Faith and Works

Our Father in heaven, the Creator of all the reasons we live, is dismayed but not rejecting, our feeble attempts at righteousness in our understanding who we are and what we are to do with the lives we have from Him. Any difficulties we have, no matter how far from His expectations for us, are condemned on the Cross of Jesus Christ for our sake, so that we may appreciate our guiltless freedom in Him. Because of this, we are in a position of faith for His sake to do the same for others. Not because others need our assistance, even though they do, but because our acceptance of God’s purposes for our being in Christ gives to us the ability to help others where they need help.

There is a difference between holding a grudge and standing up for what is right. Holding a grudge condemns a person as responsible for a situation and creates adverse separations founded in the flight vs. fight emotional instincts of those involved. Standing up for what is right condemns a situation, but not the people, by requiring one’s self and others involved to honor who they are according to their responsible positions in marriage, family, work, and society. To combine holding grudges with necessary restraints against circumstances to eliminate, and “rise above” difficulties binds everyone involved to unproductive and faithless feuding. James 1:8 says, A double minded (two souled) man is unstable in all his ways. Generally, wherever people are, the primary stability in societies is the family where respect for marriage is the core stability all other things support.

To hold distance, silence, and barriers against people who probe into conditionally altering the purposes and desires of a man and his wife (and their shared decisions concerning their children) is protecting the sanctity of God’s designs of witness, but it is not holding a grudge. Pitting a man against his wife and/or pitting a woman against her husband denies their single mindedness necessary to allow God to be God to the people whom have made their personal promises to Him. In cases where there is a second marriage, the “new” marriage must be honored with regard to Christ’s grace and mercy of forgiveness over the first marriage to up-build and support the second marriage in faith.

Usually, people do not consider lines of demarcation that respect and uphold the personal right a man and woman have to decide, without outside influence, their own ways of dealing with the troubles and cares of living and how the wider community is respected, for God’s sake, by not being involved in deriding a man and woman for the troubles they have. Extending one’s will to intrude into the sanctity of a marriage, in order to control desired results from a couple, (or for any other reason) produces grudging anger that seeks to find self-justification (but, in turn, finds a low-life resentful loathing hatred) through denunciation, harassment, backbiting, etc.

For example, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs are not the Good News of the Gospel of Christ through faith in His death and resurrection. The wisdom of God’s Word of Law displayed in Solomon’s wisdom, as it applies to a man’s responsibilities, is the wisdom of mankind’s legitimate guilt before God to pay his sin-debt consequences for violating God’s created avenues designed for respecting His given life. Because a man is not fully able of his own strength and will, to absolutely adhere to Truth in God’s perfection, our Father above provides a Way for us of Himself in Christ. Our inadequate words and deeds to reconcile our wrong are manifested in God through His Son on our behalf… in response to our faith and trust in Him that He is able exactly where we are and exactly where we are not.

Matthew 25:31-46 tells us our place in God’s plan for our existence rests in “whatsoever you have done for the least of these, you have done for Me,” causes us to assume our works are the avenue of acceptance into eternal life. We also assume that others who do not do as we do in our attempts to buy our way into heaven with works according to Scripture, are to be rejected as not righteousness enough for our companionship. We categorize people between an innocently needful empathy/pity for happenstance hardships, and the demonized knowledgeable calculating use of others for their own benefit. Both groups, meanwhile, equal in Christ as He lives through everyone’s distorted separation from perfection, folded into Him on the Cross, are eager for validation under God’s natural grace for living.

The deceiver deceives us into trusting our attentions in acceptable and unacceptable behavior. We feel remorse for wrongdoing, and we feel elation that emotionally appears to cancel our remorse, in right doing. Accolades for jobs well done and condemnation for mistakes gives to us the impressions that God’s grace and mercy in Christ to overcome our wayward ways comes from right works that respect and care for others. In this, we believe goodness in activity brings justification for compliance with right behavior by abstaining, as best we can, from wrong behavior. Then, in order to find strength to continue, we categorize people into various levels of acceptability where we compartmentalize our hearts away from God’s intentions for us in His plans for redemption.

The craving need we have as a people to survive is a yearning for God’s fullness of reality turned to a self-serving convenience. Blindly applying our fear of demise in what we say and do, we sort others into what they can and cannot do for us, and what we can and cannot do for them. Usually, the decisions made for and against ourselves and others are based in whether or not we are pleased with what we get out of our experiences. The focus on results combined with knowing we have a need to be justified leads us to believe our faith is dependent in the value of our works, and therefore, the value of the works of others to please our senses of the way things ought to be. This knowledge of good and evil re-places us under the Mosaic Law of retribution and drags us out from under the grace of God’s mercy through the Cross and Resurrection.

