What Grace Alone Really Means

Well, anyone who knows me at all or has read a few of these blog entries knows that I am often thinking about the difference good works produced by faith as opposed to good works produced by legalistic tendencies. In lay persons or 'Amy' terms you could say I rebel, following rules just for the sake of following them. The call seemed to come to me in Ladies' Bible Study today as we discussed why we obey God's rules for us.

In my church we read Ten Very Familiar Rules every Sunday morning. In the past few years of exploring my Christianity and attending other churches who do not keep this practice I have questioned the importance of keeping this tradition. I hear feathers bristling! Read on dear Friend! You haven't reached my conclusion yet!

First of all I've done some researching and questioning about the 10 Commandments as part of the law of the old testament that was fulfilled by the death of Christ. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus himself says he came to fulfill the law not abolish it. I think this is very significant. Jesus didn't hate the law, he knew it was a law of love and he came to complete it not to destroy it. Now the question is can we say that Jesus fulfilled the part of the law with the sacrifices and uncleanness etc but he didn't fulfill the 10 Commandments? It's just not possible. Jesus fulfilled the entire law and he gave us a new one, he gave us a law of love. He shifts the focus from the justification by obedience to justification through faith by His sacrifice. Just read the book of Galatians that speaks of the gift of the Spirit and freedom from the law. I don't think that means we don't follow the 10 Commandments I think it means we follow them with a different purpose. Our salvation has already been accomplished. Following those rules doesn't get us anywhere with God, but it does get us far in our own lives. Our lives will be easier if we follow the rules. Just like we say to our kids! :)

In Matthew 12 Jesus tells us that the most important commandments are Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength  and love your neighbour as yourself. Three things shout out to me here. Love GOD. Love your NEIGHBOUR. Love YOURSELF. In that order. If you love these three truly and purely if you try very hard to follow this summary Jesus gives then you will by default follow the entire Ten. Every person who loves God wants to worship him on Sunday! No person who loves his neighbour would kill him or lie about him or try to take his spouse! A person who loves herself as a child of God will care for herself and live close to the Lord. Beyond this Jesus also repeats all the commandments in the new testament except for 'Honour the Sabbath' which makes sense since we no longer have a 'sabbath' which was Saturday, the day God rested.

In our church we still read 'honour the sabbath' commandment, but we honour it on Sunday. I don't want to get completely into this as it's another whole blog post but I do want to say this. For Ryan and I honouring Sunday is going to church, and keeping it special by not doing our daily routine. We don't shop or mow the lawn. I will however bake a cake if I feel like it and pull some weeds in my flower bed if I see them while sitting outside Sunday afternoon. When Ryan was in university he would read a chapter or two out of his text book if he felt like it. We know some people don't think these things are right, but we also know it is really between us and the Lord. I do not think it is fair or right to say 'Well, those people don't believe because they shop on Sunday." It's not even logical. It's certainly not loving your neighbour.

 If obeying the law is so important why then weren't the Pharisees exalted in the Bible as they obeyed the law meticulously? Aha! Here is a fascinating concept. The motivation is considered just as or more important as/than the actions. Romans 2:29 speaks about obeying the letter of the law not meaning anything if you don't have a changed heart. This was about circumcision but it's an excellent warning for us too. It has nothing to do with gaining brownie points for obedience and everything to do our motivation. Oh what a stumbling block Jesus was for the Pharisees. They hated him because he wanted to take away their self righteousness and their idolatry. Really they had made a god out of following the rules the right way. They never obeyed it in love but looking down their noses at everyone else. And then Jesus came along and says people who never obeyed it a day can go to heaven? They couldn't stand the idea! Read Romans 9: 30 -33 from the NLT.

What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,

“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem  that makes people stumble,

a rock that makes them fall.

But anyone who trusts in him

will never be disgraced.”

Don't we sometimes fall over the same block? Wanting to say, even just in our hearts "See, so and so doesn't do this or that, they can't be a true believer like me." ? I know I'm guilty of this kind of self justification.

