Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Those Who “Fear God And Do What Is Right”

On discovering God’s plan for the redemption of all humankind and not just the Jews, Peter said, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” (Acts 10:34b-35 NIV)
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And so it is with us. Those who truly are Christian strive to fear God and do what is right.
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Most people think they do what’s right most if not all the time; how wrong an assumption that is. Doing right is choosing the appropriate things relating to self, others, and ultimately God, basically all the time -- and I say it’s hard enough doing the right thing for myself all the time. Doing what is right is not that easy.
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The mark of the truly Christian person is what they do when they don’t do what is right. Most people fob it off. The Christian person will have a heart response of repentance -- turning from the harmful, wrong thing, towards what is more acceptable.
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And this is the world’s sticking point with Christianity (and even a lot of so-called Christians) -- they do not do or want to do, or even see the need to do repentance. The true Christian is marked by not only a willingness, but a compulsion to repent, driven from the conviction placed there by the Holy Spirit.
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The miracle of God in this is simply this. He commands the believer to do what is right; that’s all. It’s not as if God asks more from us than we can possibly do. We can choose what is right. But to do what is right -- at all times -- seems impossible to us because it is so counter cultural to the world, and our inner nature.
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Enter the grace of God. We don’t need to be perfect. Thank God. Being right all the time is too hard. But, having the intent to do what is right is the important thing; that brings us back to repentance -- itself a miracle. To see a human being turn and say sorry and make amends. The world sees something quite strange there.
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To be continued...
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Copyright © 2008, S.J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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