Bob McCook's New Perspective Outreach

Perspective

An Occasional Thought or Two from Bob McCook

April 12, 2010

Doing the Word

“So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a man who built his house upon the rock.” Matthew 7:24 Amp.

Words are everywhere. We use them, read them, and weary of them. But what if they are God’s Words? Do we become weary of His Words? It seems that we do for so little action emanates from us, His people who hear and read His words. At least, that’s my perspective.

I’m sure that not seeing biblical action was no different in Jesus’ day for the very religious Pharisees rambled on with endless words but their lives seemed to give little evidence of God’s meaning and truth. Jesus, in the above verse, gives us the result of the man who did not act on wisdom and built his house on the sand, reflecting an easy way to get the job done but the house was washed away. It was not grounded on the Rock. This is us if we fail to do His word.

Maureen and I once attended a church where a visiting missionary challenged us to get out there into the community and share the Word and meet the needs in the name of Jesus. He said that we knew the Word but needed to act on it, share it with the lost and lonely. He said that we needed to be the ones who spoke on behalf of Jesus and not wait for others.

A couple of years later, this same missionary returned and was amazed that the congregation had not grown. He thought for sure that if all of us were obediently loving the lost and sharing the words of Jesus, we would certainly need to move to larger quarters.

The value in knowing the Word of God is not self-glorification. It is to glorify our Lord.

“But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me you faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.” James 2:18

What is your perspective? Let me know at bmccook@priorityone.org.

433 W. Market Street, West Chester, PA 19382 484.614.0367

Ministering to men since 1982

Christ did not die simply that you might be saved from a bad conscience, or even to remove the stain of past failure, but to “clear the decks” for His divine activity through you.

The Indwelling Life of Christ, by Major W. Ian Thomas, p. 55