We heard recently of an itinerant preacher who had been moving around among churches teaching that simply to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Bible teaches, is not enough for a person to become a Christian. The part of the verse that was quoted as teaching this, says…. “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12-13) The next verse goes on to say that “it is GOD who works in you to do His good pleasure”, so we can see from this that the works referred to are nothing to do with what we can do, but what God chooses to do through us!

The man telling us this story had worked with building fibreglass boats for many years, and he pointed out that when working with fibreglass, it will stay ready to use in its container while it is untouched, for many months. To make it work, it must  have a catalyst added to it, and then it begins to do its job. In the same way, a person who repents of his sin, receives the Holy Spirit and then can begin to work for the Lord.

But if we slip up and go back into our old ways, we grieve the Holy Spirit , and He then cannot do His work through us….it is as though a neutralizer has been added to the mix and the fibreglass mixture is good for nothing.

In our lives it is the times when we miss our daily Bible reading and get too busy to go to church, that we get cold in heart and we become good for nothing as far as our work for the Lord goes. God cannot use someone who is too busy to keep in touch with Him. It is HIS work that counts, not ours! Let’s take this as our challenge for this month and sort ourselves out!