by Jim Hughes
Amos 5:14 Do what is good and run from evil—that you may live! The LORD God Almighty will truly be your helper, just as you have claimed he is.
It’s not very hard to understand at all. If we want to live in Christ we must do good and run from evil. If we do this, then the Lord will help us do it.
We cannot do good if we aren’t good. What makes us good is the shed blood of Christ applied to our hearts. No one is good in the Biblical sense except for God and no one can be good apart from a relationship with Him. Just because we do good things doesn’t mean we are good people. It’s not too hard to be good before man while not being good before God. We often confuse the two and think that our standing with man makes us in good standing with God. It doesn’t. Only Christ can make us good before God.
If we are good before God we will run from evil. Now, we can’t avoid evil; it’s the norm for the world in which we live. But, we can choose to not participate in the evil that surrounds us. We can choose to run from tempting situations. We can choose to not be entertained by evil. We can choose to not get too close to evil and avoid it rubbing off on us. Godly people have a distaste in their mouths for evil and seek instead the things of God. They seek to let the Lord build them up instead of letting Satan tear them down.
The Lord promises to help us when we set our hearts and minds on Him. He wants to see us become a holy people, a people after His own heart. He wants to make us heaven ready. He wants to teach us His ways. He wants to help us get rid of all the baggage that hinders us. He wants to help us live in victory and not defeat. He wants to help us, but He won’t do it unless we let Him have control of our hearts and minds.
About the Author:
Spending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.
C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chaper on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one's self from such failures.
I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn't broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.
