Matthew 7:21
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

Hi, Pastor Bob here. Welcome back to the Men of Valor and daily living podcast. The verse for today is from Matthew, chapter 7 verse 21. And it states, "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven."

I've been thinking a lot about my walk with God lately, and hopefully you often think about yours, too. As I was reflecting as I first went to churches several years ago, I would go on Sundays, and then as soon as it was over, I really didn't give God much thought until the next Sunday when I had to go to church again. I’d live like the rest of the people around me, and exactly how I was raised regarding the church and God. And honestly I enjoyed much of my life - but there always was some kind of a void. And then we came to United Faith Church and actually started reading the Bible, and saw how true Christians live as we spent considerable time with Pastors Janeth and Jerry Santiago. It was honestly the first time in our lives where we saw Pastors that really spent all their lives serving the Lord. After several years of discipleship, I got baptized and I got serious with my decision to give my life to the Lord, and leave my past life behind. I remember as I raised up out of the water, I felt I wanted to leave my life of pursuing the world, and wanted to love the Lord with all my heart, my soul my mind and strength, as the Bible said. Month after month, year after year, I thought I was growing in my Christian walk.

So what would you think if I said to you, ‘Now I can honestly tell you I believe, that after much time, prayer, and weeks of reflection, that I believe I am 95 percent there with God. 95 percent there! Wow! I don't want to brag, but I used to only be about ten percent! And through much effort and time, I think I'm 95 percent there! That's pretty amazing isn't it? I think it's a pretty good testimony, right?’

Now, let's suppose I tell you that before I got married, I ran around and did many sinful things, but when I married my wife 42 years ago, I took wedding vows to lay down my single life and marry her. I vowed to stick with her through good times and bad times, sickness and health, and I would be faithful to her, and leave my past life behind. And what if I told you, after recent weeks of reflection about my love for her and our marriage that we had all these years, I can tell you that I'm pretty confident that I have been faithful 95 percent of the time - I mean out, of every hundred days, I'm only unfaithful five days.

"...we often judge ourselves by our intentions. But how does God judge us..."

Hmmm, now what do you think about 95 percent faithfulness? I know from sharing this example in the past with many people, that when I was talking about walking 95 percent of my life with God, some of them thought, ‘Wow! That's pretty good, coming from ten percent!’ But I bet every one of you thought, ‘That guy’s really disgusting - not being faithful to his wife and cheating on her like that. He actually thinks 95 percent is good when it comes to faithfulness with his wife! He is really messed up!’

So, do we sometimes have different standards of what is right and acceptable when we evaluate ourself with others, and even God? I know we often judge others by their actions, but we often judge ourselves by our intentions. But how does God judge us - that's really what counts!

"He knows if we really want Him as God, or if we really want to remain our god..."

In Exodus 34:14, He actually tells us how He feels about Him not being 100 percent our Lord. He says, “My name is Jealous, I am a jealous God.” Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and have no other gods before Him. And when you do this, His love will saturate your entire being - that nothing else will compare to His goodness.

"If you have not seen Him like that yet, sincerely ask the Lord Jesus to reveal Himself to you, and He will - He is a faithful God!"

What an amazing God we serve. God bless you all.