Are Words as Good as Deeds?

In a world where words are as good as deeds, hate has become as common as the cold. A year ago, it might have been once a month you would hear about a cruel behavior that someone had done. Now it is every day that someone is asking me what to do about a situation that involves disrespect or contempt. The worst part to me is the phrase that follows the story: they are a professing Christian. I find myself just shaking my head and telling God, “I don’t understand.”

Actually, I do, but I don’t want to go there mentally. The reality of the situation hurts my soul. The book of 1 John covers what is happening in this world. I suggest you spend quality time combing through all five chapters to discover the answer. Until you can go and read the book yourself, let me sum it up. The church spent years proclaiming that if you said certain words and believed, salvation was yours. Unfortunately, the word believe means to worship, and somewhere along the way, we forgot to clarify the type of repentance that leads to salvation. God states it this way, that “the one who says ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
Oh, my friends, we did not write the rules, and at no point can we change them. Salvation is not about contracts, loopholes, or manipulation. It is about a God whose creation got caught in bondage, so He provided a path back to Him. We all have a love language. Well, so does God. If you proclaim that you are in a relationship with God and are an adopted child of God, you must know how to declare your love for Him. “If you love Me, obey My commandments.” If the Holy Spirit is living inside you, your lifestyle choices cannot be in hostility with God’s word. For all those that want to squawk about judging and sinning, I am not talking about missing the mark. I said lifestyle choices, which means how you choose to live. The reason my soul hurts is because we all have to pick a side. What we are witnessing these past few months is God exposing the choice.

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L. Kathleen Cline

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