1In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."...5People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:1-2,5-10)
Lessons from the passage:
- Going to church does not make one a Christian
- Knowing the Bible well does not make one a Christian
- Having a great preacher/pastor in your family line does not make one a Christian
- Serving more fervently in church does not increase your chance of going to heaven
As christians, many church related things can still distract us. This is a ploy still used by Satan today to keep us from drawing our focus to God. Many times we still tend to think that we're 'safe' based on our hard work we've done for the church. God doesn't base His criteria for entering Heaven from what we do, He sees our heart.
He wouldn't be pleased with all that we've done if our hearts are not turned to Him. And He is most pleased if we don't do anything but just focus on Him, as seen in the case of Martha and Mary. Of course, God has a purpose and a mission for each of us, but wants us to draw close to Him first, then He will tell us what He wants us to do....not we doing it first and then showing Him proudly what we have done.
Many people who actively serve has a danger of falling into the trap of basing their salvation and faith on their works. We tell non-christians or new christians that we are all saved by grace and not works, but many times we are subtle-ly blinded in our hearts by all our busyness, and may unknowingly put our trust in our Christian-ly achievements instead of on God.
Perhaps that's why Jesus is especially delighted with children, they possess one single quality that somehow seems to fade with age - that is, total dependence. As fully functioning adults, it is a challenge as we have be brought up to be independent in order to survive in a competitive society. But we still need to be totally dependent on God for every aspects of our lives. It's tough! Cos we have to be both at the same time, but it's not impossible. For that, we really have to depend on God to give us strength and wisdom to know how to do that!
What are we basing our faith on today?
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