Obey Jesus

By David Bragg

 

    On November 12, 2020, a priority mail package arrived at the physics department of the City College of New York. It was sent anonymously in the heart of a worldwide pandemic that had most of the faculty working from home. The package sat there, unopened, until September 2021. That is when Professor Vinod Menon opened it to find $180,000 in cash inside! The note with the money revealed that the sender was an appreciative graduate who wanted to give back to his alma mater (CNN).

    For about 10 months that box sat there unopened. For 43 weeks no one at the school had any idea of the valuable contents awaiting inside. It was not until that professor, after around 300 days did something, i.e., opened the box, that the value of its contents could be truly appreciated.

    The same thing is true when it comes to God’s commands contained in the New Testament. We can’t really appreciate their value until we do something, i.e., obey them. Then we truly appreciate their value. That is what Jesus had in mind when He declared, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’” … (Matthew 7:21).

- David Bragg serves as one of the ministers at the Northwest Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC and is co-editor of BulletinGold. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: https://nwchurchofchrist.com/about/ or his blog: http://davidbragg.blogspot.com/