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Doing good works out of the will of God will not bring His good favor upon us. Jesus says, "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast out devils? And in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." Matthew 7:22-23. We cannot do God's work without abiding in Jesus; it is unacceptable.
How do we treat other Christians? In the church there are those who consider themselves above those who have no titles, just as the Pharisees did. They judge new Christians instead of encouraging them. They criticize the way they dress, the way they talk, even knowing that the new Christian needs to be taught and discipled in order to learn the ways of the Kingdom of God. We can chase the new Christians away by the way we treat them with lack of love and compassion.
We wonder why the apostolic miracles are not present in our congregations today as in the days of old. We don't see the lame coming in and laying down their crutches and walkers and getting out of wheelchairs. Why is that? What is the difference in our churches today? Jesus said, "According to your faith be it unto you." According to your faith, according to how much faith you release into the atmosphere, - "be it unto you." We have to trust God with every nerve, every atom of our being.
You can't have a vision without faith and faith is seeing what is not visible, before you can physically see it. It takes time for a vision to come to fruition; it is a continual process, with God working to do what He needs to do for that vision to take form. Your vision may be to discover a cure for a certain disease, or it could be for education; to establish a school in a foreign country for underprivileged children.
This Scripture doesn't mean going off alone by yourself, hiding from others. Because that can cause you to become isolated and depressed. Instead, become more involved with your church, get involved with Bible study; even get on a committee. Have fun, join a bowling league, a reading club, go to the zoo and feed the ducks. Now that is so relaxing. Put your life into God's hand.
Have you ever been traveling on a certain route, knowing where you were going, when all of a sudden you see police cars blocking the road so that you can't continue on that route? This recently happened to me, at night, on a street that I travel several times a week; but the surrounding area was unfamiliar to me.
When Jesus washed His disciples' feet He was demonstrating true humility. If you can be a servant (a humble servant), working with people who get on your last nerve; being nice to those who are not nice; being kind to those who speak ill of you; loving the unlovely: you are on your way for a blessing. Try it today, and see what happens.
It's hard for us to imagine Jesus, our Lord and Savior, bowing down and washing someone's feet. The disciples did not have time to wash their feet and make sure they were clean, as we do when we have foot-washing in our churches. We will wash our feet and put lotion on them before we will allow someone else to wash them. But Jesus washed those smelly, dusty, dirty feet. He took the position of a slave servant. The servant always washed the feet of the guests.
We can't afford to allow our way to become clouded by the things of this world, we have got to have clear vision and that vision must have Jesus in sight at all times. He is the One Who makes the way for us to keep going. So, if it is a cracked windshield, a blown out tire, layoff from your job, bills piling up, seemingly unanswered prayers, what do you do?
Many of us enjoy watching the Olympics, and we find that in most of the events, the athletes are racing against time and trying to be the first to win. It takes a lot of hard discipline and training to compete in the Olympics. The Word of God indicates that our Christian walk is like being in a race, and that if we accept the discipline and training, we will be better equipped to run the race to the finish line.
