Part I.
God’s Children include only those who have chosen – and/or have been elected – to
accept and obey Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, thereby being redeemed from
their sin, and assured a resurrected body and eternal life.
Regardless of the job, work, profession, role or other responsibility that each individual
Christian may have in this world, each must fulfill the unique plan or work that God has given to
each individual as he/she walks the Christian Way. FN1
The plan or work that God assigns to each of His Children in this world may be great or
small but it will always be:
- consistent with the spiritual gift God has given to each – a
gift combining both an individual’s unique talent and His Will;
2 ) activated by the individual’s desire and His power;
- identified and measured by the effect that the Plan has on advancing
God’s work of salvation for the lost and/or His grace, mercy, caring, enablement, support and love shared with both the lost and/or among His Children while serving as God’s hands and/or voice; and
- reinforced and authenticated by each Christian’s daily walk
Of course, most individual assigned plans, discipling works or “talents” will not have
the world-wide effect of a Billy Graham, but they will always have a life-changing or saving
effect on at least one individual. As such it may be to write, sing, or paint pictures which
inspire, soften or water the soil for the seed of conversion to take hold in an individual. So too,
the “talent” might well be to simply love, care, provide, support, inspire and/or enable spouse,
a child or an acquaintance to fulfill his/her plan for God. The saying “behind every good man
there is a good woman – or vice versa – is often true I think of the man or woman of faith
whose assigned plan or talent is to simply labor hard each and every day of life, if married,
faithfully remaining so, and providing for spouse, children or others, who may or may not even
be fully aware of the God-effects of the faithful exercise of his/her talent or work. FN2
Note carefully that whatever our talent, its nature or scope, we must not be like the
servant in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) who buries his talent or allows it to
atrophy from non-use. To do so is disobedient to God’s will and purpose and will present a
stumbling block to one’s genuine conversion.
Finally, a Christian must evidence his/her authenticity by his/her daily walk – being a
servant and doer of the Word, not just a sayer. Initially, let us examine what this should look
like; in Part II of this message we will focus on how to do it – or rather how to allow God to act
through us. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and Paul’s Galatians and Thessalonians help to paint
the picture of Christian authenticity in his/her daily walk:
- Be salt and light to others, particularly among the lost.
- Practice the 10 Commandments.
- Do not be angry with others; do not call others names.
- Don’t resist an evil person; turn our other cheek; love our enemies.
- Discern, but do not judge others; forgive all
- Lay our treasures up in Heaven– not onearth; give to God and the poor.
- Be a peacemaker; give to the needy.
- Avoid lustfulness; do not divorce(except for unfaithfulness).
- Do not worry, or be anxious for anything: rather, trust in God..
- Reflect the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, encourage one another, give thanks and – pray continuously, and
- With love and kindness evidence our salt and light regarding: sexual immorality, abortion, idolatry, debauchery, hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissension and factions, envy, drunkenness and drugs – much of the world today as highlighted by cable news.
In addition to exhibiting the above, there are three items of documentary evidence that
might well be used to prove or disprove the authenticity of one’s walk: the markings,
underlining and worn condition of one’s Bible; one’s calendar of daily activities; and finally,
one’s checkbook.
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FN 1: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” Jere. 1-3
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which
God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephes. 2:10
FN 2: While mothers are most likely to be the sole caregivers within the single family, few Americans know – and cable news will never report – the following statistical facts:
- drug use, suicides and abortion rates are tripled among children of single or a divorced parent, and
- if the family’s father is present and a Christian, the children are far more likely to become Christians than not.
Joe Otto