Obedience – By Father Gabriel Alkass
The Lord Jesus appeared many times after the resurrection and before the ascension. And the night before, Jesus appeared before His disciples at the sea of Tiberias when they went fishing and caught nothing. But what happened early in the morning as they got close to the shore, Jesus appeared, but they did not recognize Him.
“Children, why don’t you cast a net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some,” he said. Can you imagine any of us going fishing the whole night? And you tried everything. And then someone you don’t know says to try the right side of the boat? How many would obey this advice, especially after trying for 12 hours?
But anyway, they listened to the Lord Jesus and threw the net on the right side. They listened, which means they obeyed the extreme blessing to the point that they could not drag the net to the shore because of so many fish they caught.
This will happen to us if we obey the Lord, not ourselves.
Obedience to His word is one of the Christian foundations. Every Christian should obey the Lord Jesus. Even when we don’t understand the word of God, we should believe in that. The scriptures warned us in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust the Lord with all your heart.” We need to trust with all our hearts and our minds.
That means my understanding of God means nothing. We must trust God and “lean not on your understanding.” If we obey God, we will live a much better life.
Then some people twist the teaching of God, which is the most dangerous thing to do.
Either pride or stubbornness cause us not to obey the word of God.
God loves everybody, but He loves one more than the other. It is those who obey Him. The obedience virtue is the key to God’s heart. And Jesus testified, “If anyone loves me, he will keep and obey my word.”
Is the word of God optional?
Yes, but He also gave you a brain to think wisely because at the end, there is a judgment day.
Adam and Eve, at one point, never felt shame in front of God being naked. They were so pure and very simple. So is the naked child at the baptism.
The best way to find someone like that is at the monasteries. That’s why these saints can perform miracles.
But when the second Adam came, He came to obey His father to death’s limit. “If you could move the cup of death away from me,” he asked. But when He obeyed the Father, he was crucified. He obeyed the Father to show us that through obedience, we can return to our original image, the image of Adam. Or, in this case, the second image of Christ.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, Jesus said.
Learn more from Father Gabriel’s sermon video here.
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