There are three sources of constant influence pulling and pushing everyone. They are: God through Jesus Christ, ourselves, and demonic intent to remove our time of days with diversions. Everyone, at all times, is in flux amid mind, body, soul, spirit, will, and emotions where each aspect of our being-ness is simultaneously Godly, self-ish, and evil. Our complete holiness in Christ is not possible in the flesh at any time because we are yet to be transformed into His eternal place for our living. Paradoxically, we are fully redeemed in Him Who finished all things in our behalf. So, as we are complete in His victory from our birth until we die, our acceptance of salvation away from the influences of sinful living creates a turmoil of excited drawing in of self actualization where we are still in the flesh with responsibilities in, of, and by the world – unto Him. This is where faith takes its necessary reason for our works rather than our works carrying reason for our faith.

Unless there is a structure of unwavering priorities concerning our attentions and efforts in living (our works of faithful obedience), we end up carrying the entire world on our shoulders without any safeguards against confusion. We have considerable trouble deciding, without judging unworthiness and worthiness, to whom we should apply our talents and abilities. When others accept us in putting them first for Christ’s sake, as they are doing for us, it follows naturally we take care of ourselves to accommodate our appreciation for life and living. If we, for a moment, allow our placement into the shoes of someone we most hate for their bondage in the throes of darkness, we certainly would have intense notions to desire God to reach His hand down into our situation with His power of redemption. That is precisely where Jesus Christ is for them and us.

When we put ourselves first in order to take care of others (faith through works), especially for God’s sake, it becomes very difficult to understand God’s leading in our endeavors to be for others who He desires. Mind, body, soul, spirit, will, and emotions (not in that order and not everything we are) freely combine in any measure and method, depending upon momentary circumstances and particular present influences, with regard to past losses and advantages, in how a better future may be achieved. But, the better future ends up a confused mess because our free-for-all indiscretion about directions of decision has no foundation outside our desire to eliminate disappointments and frustrations – and our disappointments and frustrations are mostly because of our confusion.

Un-confusing the matters is exactly where we are confusing the matters in our attempts to force our environmentally social associations onto the Gospel, instead of allowing the Gospel to arrange our internal and external personal alignments. We assume our decision making free will in Christ is the same decision making free will we have as natural human beings of the flesh and lose our sight concerning God’s super(more)natural patterns of obedience. This is because we erringly assume our acceptance of salvation is a justifying of, or approving of, who we believe we are in our pride as opposed to the hardships and evils of the world. Then, we accept and/or reject others to find a collation, an order, of our disorder. We assume (believe) the needs to sustain and improve the life we have means we deserve continuation of our purposes as we see fit.

Pride of existence blinds us to the magnificence God’s gift of awareness in living is calling us to appreciate. We miss our opportunities to realize God’s plans for better ways by defending the very patterns of self deception He asks us to surrender. We “can’t eat our cake and have it too” because the true purpose for enjoying the cake is in gratitude for the experience, instead of being for enjoyment of the experience. It is seemingly a fine distinction without much significance, but the difference is all encompassing with regard to the reasons we have troubles with others and ourselves. Those reasons are found in believing personal opinion as if it is fact - not knowing how to tell the difference between natural truth through faith (wisdom)as given by God and common sense truth through works (wisdom of mankind)as it comes from others and ourselves.

A person will defend their opinion based perceptions of righteousness, by contradicting differences of others’ opinionated positions, to cover their own underlying guilt and shame for playing God in their self-serving ignorance, by exposing and condemning others because of their beliefs and practices. When we understand to reach out in defense of the ones who are opposing themselves by opposing others in their misconceptions, there is a conflict of interest where our empathetic defense to bring God’s compassionate unity is taken as an offense – an accusation. Playing the devil’s advocate is doing the devil’s work. There is no good that happens from it.

God’s answer for us is in practicing an order of priorities of authority where our own authority is dependent upon Creation. Creation is dependent upon His promises of Truth and not our own, except when our promises are vows to Him. The only vow He accepts as legitimate, except for our generally accepted natural vows of trust in living, is the vow of marriage because it represents God’s vow in Christ for our salvation in the victory over evil and destruction. Yes, we make a mess of things mostly because others are making a mess of things, but God is ever able to bring in line our living into His will at any time.

Jesus invites us to follow Him so we may not take Him for granted. Luke 11:9 says: …Be asking, and it shall be given to you, Be seeking, and ye shall find, Be knocking, and it shall be opened unto you… so we may not think of God as a puppeteer. Within an established bond of commitment, our expectations of others, and their expectations of us, will find the pressures of obligated results by works lifted into an appreciated joy in responsible freedom by practicing God’s example in His Son. As we wish and desire from and of others with the understanding they should do the same concerning us, we can respect their will of faith by asking what they want and what we may do. We, then, have a freedom away from emotionally loaded obligations and can require to be asked by others wishes and desires from the opportunities the bond of commitment holds. A yes will be a yes, and a no will be a no while one’s decision may change at any time, with respect to our stability of permanence through faith in Christ.

