Lord, Lord
“Not everyone who says to me,’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” ( Matthew 7:21 ). A long time ago, i invited Jesus to be my “Lord” and Savior. I had a one-on-one conversation with our preacher, per my mama’s insistence, so as to remove any doubts or answer any questions i might have. I knew one thing…i didn’t wanna go to hell if i was to die…at 13 years old, or 113. I didn’t know much, but i knew my decision was a result of my faith in Christ’s ability to save me from hell. I’s always playin with fire, so i knew how uncomfortable it was to be burned..,and i heard how you can’t “burn up” in hell … it’ll be like burning and suffering for eternity ( Mark 9:48; Luke 16:27-28 )…and i didn’t want no part o’ that ! “Savior” was easy to understand, but it took me a lot longer to realize what that “Lord” part looked like, and i think it’s gonna be the demise of a whole lotta “self-proclaimed” Christians, right alongside all the folks who never turned to Christ by faith. When we give someone something, it’s no longer ours … it’s the same with our lives ( 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 ) . Until we give God our everything, we have no right to call him, “Lord”. Unless we’re surrendering, we’re actually still fighting Him. Partial obedience is STILL, disobedience. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak ( Matthew 26:41 ), and that road to hell is paved with “good intentions”. Until we come to terms with our salvation experience and hear Jesus’ statement, “ Unless you repent, you too will perish”( Luke 13:1-9 ), we’re just foolin ourselves and ridin a lie that has won Satan many a soul. Many of us can come to Christ out of a fear of dying and spending eternity in hell, where the fires are never quenched and the maggot never dies, but, until we let him have the Lordship of our lives, we need not say to him, “ Lord, Lord”… because that ain’t gonna reserve us a mansion or even a cardboard frigerator box ( John 14:2-6 ) in his kingdom. Oh…and bein a “good person” ain’t gon’ cut it either … hell’s fullo good people who never surrendered their lives to Christ. Jesus doesn’t want our goodness, he wants us to believe his gospel and pledge our loyalty to him ( Romans 10:9-10 ). He ain’t expecting perfection, he’s looking for obedience. The sooner we grasp this fact, the sooner we can really understand what “Lordship” feels like. Unless we search his Scripture as searching for buried treasure ( Proverbs 2:4 ) we’ll never really understand the depths of his love for us. The greater the love, the greater the sacrifice. The more we know him, the more we’ll love him … and the more we love him, the more we’ll understand what calling him “Lord” looks and feels like. There’s still time to make it right and real ! Don’t wait and hope…be confident in the grace and mercy of our living God … and when you say to him “Lord”, say it and mean it through total surrender and obedience.