Golden Ticket

       Just a moment ago I was looking through my small pink notebook that I use to take notes on the sermons each week and found a line that really stood out to me. I can't remember now if it was something the pastor came up with or a quote he shared that he enjoyed, but it was 'preach the gospel at all times; use words if necessary.' I read that line a couple of  times and actually giggled when I read the second part 'use words if necessary,' my first thought about it was how else can you preach the gospel but then I thought of another quote I have read in the past, 'be careful of your walk, you may be the only Bible some people ever read.'  This thought (and reading further in my notes) clarified the first statement for me, both are all about your walk.
       This lead me to another thought, both of these statements stress that our walk is important that we should be representing Jesus Christ in what we do, but there are professing Christians who believe that the prayer of salvation was their 'golden ticket into Heaven,' to quote someone who said that to me recently. This person really believed that because they said the prayer of salvation that it didn't matter whether or not they followed God's laws, they told me in all sincerity that it didn't matter how they lived because they had accepted and professed Christ as their savior and they were going to Heaven no matter what. Obviously this person's statements are at odds with the two quotes that I shared previously that stressed that our walk is important. So I went into the word to find what God says.
       John 14:15-21 reads like this, '5 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”'
       This meant to me, that it is important to God that we keep his commands, He says that doing that is an act of love, and He will send the Holy Spirit or 'helper' to help us keep those commands. So, how does the Holy Spirit help us keep those commands? We see this in Isaiah 30:20-22, where it reads '20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”' The Holy Spirit corrects us, it's the voice we call a conscious, and this thought led me to another thought; are those Christians I mentioned earlier, the ones who don't think they have to keep God's laws truly saved? So, again I went into the word and found in James 2:14-25 where James sums it up as "faith without deeds is dead." The two work together. Faith in Christ should lead you by love and correction to do good deeds or works, you should be led by your faith to be obedient to God, if you are not or never have been convicted (corrected in your heart) by the Holy Spirit to change did you really give God your heart or just your lip service?

Psalm 1:1-6        
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

James 2:14-25

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.