Love vs. Legalism

In Crazy Love, Francis Chan writes:

Most Christians have been taught in church or by their parents to set aside a daily time for prayer and Scripture reading. It’s what we are supposed to do, and so for a long time it’s what I valiantly attempted. When I didn’t, I felt guilty.

Over time I gradually realized that when we love God, we naturally run to Him—frequently and zealously. Jesus didn’t command that we have a regular quiet time with Him each day. Rather, He tells us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” He called this the “first and greatest commandment” (Matt. 22:37-38). The results are intimate prayer and study of His Word. Our motivation changes from guilt to love.

This is how God longs for us to respond to His extravagant, unending love: not with a cursory “quiet time” plagued by guilt, but with true love expressed through our lives.

What Francis Chan says about a "quiet time" can also be said just as accurately about tithing, church attendance, evangelism, or any number of other activities against which we have learned to judge one another and ourselves.

That's what Christmas is All About, Charlie Brown

The Freedom of Humility

Perhaps, only the lowly can be truly humble. Those who have wealth or fame inevitably seek to become God. There are no lowly in America. By honoring God, our governing principles have set us free and allowed us all to prosper to one degree or another. Our poor are the wealthy of most of the world. So, we are free and we have been blessed by freedom to prosper, but because of our fallen, sinful nature, we are also cursed by freedom as well. We are cursed to be so at ease, so well nourished, so prosperous that we forget the source of our blessings. By ignoring God with our rebellious independence and disobedience and our abuse of freedom, we curse at God and return to the curse from whence we came.

Barack Obama vs. George Washington

God Save the U.S. and Our Courts

President Obama renominated pro-abortion activist and former NARAL attorney Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. Johnsen has come under fire for calling women "fetal containers," labeling pregnant women "losers in the contraceptive lottery" and comparing pregnancy to slavery and pro-lifers to the Ku Klux Klan.
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James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution who was appointed to the Supreme Court by George Washington, explained the relationship between religion and law: "Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine. ... Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other. The divine law as discovered by reason and moral sense forms an essential part of both. The moral precepts delivered in the sacred oracles form part of the law of nature, are of the same origin and of the same obligation, operating universally and perpetually."

What if I were a Christian?

This evening, I imagined a story.

I lived in a trailer park on a well-known pacific island. My neighbors watched me till a small patch of ground and plant tomatoes in my garden. After the tomatoes had ripened and I had already harvested some, one neighbor, an older fellow with a minor reputation for a stagnant and dissolute lifestyle, boldly, but stealthily, 'harvested' some tomatoes while he believed I was away. Through the screen on one of my windows, I saw him with an armful of tomatoes and reaching to 'harvest' more. I warmly called out, "Hey, why don't you come inside? I'll make us a salad with those."

He did come in pretending to have done me a favor, and handed the tomatoes to me. I set some aside. I diced the rest and added cucumbers, onion, and vinegar-based dressing to make salad (or sa-LAD). After we ate and chatted, I washed the remaining tomatoes and put them in a container. I gave them to him and said, "I forgive you. Please take these and enjoy them."

Such a silly wandering of the mind has helped me to learn something. I have always wanted to be forgiving and gracious to those who sin against me. I know this is Christ's way. But, I have been an abject failure at this. I see now that I have not loved. Not only do I not love people, but I love what I have. I love the things I perceive as being mine. I cling to my things and let people go. Jesus loved people and let his very life go.

May the Lord give me the faith and the courage to let my life go. May he enable me to find in trespasses an opportunity to testify with love to His glory and power.

I see also that I have depended on myself for my security. I must stand up for myself and protect what is mine. Of course, I alone cannot provide for my own security. Neither is my security dependent on my obedience to Jesus. Only Jesus himself can provide security. Nevermind if my tomatoes are stolen or if my entire momentary, miniscule kingdom falls. I remain a ruler in the Eternal Kingdom of God!