Faith Like A Mustard Seed

Every follower of Jesus Christ has received the call. The Church is called to do three things; to know Christ, to follow Christ, and to serve Christ. When followers are obedient to their calling, they get blessed. When followers choose to disobey, they reap bad consequences. Whatever we sow, that we shall also reap.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, there was a time in your life when you received the call to know Him. You repented of your sins and forsook your old ways, when you found out about His mercy and love for you. By His grace alone you were forgiven. There was a turning point in your life as you realized that you could no longer follow the same path in which you were headed. You had a hunger for the things of God; to read His Word, to meet Him in prayer, and to know Him for yourself personally.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, there was a time in your life when you received the call to follow Him. You found out that not only did He want you to know Him and be free from sin and death, but He also wanted you to walk with Him. He wanted to bring you through the process of sanctification, that is, He wanted to make you holy, just as He is holy. No longer did you need to be the person that so and so said you were. Now, you found your true identity in Christ, and could be the person you were created to be.

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, there was a time in your life when you received the call to serve Him. Knowing Jesus Christ, and walking with Him is an awesome thing, but there is even more to it than that. God has a plan, and He will see it completed whether you are obedient or not. There is work that needs to get done, such as; spreading the Good News to those who have not heard, caring for the poor and oppressed, helping those who are treated unjustly, giving to those who are in need, and so on. There are many things that the Church is called to do.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. Collossians 3:23-25

What happens if the call is not obeyed?

God does not command us to do anything that cannot be done. When He commands us to do something, though we may not see it, it is either for our greater good, or His greater glory. The reason that God commands us not to do something, is because we will be hurting ourselves, or others around us. God requires that we act lovingly, and that we be holy just as He is holy. If we are sinning and being disobedient, we are being very much unlike Him, we are hurting Him, ourselves, and possibly others.

Thus, if we are disobedient to what God commands, we reap the bad consequences of our decisions to disobey. Through sin and disobedience, we are doing no good. God knows that by breaking His commandments we are only causing hurt. Sexual immorality, adultery, greed, hate, idolatry, etc.; By doing these things that God commands us not to do, we are inflicting bad consequences on ourselves and others. God says, Don’t do that. Don’t hurt yourself!

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Galatians 5:13-15

However, when we are obedient to God’s call, and His commandments, we receive blessing. When we go against God we hurt ourselves, but when we obey Him we are blessed. Love, peace, encouragement, faithfulness, justice, etc; By doing these things that God commands us to do, we become a blessing to others, and open ourselves up to blessing.

If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. Deuteronomy 28:1

Jesus Christ paid the price for us, so that we could be free from sin and death, so that we could know Him, so that we could follow Him, and so that we could serve Him. By God’s grace we can be faithfully obedient to Him.

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 1Peter 2:21

Great joy comes from being obedient to God’s call! Are you receiving the blessing?

Dave Earley http://www.init-2-winit.org/forum http://www.init-2-winit.org/faithlikeamustardseed