Walk Before Me And Be Blameless.

Last Sunday i was visiting a local Baptist Church and the youth pastor was in charge of preaching. He started saying that for 20 years he DID the work of God as a pastor, to him, all those years he did it right. Then, after 20 years he realized that what he did (work), was something FOR God, not WITH God. few weeks before, God started speaking to him about the ministry. One day at the youth ministry, he was asking the kids about working for God, when one of the kids said something that shook his "faith": Working WITH God instead of working FOR God. Paul wrote this in 1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are co-workers in God’s service. Co-worker means: A person with whom one works. The work (service) belongs to God and we suppose to work WITH Him, being Him the Head (Leader). The weekend of this account, the youth group had a "retreat", Friday night they went to a meeting with youth groups of other Baptist Churches in the vicinity. When the speaker started "preaching", this youth pastor said he was "blown away", because he heard the preaching he had prepared for Sunday morning, even showed to his kids his sermon's outline. The speaker's preaching was all about "working WITH God". Sunday's preaching was very profound, probably a few believers in the church really understood what he was talking about. Anyways, since we set our feet in the "church", we are taught that we must DO something FOR God. IF WE DON'T DO, WE ARE NOT! What i mean is this: IF WE DON'T GOOD DEEDS, WE ARE NOT CHRISTIANS. Don't get me wrong, IF WE DON'T GOOD DEEDS, WE ARE NOT CHRISTIANS! Let me explain the difference between the two statements: Doing good deeds do not make someone a christian, BECAUSE WE ARE christians WE DO good deeds. Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Good deeds are the result (fruits) of the "new birth". Jesus explained this in Matthew 7:17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. I wrote about this in this post: "The Tree, the Branch and the Fruit". To work FOR God is not the same as to work WITH God, to walk FOR God is not the same as to walk WITH God. Let's give an example: You can "Walk to End Alzheimer's" (annual event) and yet not be "engaged" to "end Alzheimer's". You can walk just because you "like" walking, because it is a "good cause", but you heart is not committed to "end Alzheimer's". A good example of this is Abram: Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless". To walk before means to have a "relationship", "to walk with". On the other hand, we cannot walk before God unless we walk by the Spirit, Galatians 5:16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Only if we walk by the Spirit we will be blameless. What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? It means to walk by faith: 2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. But how can we trust (faith) God if we don't know Him? How can we know Him if we don't have a relationship with  (walk before) Him? Since the beginning God wanted to have a relationship with mankind, Adam broke it, Jesus Christ restored it. In Christ we can walk before Him and if we walk by the Spirit we will be blameless. John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent". Our work is to believe in Jesus Christ and to walk by faith. Unfortunately, we make things hard for ourselves and for the new believers. When we're born again, we're "on fire", we "walk by faith", we "love" our neighbor, we are willing to "die" for Christ, etc. As time goes by, the "fire extinguishes", the "faith" becomes "works", the "love" becomes mere "acceptance" and we're not even willing to "live" for Christ, much less, to "die" for Him. We must "go back to our first love". Read also the post: "Go Back to Your First Love!".