Day 65 - Do-Do

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries                         LMCM

Nacogdoches, Texas                                                           Gal. 2:20  KJV

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 26

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       almi@abidinglife.com

Us old-timers (I’m talking about the ones blessed by having known Michael and Betty and ALMI for several years) remember the first time we heard Michael mention the “do-do religion” of the day.  And he said it in a church!  We muffled our laughs until our stomachs hurt!  Well, amen.

 But, oh did it change many lives!

Day 65

 Do - Do

 Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? --Galatians 3:2, 3

We know that the warnings in the book of Hebrews, chapters 3 and 4, center in the refusal of the believers to enter into the rest of God. Like the Galatians, they were trusting in their ability and had laid aside the work of Christ.

Our carnal side is accustomed to working in order to be pleasing rather than working because we are pleasing. Working to be pleasing feels natural, for we are conditioned from birth that our efforts will gain the desired rewards from others. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil encourages this distorted perception of living by teaching that doing evil will produce rejection and doing good will supposedly produce righteousness and acceptance. When we approach Scripture with this false theology, all we see are the do's, those things that we need to accomplish. The problem is that man has never been able to do enough to gain God's acceptance; that is the very reason that we need Christ. The belief that doing can replace faith will make us so discouraged that we will be forced to return to Him by way of the doing of the Son. Hence, we experience the goodness of God, which leads us to a deeper understanding of Christ and a submission to the work of the Savior within.

Here is an interesting Scripture in the Old Testament that describes what happens when man will not rest in the work of God.

"’This is the resting place, let the weary rest’; and

‘This is the place of repose’--but they would not listen.
So then, the word of the LORD to them will become:
Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule;
a little here, a little there--so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured.”
                      --Isaiah 28:12, 13

Either we rest or God will wear us out with the do's!

It’s really so simple, isn’t it?  And because it is so simple, we won’t believe or receive it, will we?  How sad.  Christianity “passes by” so many simply because it is simple.

What’s wild is this:  so many profess to be “Bible-believing Christians"…and yet when it is right there in front of us, God having said it…we show ourselves to be Unbelieving Believers.  Oh, my, how terribly sad.

Therefore, DID WE RECEIVE the Spirit by observing the Law, OR “by the hearing of faith” (KJV) ?  Did we “work” for Him, or did we simply “believe to receive Him and His faith”?  SO, THEN why is it we cannot believe that “living life as a Christian” is simply “by the hearing of faith” instead of “observing the Law”?!?  Either Christianity is ALL ABOUT HIM, or ALL ABOUT ME.  I decide.

Have you made your choice?

Years ago I heard about a football coach screaming at a referee over a call the ref had made.  He kept screaming that the call “stunk,” “it stinks,” “you stink!”  The ref threw his flag, marched off 15 yards against the coach’s team, and hollered at the coach: “How does it smell from here?!?”

When we enter into the “do-do religious activity”…I imagine God throwing His flag, making His Word “become do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there—so that (we) will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured”…CRYING OUT TO US: “How does it smell from here?!?...until we are “so discouraged (and tired of the smell) that we will be forced to return to Him by way of the doing of the Son.”

Have you realized how badly that “do-do religious activity” STINKS?!?  Ugh.  Abandon to Christ, simply believe, and REST.  He will complete the good work He has begun in us!  Amen, and Amen!

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point               Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                              936-559-5696