Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #19 - "Why do call me Lord?" - Luke 6:46

“Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” – Luke 6:46

I’ll let George MacDonald comment on this one:

“Get up, and do something the master tells you; so make yourself his disciple at once. Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because he said, Do it, or once abstained because he said, Do not do it. It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in him, if you do not do anything he tells you. If you can think of nothing he ever said as having had an atom of influence on your doing or not doing, you have too good ground to consider yourself no disciple of his.

You can begin at once to make it true, to be a disciple of the Living One—by obeying him in the first thing you can think of in which you are not obeying him. We must learn to obey him in everything, and so must begin somewhere: let it be at once, and in the very next thing that lies at the door of our conscience!

What have you done this day because it was the will of Christ? Have you dismissed, once dismissed, an anxious thought for the morrow? Have you ministered to any needy soul or body, and kept your right hand from knowing what your left hand did? Have you begun to leave all and follow him? Did you set yourself to judge righteous judgment? Are you being wary of covetousness? Have you forgiven your enemy? Are you seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness before all other things? Are you hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Have you given to some one that asked of you?

Tell me something that you have done, are doing, or are trying to do because he told you. If you do nothing that he says, it is no wonder that you cannot trust in him…”

And Now, A Word From George MacDonald

From "A Book of Strife" :

In holy things may be unholy greed.
Thou giv'st a glimpse of many a lovely thing
Not to be stored for use in any mind,
But only for the present spiritual need.
The holiest bread, if hoarded, soon will breed
The mammon-moth, the having-pride, I find.
'Tis momently Thy heart gives out heart-quickening.
.............................................................................................

This caught me off guard when I read it. I am a natural hoarder, and perhaps most avidly a hoarder of information. I had not considered the spiritual implications of holding on to every piece of insight or revelation. And I think it's appropriate that it wasn't an essay that called this to my attention, but a poem.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #1 - "Let not many become teachers" - James 3:1

Part 1 of my ongoing series "Bible Verses That Freak Me Out!"

"Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment." - James 3:1.

This one always gives me the willies. I feel called to teach. I have been confirmed in teaching by wise people. But this one always gives me pause and reminds me of the gravity of the situation. At the very least, it encourages me to be clear about the distinction between what the Bible says and my opinion.

A follow-up statement from George MacDonald:
"How have we learned Christ? It ought to be a startling thought, that we may have learned Him wrong. That must be far worse than not to have learned Him at all: His place is occupied by a false Christ, hard to exorcise! The point is, whether we have learned Christ as He taught Himself, or as men have taught Him who thought they understood, but did not understand Him."