Have any of you ever bought a set of Legos? Like most people I enjoyed building what I wanted to, but when I first got a brand new set, I always built according to the instructions and made what was shown on the picture. I once got a lego set of a town, with cars and a gas station, and other buildings. Step by step, I built each piece, until each lego was used, and once I was finished, it looked exactly like the pictures. I followed the instructions, and I acheived the end result.
On a much larger scale, some building centers will sell a complete house in a kit, with all of the materials needed and a blueprint showing where everything goes and how to build it. You start with the foundation, and then you start building the floor, the walls, the roof, and so on. Once the main frame is constructed, you can then begin to refine the inside by adding sheetrock or wall paneling, you add moulding around the windows and doors, you start painting, until you get to the point where the house is completely finished, and looks just like the picture. This happened because you followed the instructions.
Likewise, when a person makes the decision to become a Christian, the need to follow the instructions. In order to go from an unbeliever to a Christian firmly founded in the faith, they need to read the instructions left for us by Jesus and His apostles.
Just as a house isn’t completely built and finished in one day, or a few days, a person doesn’t become perfect overnight. They aren’t complete immediately. It will take some time to complete a person’s transformation from a sinner in the world into a servant of Christ. They just need to read the scriptures, and follow the instructions.
A synonym for the word follow is obey, and obey is defined as “to act according to the commands of; to adhere to; comply; conform.”
Even those who have been a Christian for many, many years still have things that they can learn. They have things that they can overcome, temptations to resist. We are all a work in progress, studying the map that has been left for us.
Jesus is the perfect example that all of us can look up to to try to become. Although Jesus was and is completely perfect and faultess, and we are not, that should not stop up from trying to perfect our lives every day. A pitcher in baseball might start out the game by walking the first batter, and then proceed to record 27 straight outs to win the game, which means that they had thrown a “no-hitter”, instead of a “perfect game.” But just because they no longer would be able to attain a “perfect game,” that didn’t stop them from trying to be perfect the rest of the game.
Our time on earth is limited. We don’t have an infinite amount of time, and we don’t know which day God chooses to take us. We need to follow the instructions and teachings found in the Bible, now, today. Keep progressing farther and farther each day in your faith.
The instructions and commandments found in the Bible are not difficult.(1 John 5:3) In fact, they can be summed up in a few verses.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these to commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
When you love someone as you would yourself, then you will be doing all that was contained in the Law.
So what have we been instructed to do? Love one another.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 