Saturday, June 10, 2017

Spiritual Application to Making a List

Hello to all on this fine Saturday morning.
     As I asked you to do on yesterday, I am going to give you my take on making a spiritual application to making a list.
Scenario 1 - One of my favorite times of the year as a child was Christmas time. No, we are not going to have Christmas here in the middle of June. (tee hee) But I want to use one of my favorite songs from that time in my life as a vehicle for making a point.  That song was, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." The part of the song that made me take notice was:
He's making a list and checking it twice
 He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town!"
The fact that he was making a list of everything that I was doing made me want to be a good little girl so that I could get lots and lots of presents! 
Scenario 2 - Most of you know that I like to cook, right? Uhm hm-m, well for my second scenario I wanted to use something about cooking for my example.  If you know anything at all about cooking, you know that to get a specific desired finished product you have to start with the right ingredients in the right amount. Putting too much salt in a dish or leaving it out entirely, no matter how good the other flavors are, will ruin a dish. That is why you use a recipe, a list of the ingredients and the correct amounts needed for the successful completion of whatever it is that you are cooking.

     Did you ever think about the fact that each of us is making a list, too. Uhm, hm-m, and our list is going to be read at the end of time. Look at this scripture:

Matthew 25:35-40New King James Version (NKJV)

35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.
That scripture is a list of things that the righteous will have have done well at the end of time. They will have been nice, not naughty. They will included the correct ingredients to have a nice finished product. What is that finished product? Here it is:
 
          Matthew 25:31-34 (NKJV)
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy[a] angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
and

Matthew 25:46(NKJV)

46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
The two highlighted passages above represent the finished product of lists. Let's make sure that we reap a nice finished product by being nice not naughty, by performing the things required for the lists of the righteous. It's going to be grand if we do!

Lastly, take a look at James 2:22 to be reassured that just like Abraham, our deeds of good done through faith perfects that faith. Now you know why I say, "Doing What I Can, While I Can."

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,
Alma L. Stepping On Jones
 
 

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