Judge with their heads lifted up considering that the faith they used to do the divine will turned them into people who got everything right. There is no point in fearing The Great Day provided you strive to fulfil the instructions given to you through The Word. As a Father, The Lord would never appoint us for any mission without previously granting us the necessary power to fulfil it. Therefore, you must serve God with fear and then you will be honoured by Him.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares