We defend what we love

    In previous lessons, we have been discussing "The Truth" and the concept of true worshipers as opposed to false worshipers.  I guess the point is, how many "truths" are there in the world (there is only ONE) and how many "truths" are there in heaven (there is only ONE)?

    Col 2: 8 Beware lest any man spoil you (ruin your worship – destroy your church) through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

    Matt 7: 13 Enter ye in at the strait (narrow) gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

    14 Because strait (small and UN-noticeable) is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

    15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

   “The Truth” is just not wide enough to cover all of religion – but “The Truth” is narrow so that it is only wide enough to cover Christianity.  Christianity being defined as "the religion" that is centered upon "Jesus Christ" as the divine son of God and how He suffered on the cross of Calvary for our sins.

   Once again we must all decide within our own heart whether there are many gods and many ways to heaven, or if there is in fact only one God and one way to heaven.  No man can make this choice for us, each one of us must live and die with the particular choice that we make regarding which god to serve and how to go to heaven.

   Now it is important for us to realize that (as Christians) we have been given a responsibility to “keep the faith” – But to do this    we must know what that faith IS and WHERE it is located.

   I Peter 3:15 But sanctify (or set apart) the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

   II Tim 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (properly interpreting) the word of truth.

   To sanctify means to make holy – which is what happens when we set our hearts "aside" for the purpose of dedicating/committing ourselves unto God.  Now here is where we take the first step in developing “the relationship” with God that He desires to share with us "as followers of Christ".  As an example, (as parents) we chose a long time ago to dedicate our lives to the welfare of our children and over the years this dedication (or this commitment) has resulted in a bond between us as this commitment has fostered “the relationship” that we currently have with our children.

   Well the phrase "to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts" is telling us to do the same thing with God that we have chosen to do with our children . . and that is to dedicate our lives unto God – it is telling us to commit our lives to the wellbeing of “the landmarks of our Christian faith" that we have been discussing in our Sunday School lessons, and that we should do this {with the same fervor} and with the same intensity that we have developed in the attitude that we have to keep and to protect our own children.

   The result of (sanctifying our heart unto God in this manner) – the product of this type of dedication, will be that (this type of commitment to The Truth) will foster (or bring into being) "a relationship" between our heart and The Truth so that we will defend The Truth, just like we are willing to defend our children.

   To dedicate our heart to The Lord – to commit our heart to The Lord is accomplished through obedience to the first and the most important of all the commandments that God has ever given to any man . . . 

   Matt 22: 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  38 This is the first and great commandment.  39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

   Can we understand what it means to love a child or a parent with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength?  To put this type of love into action simply means that we will keep our eyes open for anything that might bring harm to these that we love.

   As we consider that we are commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength all we must do to accomplish this – is to apply the same degree of dedication which allows us to “watch over” our families – to the concept of watching over "the landmarks" (or the foundation) of what we believe as "Christians" or followers of what Jesus Christ teaches in The Bible. 

   Before we will ever be able to defend our faith we must first LOVE our faith which means that we must love God’s Word and if we DO love God’s Word then we will also love God’s people (or all of those who have chosen to be disciples of Jesus by standing upon His Word and professing an allegiance to His teachings).

   If we were to consider a "defense of our faith" in regard to what we believe about salvation, we would discover that a defense of this "doctrine" or teaching would be fairly easy for us to defend.  We can say that it would be easy to defend because we love the idea of God’s promise which delivers our soul from hell . . . You see we have a relationship with this eternal promise of hope . . . we enjoy being reminded of eternity in heaven – and because this is something that we have fallen in love with – we find that it is easy for us to defend.  

   But for too many of us – this is where our relationship with spiritual things seems to stop . . . We are glad that God saved us – but we just don’t want to go to the trouble to do the kind of things that God wants us to do – now that we are saved.

   I will tell you that the reason that we feel this way is because we have never sanctified our hearts unto the Lord – we have never dedicated our lives to Him – we have never actually committed our hearts to His Truth by searching the scriptures for the way of PROPER worship now that we have been saved.  The concept of becoming a True worshiper is just something that we not really interested in pursuing.  The result being is that we have never been able to develop any kind of a relationship with the Truth . . . so because (this truth) has remained a stranger to us ever since we were saved  we have never really learned to love it . . . and because we do not love “The Truth” our attitude is that . . . one church is pretty much like every other church . . .

   I want you to consider how this would make you feel – Suppose that your parents told you that they would have been just as satisfied if one of your cousins had taken your place at birth as they are satisfied with having you for their child . . . how would this make you feel?

   Wll as we close this lesson I want to remind everyone – that God loves – God hates – God cries . . . how do you think it effects God to hear one of His children say in their heart . . . Now that I am saved, I am just as satisfied serving an idol god  as I would be if I served The One True God.  

   Remember - Before we can DEFEND our faith – we must first fall in LOVE with that faith . . . If you have been saved – have you taken the next step that God  desires of you as one of His children . . . by taking the next step – I want us to consider  what we have committed our life to . . . Defending the faith – or living a lie . . . 

   Are we committed to defending "The teachings of Jesus Christ" or have we committed our lives to defending the teachings of another?

    Remember what we talked about in our introduction.  This entire concept of ONE God or many gods and the idea of ONE truth or many truths is something that each individual heart must not only live with, but each one of us must also DIE with the choice that we make.  My prayer for all of you is that you will allow The True God to lead your heart to accept His Truth and to experience His perfect forgiveness.

   Until the next post - God bless.