Darold Edwards

TAKING GOD SERIOUSLY

KJV

BY Darold Edwards                                                                 9/06/11

Taking God seriously in your life: this must be the absolute #1 priority of being! Everything else, to be successful in our life depends of this one absolute, and it’s being established in our heart, soul, and mind, consuming our being, and bringing prosperity to our souls, [Acts 17:28]. This is completely covered in the one [Matthew 5:19] “least commandment”: [Matthew 6: 33], “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things [that ye have need of, vs. 32] shall be added unto you”. “The things referred to here that you have need of” are not necessarily the things you want, unless you are intelligent enough to discern the difference between “needs and wants” and pursue the “things” you need for successful life and living and realizing that many of our wants, when pursued, are counterproductive to practical and successful, Biblical mandated life and living. Time and age are not necessarily effective in preventing this, however, the application of Biblical taught and applied wisdom will do wonders for us in this as well as all other areas, [Proverbs 4: 7], “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding”.

Your pursuits will be directed toward the things you set your affections on, the things wherein you place value, be they good or evil. Now your mentality becomes a concern, [Colossians 3:2]. Once again, a “least commandment” [Matthew 5: 19] comes into view. According to Dake’s Bible, there are 1050 of these least commandments in the New Testament. In view of the fact most professing Christians, or serious church attendees, can’t even quote “The Ten Commandments”, this would pose a new challenge to us all. However, our lack of concern for the first “Ten” would put us out of the running for the New Testament 1050 so far as learning them or for living them. This should make us extremely thankful for God’s Amazing Grace that picks us up, dusts us off, and gets us going again, and hoping we have learned, at least, something along the way to assist us in our daily forward progression along life’s trail; even if it’s just being grateful, depending on our repentant spirit, for God’s abundance of forgiveness, and help through our troubles, trials, and tribulations, which are generally, not always, brought on by our own stupidities: yes, “that is plural”. Disobedience always fits into this category.

All this is based on taking God seriously when he, through his word, advocates, teaches, and commands repentance from sin, being saved and born again by the Holy Spirit into his kingdom, The Kingdom of God, the redeemed community of Christ, [Mark 1: 15], “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye and believe the gospel”. [John 3: 6, 7] ”Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again”. All this is covered under an accumulation of “least commandments” that we learn to abide by and live over a rather extended period of time in our life; or throughout our whole life span, provided we would live long enough. It develops into a “lifestyle” of “pursuing the things that make for peace wherewith we “add to” one another the Biblical mandated things of peace, encouraging, strengthening, etc, for the edifying and building up of one another, [Romans 14:19]. Somehow I have to believe that our educational learning time is going to continue in heaven, at least to some degree.

It would be to our advantage, temporal as well as eternal, if we would take God as serious as we do many of the lesser important things of our life, some of them not being important all, except in our manner of thinking; things we want versus the things we need, like for instance a “born again relationship with God through Jesus Christ, [Matthew 6: 33], “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things [that ye have need of, vs. 32] shall be added unto you”. [Matthew 17:5], “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and a voice out of the cloud, which said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; HEAR YE HIM. To those who didn’t pick up on it, obedience is directly commanded in this “least commandment”, HEAR YE HIM, [John 15:3], “Now ye are clean through the [applied, James 1:22] word which I have spoken unto you”. Once again, it depends on whether or not we are intelligent enough to place our values on the God provided, divine nature, priorities of life and living rather than on mundane worldly nonsense that rather than adding; subtracts from you the needed things of character building and stature, [Colossians 3: 2], “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth”. It all begins with [John 3:16]. Have a nice future.