Monday, December 2
legalism...a necessary evil??
"necessary!!???" i hear you shout.
well not really, or is it??
see the thing is, are we called to be legaslistic? (i hear you cringe, scream and turn your screen off, while deleting my name from your address books and gift lists).
is legalism the opposite of grace??
maybe i'm using the wrong term. what i mean by legalism is not judging others, nor is it trying to achieve righteousness (or obtaining salvation by human means). what i mean by legalism is having a total devotion to God that leads to a will to practice a hardcore life by excercising the fruits of the Spirit.
too complicated?
some Christian groups will claim that you should spend hours in prayer and study daily, while others suggest that you shouldn't set aside specific times but just let God speak to you and tell you when you need to spend time with him.
i think both of these are good but neither should be taken the exclusive hardline way.
because of our freedom in Christ and the grace by which God has saved us, we need only respond to his call to follow him to de saved.
BUT having said that, what will matter in the end? will it be the number of movies we've seen, the number of clothes we've bought, the number of toys we have, the number of instruments we play, the money we've made or the number of countries we've been to?
so i guess my challenge, which i can only put to myself, is: why not invest in what matters?
why not spend the money you would on take-away on child sponsorship? why not spend the time you would watching TV (as opposed to watching a worthwhile show) on getting stuck into God's word or praying?
the problem with this challenge?
simple, as humans we cannot be unaffected by the world around us. and while we may want to do good and not waste time, starting to do thins will make us start to judge others and diminish the amount of grace we give or look at people with.
what i would love to see happening is a whole family, a whole group of friends, a whole youth group or a whole Church start living sacrificially.
offended?
i hope so.
i hope that reading things like this will make you uneasy and start thinking about what really matters.
remember that our conversations should be full of grace and salt, why not our lives?
challenge your friends, families and Churches and have a think about how you can invest in what really matters. .
d.
"necessary!!???" i hear you shout.
well not really, or is it??
see the thing is, are we called to be legaslistic? (i hear you cringe, scream and turn your screen off, while deleting my name from your address books and gift lists).
is legalism the opposite of grace??
maybe i'm using the wrong term. what i mean by legalism is not judging others, nor is it trying to achieve righteousness (or obtaining salvation by human means). what i mean by legalism is having a total devotion to God that leads to a will to practice a hardcore life by excercising the fruits of the Spirit.
too complicated?
some Christian groups will claim that you should spend hours in prayer and study daily, while others suggest that you shouldn't set aside specific times but just let God speak to you and tell you when you need to spend time with him.
i think both of these are good but neither should be taken the exclusive hardline way.
because of our freedom in Christ and the grace by which God has saved us, we need only respond to his call to follow him to de saved.
BUT having said that, what will matter in the end? will it be the number of movies we've seen, the number of clothes we've bought, the number of toys we have, the number of instruments we play, the money we've made or the number of countries we've been to?
so i guess my challenge, which i can only put to myself, is: why not invest in what matters?
why not spend the money you would on take-away on child sponsorship? why not spend the time you would watching TV (as opposed to watching a worthwhile show) on getting stuck into God's word or praying?
the problem with this challenge?
simple, as humans we cannot be unaffected by the world around us. and while we may want to do good and not waste time, starting to do thins will make us start to judge others and diminish the amount of grace we give or look at people with.
what i would love to see happening is a whole family, a whole group of friends, a whole youth group or a whole Church start living sacrificially.
offended?
i hope so.
i hope that reading things like this will make you uneasy and start thinking about what really matters.
remember that our conversations should be full of grace and salt, why not our lives?
challenge your friends, families and Churches and have a think about how you can invest in what really matters. .
d.
