Articles
What Does Your Walk Say?
I saw a little meme today on FB. Carl, a guy who owns a landscape company, is wearing a cap with "The Scapers" on it, and is talking to Jesus. Carl asks Jesus, "Should I add a little fish symbol to the corner of my landscaping company's logo?" Jesus say "Why?" Carl says, "Obviously so people will know they're dealing with a Christian company!". Jesus then says, "Let's leave it off and see if they can figure that out by your workmanship, work ethic, and honesty instead."
How true that should be, and not just regarding work, but our lives in general. Can people watch us, observe our behavior, and listen to our speech, and know we are Christians? If we can't answer that with a definite 'yes', then we may have some work to do. We've said this before, that we may claim Jesus, but does He claim us? We may talk a good talk, and we may talk a good walk, but do we walk a good talk and walk a good walk? If we are not doing the latter, we are artificial, fake, and only fooling ourselves if anybody.
Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven..." (Matt 7:21), but let's finish the verse, "...but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Pay careful attention to two words here, 'BUT ONLY". These words from Christ say no combination of other things we might conjure up will be acceptable. He uses the examples of performing miracles, driving out demons or prophesying. We may say and do many things in the name of Christ, but failure to do God's will makes them worthless. If Heaven is our goal, ONLY doing the will of God will allow us to achieve it.
As Jesus is teaching here in Matthew 7, He continues this same passage by saying that people who walk the walk and talk the talk are like wise men, who build their house on the rock, where the rain, wind and rising streams do not cause damage because the foundation is on the rock. But people who talk the talk and fail to walk the walk are like builders who build on the sand, where rising water, winds and rain cause the house to fall, and fall in a drastic way.
Today, are you talking the talk, and walking the walk? It doesn't matter what claim we may make with regards to Christ or what great and marvelous things we may do, our lives will demonstrate whether or not we are genuine, not perfect, but genuine. People can simply listen as we talk, observe our actions and attitudes, and they know real quick if we are serious about our obedience to Jesus. What is so much more important though, is that Jesus knows that too! So, you and I need to be honest with ourselves. Are we doing the will of the Father so that we can enter the kingdom of Heaven, or are we one of those who, as Jesus said, only pay Him lip service through words and deeds that fall short of true obedience?