The order of priorities of authority in responsive living (and failures to “hold the mark” have redemptive mercy and grace through faith in the process) are: Society subject to the authority of Government, Government subject to the authority of the Community, Community subject to the authority of the Neighbor, the Neighbor subject to the authority of the Church, and the Church subject to the authority of the Family. Within the family - the individual church as the collective gathering of families are the Body of Christ – the children are subject to the authority of the parents, the wife is subject to the authority of the husband, and the man and wife together are subject to the authority of Christ Who is subject to the authority of God.

Likewise, there are internal authorities of priority in each our personal being that, kept in sensible right of way, allows us the freedoms of expressive interaction with others to be manifested in Christ for His glory. Considering there is one particular involvement where we are responsible as one with another: (marriage between a man and woman where respective responsibilities are consciously determined for each other), everyone’s sense of personal structure is created to follow an order of priority: Mind, body, soul, spirit, will, and emotions. The first and always foremost aspect of our being is our will. Only God has authority over our personal will as we choose to do as we wish.

Many of the wrongs we allow our will to follow are simply because others are naturally opposed to anyone doing a wrong – esteem, protection, security, etc. They use a standard of natural right and wrong in demanding the will of those around them comply with their common sense in order to feel secure in their own will to acknowledge right ways. This creates a compulsion for secrecy that binds a right of will to choose to a wrong by recognizing that another’s right of right is wrong in imposing their will over ours as given by God. It is exactly where open honesty in accepting our loved ones allows impulse driven interests in disloyalty to find avenues for proper resolution. It is a positively inspiring conditional love that is unconditional in its commitment to who we are over what we do and do not do.

The will of faith is our activity that supersedes the will of works because the will of faith is drawn from Christ by grace. The will of works is circumstantial in its response to our surroundings and is bound to the world and the flesh in a way that finds justification only through the Cross in faith and out from the Resurrection in victory over all things. This is why we are not able to honestly judge people’s works as being either holy or unholy – we do not know the actual reasons for the circumstances or the place anyone actually is before God. Yes, there are many things that are wrong no matter what, but God and His forever enduring concern for us, combined with His plan of salvation, is sufficient for us to extend our acceptance, to whomever we are in a responsible position, no matter the predicament.

The primary method of attack the adversary uses to undermine our salvation is to divide the union of a married man and woman – because the family structure is God’s created foundation in the honor of living. Demonic persuasions use the fear of discovery to drive wedges of anything imaginable between a man and woman in marriage through deceptions steeped in our desires to enjoy life experiences. Full honesty in graceful acceptance to uphold our promises because of who we are, is our gift of authority and power to stand against the influential chipping away of betraying darkness.

The most common confusion about life and living is in personal intimacy with others. Most, if not all, life activities surround and support our interest in sharing our cares and concerns about all things with a close companion. Since our will is the most important tool we have to guide the rest of our mind, body, soul, spirit, and emotions, it follows that the sorting out of everything else always is subject to our will under demonic persuasion, self-ish persuasion, and our place in grace in allowing God to be God in what we do. Persuasive hints, innuendoes, and underhanded suggestions to imply desirable results from another generally role-play the divisive intrusions over one’s will of faith familiar spirits use to infiltrate our motivations.

We are bound in a positive way to our will of choosing in certain circumstances where the Work of Christ readily is available to manifest His loving-kindness; the vow of marriage between a man and a woman is a giving of each of their will to be shared with the other. Children come under the authority of the will of the parents of marriage, yet are still with a will ‘freer’ than the parents to which they are responsible because they do not yet have a personal promise of bond unto God in His will. The most important factor in working out our freedom in responsibility is honesty about our activities with respect to our position in the family. Privacy is most important in the order of authority in responsibility. What is between a man and woman in marriage is no one else’s business, what is between underage children and their parents is both the parents business, and what is the family’s business with respect to God and His grace of covering in Christ is not the neighbors’ business.

Many first marriages are ill conceived in the vowing of vows with limited knowledge about purposeful meanings and worldly understanding. In cases where divorce of first marriage brings separation from a vow with mutual permission from God, a subsequent marriage will find forgiveness in Christ to create and uphold a marriage, in faith. The knowledgeable understanding applied in sharing second marriage vows are expressly for witness of marriage from and to the man and woman as an example to everyone else. The ‘second marriage’ in an instance like this becomes a justified first marriage where the physical first marriage no longer is recognized as having been a marriage in Christ, but still is placed under His grace.

In living locations, employment, where to go, and what to do, we have the free will to choose as we wish where there is opportunity because people are wherever we are and so is God – and wherever our spouse is, that is where we are because there is no distance in the spirit. As situations come and go we are able to understand the strength of our togetherness. It is good to be thankful to God for what we can do to help people overcome difficulties rather than being resentful over the expense. Our responsibility in Christ takes into account our grace and mercy in Him for our loved ones to extend to them our love and acceptance – and such is the course of miracles.