Walking and Good Works -

A little late in coming but here goes.

What if we didn’t really concern ourselves with the idea of what we were going to be doing was a good work or not? What if we took the position that we are going to walk as the Holy Spirit directs us? Now that does raise the question of discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit as opposed to what our internal voice wants us to do – that I will get to in a minute. Here’s what I’m thinking. If we walk as the Holy Spirit directs us, isn’t it entirely accurate to view the results coming off of that walk as a good work. Otherwise how are we able to avoid missing the boat?

Ever since I first read this comment, it has stuck with me, and frankly, sort of haunts me as well. Philip Yancey, in What's So Amazing About Grace at 15, recounts a conversation with Gordon MacDonald, pastor and former spiritual advisor to President Bill Clinton, wherein MacDonald observed: "The world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church. You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the poor or heal the sick. There is only thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace."

Now I’m not suggesting that grace alone is a sufficient guide – though certainly it is a factor that goes into the whole mix, but I am thinking about discerning by community, and in particular a community that spends time in prayer, in listening to each other, hearing the voices that are recognized, again a community thing, in the study of Scripture, that is populated by people who have and will submit to each other, die to ourselves?, and seek out a common agreement. I’m not saying going solo isn’t the right thing, as I am sure the Holy Spirit will call, when He determines, on a single person to walk in obedience, and the splendor of the Triune God will shine through the walk of that one person, but thinking on a general basis, and on a more corporate basis, the church walks as a community, like a body – recalling Paul’s powerful metaphor – to focus on the walk and not the “good work.”

Just some random thoughts generated by Mike’s sermon. God Bless.