The Law
And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them.
Deuteronomy 5:1 (ESV)
God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die. For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.’ Deuteronomy 5:24-27
Isn’t this just how I am? Full of good intentions to do what is asked of me? The part about “we will hear and do it” is just like me, not the being afraid of God part. (underline mine)
I can’t even fathom what real fear of God is. I think that happened because I grew up with the “grace only God” of the New Testament church. Being raised in that way, where you only hear the old Testament as “flannel board stories” and the New Testament as the lessons to live by, watered down the message for me. It neutered grace.
As a child in the 6o’s and a youth in the 70’s I somehow got the message from church that if a person didn’t obey the rules it meant that they weren’t close enough to God. They needed to pray and read the bible more. And they certainly hadn’t repented if they repeated the same sin over and over. As I got older it was a common thing to hear “you should fast to overcome your sin”.
This left me trying hard to look like a Christian by applying those methods and dedicating my life to cleaning up. I imposed that same mindset on my children-to their harm. We worked hard to look like all was going well. Quite frankly, it was hell. Not that praying, reading the bible and fasting aren’t great things to do. But the motive was wrong – to clean up. Those things are the way we enter into fellowship with our Creator. They are to be about Him. There is no clean apart from Christ. What a disservice I did to our children who know nothing of God other that of a guilt trip because they cant live up to the rules. Rules not only in the bible (ten commandments) but society (household rules and laws of the land) and even the social laws of how you should look. When you never measure up you reinvent God, He becomes less than He really is, reduced to unloving (let the guilt trip begin) or nothing but grace. Or instead, you kill Him all together and refuse to believe He exists. You give up trying to do what you were taught and make your own rules that you can abide by.
The Ten commandment chapter continues this way:
“And the LORD heard your words, when you spoke to me. And the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever! Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’ You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
Deuteronomy 5:28-33 (ESV)
This is the law part. But how do we connect the Old with the New in an way that makes them agree with one another? Even the New Testament says, “Be perfect as I am perfect”. However, we know that we are utterly incapable of this. What then?
I hope to explore this further in the weeks to come and hopefully end up with an answer if not just peace about it.
I do know the first necessary step is this:
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25 (ESV)
This is the essence of Christianity – Take up your cross by denying yourself and follow Christ.
On a lighter note, I would like to share my Christmas Images from this past year – 2013:
This is the 2013 Angel. On the left is the good version but the one on the right shows a finished version that of the card.
Below are my Narwhal Cards. The first one was a money gift card with a folded pocket inside. The second and third I actually made into a gift of playing cards on Zazzle but then I made greeting cards as well which is the fourth.
