Sorry for the long silence. Still trying to decide if this is beneficial to anyone, or if it is simply my left hand letting my right hand know what I am doing for the Lord. (Self-Affirming - Not good :) Anytime you want to share, discuss, encourage please do via email to caleb@schafer-illustration.com or respond on the blog to encourage me and I will try to do the same. We're in this battle together. The race of the Christian is to be run arm in arm with our brothers and sisters in Christ.Pray for my gift of evangelism that I would let GOD use it to its potential. I've been failing miserably lately and I pray for God's forgiveness and strength. Not to earn his approval, but because he is worthy to be served. He has already imparted the gift of Grace to me through his son....now I serve him out of gratitude and because He has shown me that He is WORTHY.
I'm currently reading a little booklet called, "Since Nobody is Perfect, How Good is Good Enough?" by Andy Stanley.
It's a Wake Up Call for our motivation for doing "good works." First the word says, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." The purpose for our "working for the Lord" is to be a light in this world so that they then Glorify God the Father. We aren't earning a place in Heaven. Yes, we may be earning a "reward" but we aren't in or out based on our working here on earth. Here's why I know this.....
HOW GOOD WOULD YOU HAVE TO BE THEN TO GET TO HEAVEN?
Go ahead, and give it a whirl. Here's the problem....I can't pay God back for the damage I've caused. I have done wicked and deserve el Aborrecimiento de Dios - The WRATH of God. I can't escape that sentence, no matter how much good I do to try to make it up to Him. Andy writes about getting his first "nice" car and his 3 year old had scratched some of her newly learned alphabet into his shiny hood. How was he to deal with this problem. "There was no point in telling her that now I was going to have to take the car to the shop, rent a car, and pay for the rental as well as the repairs. She had no context for understanding any of that. It would have been equally absurd to demand that Allie [daughter] pay for the damage. Fair, maybe, but unrealistic. What does two or three hundred dollars mean to a three-year-old? The numbers wouldn't even register. And where would she get that kind of money? So what do you do in that kind of situation? I did he only thing I could do for someone I loved as much as I love her. I knelt down and said, "Allie, please don't do that anymore." She said, "Yes, sir, Daddy." Then she hugged me and went back inside. I continued to love her as much as ever, and I paid for the damage she caused. I wasn't concerned about fairness. It wasn't appropriate to figure out what was fair. What was appropriate was grace and mercy."
God didn't choose fair. He chose GRACE and Mercy. Not grace that helps you overcome temptation, but the undeserved Grace, the Gift of His Son taking your place, bearing the Wrath of God on the cross. If we for a moment think that somehow by doing good and trying not to sin, that we are going to buy back our right standing before God, we're lost. We love him because he first loved us. In Romans 4, we read, "Now to him that works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt." - Do you think God somehow owes you something, now or when you die? Or do you owe him EVERYTHING, because you acted in defiance to the TRUTH? Christ's sacrifice is the only payment that satisfies God's Wrath....not your attempts at holiness. Work good works to bring Glory to God, not to secure a place in Heaven. Our life's working shows whether or not we repent from sin and are grateful for the Gift, in effect, whether we have received it and let it grow in the "good soil" of our souls.
