Thread: "Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more� (1 Thess. 4:1).
"Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more� (1 Thess. 4:1).
Posted : 13 Aug, 2011 02:30 AM
What are some of the footprints of this walk? How can you follow it?
A first undoubted mark of pleasing God is unreserved obedience�an obedience that asks no relaxing of the precept, but that follows the Lord fully in its observance, not because it "makes sense" but because love constrains the heart. Walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, as the primitive saints did, is indeed well-pleasing to God.
Oh! let there be no reserves in your obedience! Do not withhold from Christ any part of his purchased inheritance. Surrender it all at the feet of him whose blood was the purchase price of it all: "Lord, however strait the path, however painful the cross, and however self-denying the precept, I would sincerely walk uprightly in all your ways and fully follow you in all your commands, leaving the consequences of my simple and implicit obedience to your control. I can endure the rejection of the world, the alienation of friends, the coldness of relatives, and can take the spoiling of my earthly goods joyfully, if only you, my Lord, sustain me with your grace, cheer me with your presence, and comfort me with your love."
There is a second footprint in this walk by which the Christian journeys to his heavenly home. As unbelief is most dishonoring, so faith is most honoring to the Lord Jesus. What a revenue of praise accumulates from it to his name! To betake yourself to his blood with your corruptions the moment they are discovered. To betake yourself to his sufficiency with your anxiety the moment it occurs. To betake yourself to his grace with your sorrow the moment it is felt. To betake yourself to his sympathy with your wound the moment it is inflicted. To betake yourself to his love with your guilt the moment it is detected. Oh! do you not think that this walk of faith is most pleasing to the Lord?
Beware of anything that impairs the simplicity of this your walk. Beware of anything that makes you stumble or turn aside. Even be cautious, in the varied circumstances of your history, of applying first to a human arm for support, or to a human bosom for sympathy. The Lord cannot be well pleased with this. But do not hesitate to bear them at once to the one-appointed Source of all your supply. Disclose your needs to the full Savior. Make known your wanderings to your heavenly Father. Tell your griefs and burdens to your elder Brother and Friend. And in thus walking by faith, you will have the divine assurance in your souls. You will rejoice in this�the testimony of your conscience that you please the Lord.
Oh, seek closely to resemble the two illustrious examples of this high and holy walk set before us in God's Word. The minor one�because purely human�of Enoch, who "before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God" (Heb. 11:5). The higher one�because the human was blended with the Divine�of Jesus, who could say, "I always do the things that are pleasing to him" (John 8:29).
"Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more� (1 Thess. 4:1).
Posted : 13 Aug, 2011 08:15 AM
BEUTIFUL! our Christian walk is by example of how Jesus and the apostles walk before the people and God. ... let thismind be also in us...good Christian reputation in the community pleases God. The Bible tell us that Jesus gained favor from the people and God...
Love that song Jesus keep me near the cross, just sung it first Sunday during ur communion:glow::applause:
