You can have the best of intentions, but if you don't make good on them, they are only gestures and not worth recompense. Sincerity is necessary, but it is not sufficient, you must practice the truth as well as know it; this is known as orthopraxy vs. orthodoxy (right conduct and right creed). We can all be in danger of being more empty talk and promise and less delivery of the goods. Intentions don't count without making good on them.
Some just preach or talk about what people want to hear and to please their itching ears and try to water down the truth and make it more palatable, instead of telling it like it is. The truth can knock you out of your comfort zone, wake you up from your dogmatic slumber, and upset the applecart. Jesus was known for challenging authority and being "anti-establishment" and to invade the turf of the Pharisees so that they were jealous of His influence.
Sometimes we can tend to be all heart and not have the follow-through to apply what we feel or get convicted of--it is just sentiment. We are to follow the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind; this means our whole person and ability, talent, time, gifts, and resources that we are stewards of and are accountable for. Following God begins in the heart but we must graduate and go on to know the Lord and follow Him in obedience to His commands.
We must never jeopardize our testimony by not living up to our creed; we must turn it into deeds and make it our own to God's glory, for which we are saved. We tend to agree with each other in principle, but fail to carry it out in practice as a reality and testimony to others, making us look like hypocrites who don't practice what we preach. I can't stress enough the value of going the "extra mile" and putting in the extra effort to please God to the best of our ability, and do the best job we can for the Lord ("Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not unto men," quoting Colossians 3:23). Soli Deo Gloria!
Some just preach or talk about what people want to hear and to please their itching ears and try to water down the truth and make it more palatable, instead of telling it like it is. The truth can knock you out of your comfort zone, wake you up from your dogmatic slumber, and upset the applecart. Jesus was known for challenging authority and being "anti-establishment" and to invade the turf of the Pharisees so that they were jealous of His influence.
Sometimes we can tend to be all heart and not have the follow-through to apply what we feel or get convicted of--it is just sentiment. We are to follow the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind; this means our whole person and ability, talent, time, gifts, and resources that we are stewards of and are accountable for. Following God begins in the heart but we must graduate and go on to know the Lord and follow Him in obedience to His commands.
We must never jeopardize our testimony by not living up to our creed; we must turn it into deeds and make it our own to God's glory, for which we are saved. We tend to agree with each other in principle, but fail to carry it out in practice as a reality and testimony to others, making us look like hypocrites who don't practice what we preach. I can't stress enough the value of going the "extra mile" and putting in the extra effort to please God to the best of our ability, and do the best job we can for the Lord ("Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not unto men," quoting Colossians 3:23). Soli Deo Gloria!