BULLETIN 20: OBEDIENCE TO GOD
Greetings everyone. I have had to include a difficult subject somewhere in the series, so here it is. The subject in this Bulletin may not win the popularity stakes, especially with the young, but it is essential to know about it from the Bible if we are to be well-performing Christians. Candidates for Orders in the Catholic church take oaths of chastity, poverty, and obedience so you can be sure there is something important in 'obedience'. We acknowledge that learning obedience from parents was one of life's difficult lessons that maybe some never finish. That is to behave and take notice of all that they wanted, so also for the church and our creator, What God wants of us. I can't put it much more simply than this. Obedience is the Golden Rule and that leads to success. Some people find it easy, others can't be fully obedient. And is not the price of success, much better in fact than sacrifices -(see Jeremiah 7:23). That can be a hard lesson to learn. Self-discipline is essential without which obedience should be very difficult.
We are not on a Sunday School picnic in life DOING JUST AS WE LIKE, but have a duty to God, our Lord, and creator. And whole-hearted obedience is the requirement to secure entrance into God's kingdom. Peter and the other apostles said: the imperative duty of life is that we ought to obey God rather than man (see Acts 5:29). It's essential for membership in God's family, but we sometimes oppose or make that requirement rather difficult in a worldly way. The upsetting values that we find in our communities, for example, are primarily those of materialistic greed and selfishness, a will to err with the crowd, and liberty to corruptly make our own choices, amongst other faults.
Christ's word's concerning obedience are found in Matthew 7:24 KJV: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.
Joshua 1:8 KJV says: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shall make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
The blessings for obedience are covered in Exodus 19: 5 KJV: Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
Surely we have some very clear messages for us to heed. There are of course many who are ignorant or skeptical of God's existence, some atheists and problematic people who could not share God's mercies and grace without a change in attitude towards cooperation. IN CONCLUSION: Let us be sure to obtain a clear message from the Bible through study as to God's requirements and gladly muster the necessary self-discipline for obedience.
Blessings to everyone, AMEN - ref Thomson new chain reference Bible 1964.
srd