What Determines What?

 

 

How do you measure

What determines what?

What are the essentials

And what are not?

 

What is your philosophy

As you live day by day?

Is it based on the Biblical Book?

Is it the Christ-like way?

 

Many purport

To be grounded in the Bible

But their everyday living

Is not of God’s people.

 

 

So, I ask you again:

What determines what?

What are your essentials

And what are not?

 

I’d like to introduce to you

Three benchmarks,

And as for me I find these

A good place to start.

 

The essentials are first!

The Bible is clear on these,

Then there are the non-essentials

And negotiables, if you please.

 

Three terms of reference

That determine my behavior

As I relate to others

And especially my Saviour.

 

 

Salvation in no other

Than in the Living Word,

He is the Lord, Jesus Christ!

By now you have heard.

 

Not a prosperity Gospel

Where money is the key

But the salvation of the born-again

For all eternity.

 

Saved from sin’s morass

Not to be saved in our sin,

Thus, to live an evidential lifestyle

That depicts Christ within.

 

Following the biblical dictates

As lead by the Holy Spirit,

Honouring God in all things

Must be our daily habit.

 

Fulfilling the law of Christ

As we help each other

Cognizant that all the born-again

Are sisters and brothers.

 

Putting God first

As becometh the Christ child

And being witnesses of him

As the Holy Spirit decides.

 

The foregoing are essentials

According to the Word,

They are not to be negotiated

Or ever deferred.

 

They transcend denomination

Ethnicity and time

And stand in direct contrast

To today’s immoral slime.

 

Very unlike non-essentials

With which we are obsessed

And far more critically important

Than our negotiable quest.

 

Now take your religious beliefs

And classify them if you may,

Ensuring you major on the essentials

And let charity be your way

 

 

The essentials determine

What one’s negotiables should be

While non-essentials and negotiables

Are pretty much at sea.

 

Some, today I am told,

Are all about negotiables,

Everything is up for discussion

And nothing is essential.

 

There goes a ship

With neither rudder nor oar

And in this mass ocean of humanity

Shipwreck is sure.

 

What determines what?

Here is that question again,

It matters my brother, my sister,

Essentials don’t change.

 

Stewart Russell © July 3, 2022