Genuine boards on the new bedstead
Pass me the….the….board? It was a 1/4 inch thick by 10 inch by 12 foot piece of fiber-cement siding. It beats vinyl siding all over the place for looks and durability. But in stumbling over what to call it I was reminded that name and form and similarity of a thing to the actual item does not mean it has its substance. Such are many in the church and the world: “And he said to them, “An enemy has done this!” The slaves said to him, “Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?” But he said, “No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”” (Matthew 13:27-30) “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where your are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.'” (Luke 13:26-27) How should we react to such a word? “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you- unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5) for “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40) What is the substance of your heart, a believer saved by the grace of God exhibited on the cross by the death of Jesus to take away your sins, or a believer in name and assuming the form of a believer though not actually ever having had an experience with the living God? “Examine yourselves!” Are you the actual item, wood all the way through (as opposed to cement, or cork (any baseball fans?), perhaps), or do you only bear the shape and name of the same?
