24 years after heeding the call of God and becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ and a minister of the Gospel, when the Lord asked me to preach on the above verse, I asked myself whether, after all these years, my attitude was now, as that of Jesus Christ.
It also reminded me of God speaking to Abraham, that great icon of faith, 24 years after he had set out heeding the call of God. Abraham was 99 years old and this is what God had to say to him: "I am God Almighty ; walk before me and be blameless." (Genesis 17:1)
Did I hear that right?.........I am 99.......Blameless?
Abraham never read the King James Version, I guess, for in that, this verse called for something more.
I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Genesis 17:1) (KJV)
Perfection is what God desired then and perfection is what Jesus desires now from his disciples.
In Jesus' own words......Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)
Is perfection possible? Perfection like the Father, that too? No where near it I would say; far from it, to put it bluntly.
Paul, the Apostle grappled with this thought and he wrote to the Philippians...
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:10-14)
That's exactly what God desires from me and you too when he says, "Be Perfect"
He desires that we press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of us.
..............Press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.
SO...Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)
AND...........do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. (Hebrews 10:35)
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