21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"
These people tell God, "Look what we did for you!"
But it is what He did for us that truly matters.
(something Greg, a member of the Smoovies' Bible Study, said today)
This excerpt has always reminded me of Mormonism, and it may be the passage I cling to the most when I wonder what the heck I'm doing trying to evangelize to these people with such seemingly pristine lives. I mean, what's the point? What more do they need? Are they even lost to begin with?
I guess it's not up to me to judge their salvation... my job is to simply obey God's calling (assuming of course, that I am sure this is what He's calling me to do).
Back at the end of May, this passage became even more charged with significance for me. When I was visiting Jackson's LDS church, the first Sunday School class we went to was actually led by Principal Comfort (the principal of my high school), and he was going over the parables of Jesus. After going through the ones he'd wanted to cover, with the last bit of time, he decided we could talk about one last parable, so he asked me what my favorite one was, and I instantly thought about this passage.
Of course, it would rather awkward and could be taken as rude if I were to say that was my favorite parable (and it's not even really a parable), so I simply said that I didn't know what my favorite one was (I then thought of the Prodigal Son, and what I'd learned at Smoovies' Bible study and SCL... it'd probably be my favorite, but it was rather long and I didn't think we had enough time).
Ironically, Principal Comfort then went to this exact passage... (well, maybe from verse 15-23) He commented briefly about it, and then moved on to an actual parable, verses 24-29, talking about building your house on rock instead of sand.
Was he hinting something to me when he went to verses 21-23?
I wouldn't blame him; I was just about ready to do the same. ;)
Anyway, the mental wrestling of the difficulty of deciding how far along Jackson--or any other Mormon... or really, any other person--is to being saved will be for another post. However, that post will probably just be a whole ton of questions... =\ eh, whatever!
These people tell God, "Look what we did for you!"
But it is what He did for us that truly matters.
(something Greg, a member of the Smoovies' Bible Study, said today)
This excerpt has always reminded me of Mormonism, and it may be the passage I cling to the most when I wonder what the heck I'm doing trying to evangelize to these people with such seemingly pristine lives. I mean, what's the point? What more do they need? Are they even lost to begin with?
I guess it's not up to me to judge their salvation... my job is to simply obey God's calling (assuming of course, that I am sure this is what He's calling me to do).
Back at the end of May, this passage became even more charged with significance for me. When I was visiting Jackson's LDS church, the first Sunday School class we went to was actually led by Principal Comfort (the principal of my high school), and he was going over the parables of Jesus. After going through the ones he'd wanted to cover, with the last bit of time, he decided we could talk about one last parable, so he asked me what my favorite one was, and I instantly thought about this passage.
Of course, it would rather awkward and could be taken as rude if I were to say that was my favorite parable (and it's not even really a parable), so I simply said that I didn't know what my favorite one was (I then thought of the Prodigal Son, and what I'd learned at Smoovies' Bible study and SCL... it'd probably be my favorite, but it was rather long and I didn't think we had enough time).
Ironically, Principal Comfort then went to this exact passage... (well, maybe from verse 15-23) He commented briefly about it, and then moved on to an actual parable, verses 24-29, talking about building your house on rock instead of sand.
Was he hinting something to me when he went to verses 21-23?
I wouldn't blame him; I was just about ready to do the same. ;)
Anyway, the mental wrestling of the difficulty of deciding how far along Jackson--or any other Mormon... or really, any other person--is to being saved will be for another post. However, that post will probably just be a whole ton of questions... =\ eh, whatever!
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