Saturday, April 19, 2008

Work Out Your Salvation


"Whoever gives thought to the Word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord, "
Proverbs 16:20.

What does it mean to 'give thought to the Word', or as in Jude 17, 'Consider the Word of God'? It means that we need to be daily reading, meditating, and memorizing the Scripture! Jude 20 says that we need to be building ourselves up in holiness- Working out our salvation. This is what a believer does. Do we really believe this, or do we see these people as seminary students or missionaries or pastors or ministers? According to the Word, this is not a characteristic of some super/sub Christian (as Bruce Walker put it), it is the responsibility of everyone who has been saved by grace through Jesus Christ.
We need to be renewing our minds with the Word of God. We need to know the books of the Bible, know the ideas of each book, know about salvation and how it works, and know about being a new creation (Col. 3).
We need to be working out our salvation with the continuing grace of repentance. Unconfessed sin grieves God and clouds our discernment. It hinders our growth.
We need to be in prayer. We need to be praying that God's will be done. To know God's will, however, means we need to know the Word. That is the way we know God's will. The revelation of His will was completed with Scripture. We must know it to know His will!! Be devoted to prayer- speak to our Creator.
These were the truths taught out of Jude at the retreat. They are truths we should all be reminded of so that we don't become slothful Christians caught off guard by a catastrophic event or unable to answer an inquisitive non-believer or unable to discern unbiblical teaching that seeps into our church or home. We must be on guard and ready. This is not the job of a super, extraordinary Christian, but the job of all believers.


7 comments:

Rob Bailey said...

Amen, my love. Very well put, and an encouragement.

Kim said...

So very true...it is what all Christians should be doing...I agree. This is a great post and like your husband said very encouraging!

How are you by the way? A baby yet????

Lori said...

You are so right. Thanks for the encouragement

Gina said...

a great reminder that I need to be diligent about my quiet time - which at this point in my life, I admit, suffers due to the demands of a very, very fussy newborn. Thank you for the reminder!

I will be praying for you as you head into the home stretch of this pregnancy!

Rhesa said...

Thanks, Kim for asking about the baby! I'm 38 1/2 weeks and feeling like it will be here soon!

Barb said...

Praying for you in these last days of your pregnacy.

Rhesa said...

thanks,barb for praying- I need it! My due date is Saturday, May 3, so just waiting around