"Good morning! Did you know that you will awaken today and LIVE by the standards you deem as most truthful to what you believe? Be careful how you read this, it's not what you THINK you believe, but rather how you LIVE that will be the greater proof. This is why there is so much internal contradictions within our lives; because we "SAY" we believe this or that, but we "DO" more consistently what we actually believe. The thing is, these double lives are two different expressions, one SAYS and the other DOES.
The Bible teaches, how can two walk together except they agree? If what we SAY we believe and what we actually DO are different FROM EACH OTHER, then this is easily defined as CONFUSION. The Bible teaches that wherever confusion is in play, the devil is right in the middle of it. Therefore, this gives us the answer to why so many lives are unstable and confusing if you were to observe them up close, and we all have, but rarely do we look at ourselves in that much detail. Many times this is the reason a non-believer shuns Christianity altogether by what they see in us: DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS.
A person with this kind of belief system is on one hand, with nothing but head knowledge and with possibly all the right answers if asked; while the other hand is still stuck in using dysfunctional strategies for living their life. The way a person LIVES is true to their deepest beliefs more than their endless chatter of what they know. When we can be true to what we believe, in our thoughts scripturally and in our actions, as what could be defined as a true biblical Christian; then it's here that we agree in what we DO and what we SAY. This is a pure religion.
Speaking of religion, religious people say a lot of right things doctrinally, but their life applications reveal a whole different set of beliefs when they live out their life. Unfortunately even some of those who say they have caught the grace message are found to be just as religious as some who who boast in their works or those whom we would deem as legalistic. Religious people how ever you look at it, can be defined in this manner: their SAYING and their DOING will be consistently opposites for the most part.
A true believer is a person who lives by the tenets of their faith in God's Word, and rarely will betray them outwardly. This is not to say they won't slip up on occasion, but if they do they know where to run (to God), and they will do it quickly once they realize their inconsistency. The religious person however, will always justify their inconsistencies or sear their conscience with their self-application of God's goodness that He would never judge them for being deliberately disobedient to what His Word teaches or commands.
The Bible is not to be compared to a scholastic secular textbook offered in the public school that covers a particular subject, but later on in real life will essentially have no relevance because it has no application to what you will DO. This has become the approach to learning God's Word today by so many, through the intellect we have added it for giving the right answers when we are asked within our church circle. Yet, sadly, the information some gather there in the church or the reading of their Bible isn't always the stuff they use to live by. My advice to you is always align your personal DOING (living) with the biblical SAYING that you would argue with anyone who would contest your actions. If they don't match, your belief system is broken." ~Dad~
How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye. “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. (Luke 6:42-45) |
