“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:46-49)
I won’t detail the storm, but the description of “a flood arose,” and “the stream broke against that house” hits home. That’s why Jesus used parables, word pictures, metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech. They are so easy to say, “I know what that one feels like!”
For a few decades, I have practiced beginning my time with God by telling him how I am doing. No, I am not informing him of things he doesn’t already know. Rather, I am admitting to him my “soul condition” so I can attach to the “soul provision” he has given me in his Son. The more honest I am about how I am doing, the more Bull’s Eyeish is my experience of attaching to what he says in response.
Today this hit with the simple awareness that Jesus was asking me, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” Or at least that’s the way it sounded to me. At first.
I then found myself wondering whether he saw me as the man who did put his words into practice or the one who did not. How would I know? Does this mean “perfectly” kept his word, or devotedly tried to keep his word?
Yes, I struggled through such thoughts and feelings, being honest to the core of my being, and that’s when Jesus ministered to me through his word and his Spirit so that I KNEW what he was saying to me. His words pierced me like I had never read them before in my life: “I will show you what he is like…”
Now it felt not so much like Jesus was confronting me with all the ways I may have failed to put his words into practice, but that he was declaring his view of my life, that he knew “what he is LIKE”! Not PERFECTLY! But this is what Montgomery Paul Vigh is LIKE!
And suddenly I could say that the next words applied to me. It wasn’t the storm I’m facing that says I am the people who say “Lord, Lord,” but never do what Jesus says. It’s the other way around. Because I have been seeking to live in “the obedience of faith” since my youth, I have withstood one storm after another for one simple reason: God has taught me to hear my Savior’s voice and follow him where he leads. No perfection. No measuring myself as better than anyone else. No earning my standing with God through good works. Just looking back and knowing which group I am in. I am in the group of people who come to Jesus, hear his words, and put them into practice.
When I went downstairs for my prayer time, I realized that I had never confessed to God that I had sinned by not getting baptized when Jesus told me to. I caved to abuse. Yes, understandable. No, not excusable. Yes, I know I was under God’s mercy. No, I did not do what Jesus called me to do. I chose self-protection over knowing and doing the will of God.
However, when I brought the pain of that experience to God this morning, I confessed my sin, received God’s forgiveness, handed over to him the guilt, shame, and fear of what I had done, and grieved how I had hindered my siblings who wanted to get baptized by not being the big brother who would lead the way. YES, being THAT gut-level honest with God is so REWARDING! The way we get to know our Savior when we are honest with him is so worth the pain of facing such wounds.
The conclusion of the matter is that I dealt with one more thing Satan has tried to use to his advantage. Instead, I have ringing in my heart that Jesus is the one Mediator between me and God, and he is my Advocate in responding to the devil’s lies. Jesus says to Satan himself, “I will show you what my servant Monte is like”.
I know it is only by grace through faith that I have any relationship with Jesus Christ at all, but today my Savior assured me that he knows what I am like as his little brother. And then he showed me the children in our daycare whose efforts to put our words into practice are childlike, sometimes childish, immature, not as good as we would do, but so absolutely heart-captivating to see how they are putting their hearts into trying to do what we say.
And today, Jesus told me he sees me like that as well. A little kid trying to walk in the obedience of faith. And so, in Jesus Christ my Lord, I take my stand.
© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
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