Steps of Faith~ 4th week after Penecost

I Kings 21:1-21a: King  Ahab wanted to own a vineyard, but when he tried to buy it off of the man. The man said, "no". Ahab was depressed because he could not buy it. So his wife cooked up an evil plot to have false charge to be placed against the man in such as way that the man was killed and the vineyard was given to Ahab. God had the prophet Elijah go to King Ahab and tell him that God knew what he had done & was going to pass a harsh judgment upon him.   Ps. 5:1-8: God does not have pleasure in wickedness. Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness.  Gal. 2:15-21:Not saved by works, but justified by faith through Jesus Christ.  Luke 7:36-8:3: Mary anoints Jesus feet with an expertise perfume. Other complained about it. To help them understand , Jesus tells a story that was to help them understand spiritually why Jesus let Mary do so. Then He told Mary that her sins were forgiven.  God does not take pleasure in wickedness, but in righteousness (Ps. 5:1-8).  Let me share an example of how God has dealt with wickedness and then an example of how Jesus dealt with an act of righteousness. In I Kings 21:1-21a, We read of how God dealt with the wickedness of King Ahab. Let us look at that, shall we? King Ahab liked Naboth's vineyard. In fact, King Ahab liked it so much that he wanted it for himself. So he went to Naboth and asked to buy it. Naboth said , "no", for two reasons. #1. It was against God's law to sell the family land to anyone outside of the family. #2. Naboth did not want to give up the lovely vineyard. This upset King Ahab so much that he went into a depression. When Queen Jezebel saw how depressed he was, she promised him that she would work this out so that he could have the vineyard. This made the King happy.  Queen Jezebel went right to work cooking up a plan to get the vineyard for her husband. She wrote letters in King Ahab's name telling the elders in Naboth's city to arrest Noboth for he had done a crime. She lined up false witnesses to testify that Naboth had spoken against God and the King. In that county that was against the law. The punishment was stoning. So when Naboth was found guilty of the crime, he was stoned to death.  After Naboth was stoned to death, King Ahab went to claim the vineyard for himself. That is when God told the Prophet Elijah to go and pronounce judgment to King Ahab for doing this wicked thing.  Now let us look at how Jesus responded to a woman who was turning from her sin and did a righteous act towards him.  One day a Pharisee asked Jesus to come to his house to eat. Jesus went. while Jesus was there, a sinful woman came and washed Jesus' feet with an ointment that cost a lot of money. While she did so she started to cry so much that the tears washed his feet, so she dried them with her hair. When the Pharisee saw this , he thought within himself that if Jesus were a true prophet that he would know that this woman was a sinner and not let her touch him. Jesus addressed the fact with the Pharisee and then turned and told the woman that her sins were forgiven (Luke 7:36-8:3).   Now we know that we are not saved by our work, but though our faith in Jesus Christ(Gal. 2:15-21). But we are expected to show the fruits of our faith by doing act of righteousness and not wicked acts.  Today, set you heart and mind to live out your salvation by leaving your wicked acts behind and live a righteous life in you heart, mind and soul, as well as in what you do.  Challenge of the week: What will you change this week to help you live a more righteous life?  Accomplishment of the week: So what did you do this week to help you live a more righteous life?