How Good Do We Have To Be?

I don't smoke, and I don't chew...
and I don't go with girls who do.

This little ditty from the past ran through my mind the other day as I was musing about 'stuff.' It made me smile, and while the wisdom of this course of action may be valid for a number of reasons, it is not the basis for our salvation. While we may think it's 'a sin' to do specific acts which we know are not God's best for us, the bottom line is that 'sin' is much larger than that. It is a condition, a disease of our very nature, with which we are shot through from birth.

No matter how 'good' we try to be it can never be good enough. And yet the good news is that no matter how 'bad' we might be it can never be bad enough to bar us from the mercy of Jesus Christ. The beauty of it is that it is strictly up to us. Once we hear God's call it is each person's choice to make. Who will run my life? Will I run it? Or will I submit every single action and decision to the rule of Christ as Lord of my life?

It sounds easy. And it really is. The problem comes in having the discipline to touch base with the Lord and His Word about everything. We commit our lives to Him, thank Him with great joy and then run off and immediately take charge again. If you think a relationship with your parents, your kids, your spouse or other people is hard to keep on a steady course, try one with the Creator of the universe! Because He really IS the boss. The irony here is that if you allow God to run your life every minute of the day those other relationships will run more smoothly than you can believe. When you get off track with God you get off track with others. Its a spiritual rule.

Our sinful condition may be compared to having the chicken pox. We turn a couple of the really irritating 'poxes' over the the Lord and He clears them up, but meanwhile others are popping up all over the place. We need to turn the whole body over to Him and do it daily. That's the secret. If we do not talk to the Lord every single day, consult Him about every single thing, well...the pox is on us. And just when we think we've got it down pretty well, we've taken our medicine daily, we're pretty good now, we take a break from the Lord. Oops. We get broad-sided and the disease attacks our most vulnerable spot. One we thought was taken care of a long time ago...wrong.

We can't afford to tell someone else to take the log out of his eye if we can't even take care of our own. Talk - and more importantly, listen - to the Lord moment by moment.

It will change your life. I guarantee it.

A Child of the King

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