Another reason we have 10 Commandments is to show us our need for a Saviour by shedding light on our sin. You only have to look to the title of this blog to know that I feel this an important reminder. Feeling convicted is good because it makes us thankful for our salvation and in turn out of thankfulness we follow God's laws for our lives which pleases Him. It slows us down from trying to do it all on our own. (Again God's great love for us to remind us not to try to do it on our own!) When we make this the only or most important reason to follow God's commands we actually dishonour God. We place the focus on our sin when it should be on Grace. Especially in a room full of redeemed people! Those commandments should bring us immense JOY. They should not be a burden. Each one should resound in our hearts saying "Yes I did that, Lord, thank you for your incredible GRACE." The focus should be that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

So should we still follow the ten commandments today? Well look at it this way. If you were given a country to run what is the very first thing you would do? Would you suppose that people by their good natures and kindness would live in harmony? Or would you think some guidelines were necessary? Every country and kingdom has rules! If they didn't there would be anarchy! Endless factual and fiction books are written on the consequences of the breakdown of government and rules. This is how the ten commandments free us. If you live in a community of people who all agree not to kill or steal or bear false witness you live in safety and not in fear. Better yet if they agree to honour God on Sundays together and love each other compassionately. Who wouldn't want to live in such a community!

I guess my main point here is that if we misuse  the Ten Commandments by honouring them out of a sense of duty rather than a sense of thankfulness we really aren't following them at all. Not in the light of the summary of them in Matthew 12. They are not meant to be a measuring stick to condemn others. We can leave the condemning up to God. Even in church cases where someone is excommunicated based on a sin  or sins against certain commandments the goal is not to condemn but rather to discipline and hopefully instill repentance. Even then it must be loving motives not our own sense of justice. (Remember what happened when Jonah wanted to appease his own sense of justice rather than God's.) True justice is the eternal condemnation of all of us. If God can love us enough to give us the LIFE of his only Son we can certainly love Him enough to help one another to follow His rules, and forgive one another when we fall.

Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.  So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.~ Galatians 3: 24,25 NIV

Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” ~ John 14: 21 NIV

Honouring God on October 31

It's time for me to weigh in or maybe wade in on October 31. Every year at this time the facebook posts start in earnest for and against allowing your kids to participate in any way in Halloween and Trick or Treating festivities. Being of the Reformed faith there's always been a big clash since I was a kid because October 31 is also Reformation Day which is a pretty important event in Reformed Theological History. Growing up I was always allowed to go Trick or Treating. Many of my church friends did and the ones that didn't often still handed out candy. 

The greatest struggle I have with the facebook posts against Christians getting involved in Halloween festivities is that most of my facebook 'friends' are Christians, so if I post something it's not in order to evangelize it's to share it with my fellow christian. So when my Christian friends post a blog that tells why allowing your kids to trick or treat is wrong I assume they are hinting that I should not be allowing my kids to go, since they already choose not to. Then I feel I have to post a 'this is why Halloween can be ok' blog to defend myself. This whole thing irritates and disappoints me. I cannot understand why we can't give each other the benefit of the doubt! I believe all my christian friends, trick or treaters or not are prayerfully doing their best to raise their kids to honour God. I hope and pray that they will believe the same of Ryan and I. 

Respectfully, I would like to point out my personal reasons for allowing my kids to be involved in trick or treating and then I would like to explain why I believe some of the 'reasons' people give that allowing involvement in Halloween is a dishonour to God is incorrect.

On why we allow our kids to get involved.
1. Because we have busy boys, who we ask to sit still in Church and school and this is one night they can run around and ring doorbells and have fun, it makes us and them glad to do it.
2. Because it a chance to speak to all our neighbours.
3. Because of the way the seniors faces light up when they see the kids dressed up.

On why I don't feel we're dishonouring God
1.All  Hallows Eve's origins are actually not pagan, Samhain is pagan and it was a three day festival that the druids and Celtic celebrated. (While we're at it a reminder that the Christmas tree has similar 'pagan' roots.) All Hallows Eve was placed on the middle day of Samhain to overshadow the pagan festival. See here.
2. Participating in trick or treating is not 'conforming to the world'. If I felt trick or treating was wrong I guess allowing my kids to be involved would be conforming to the world. Since we don't allow our kids to dress up as grim reapers or watch scary movies on Halloween we think we are not being 'of' the world. As it is I hope and pray they are a light in the world as they do their thing tomorrow night!
3. It is not glorifying Satan to allow my kids to trick or treat. It is just a day, Satan is not any more powerful that day than any other and to buy into such an idea is to be superstitious and to be superstitious is to glorify Satan.  In Romans 8: 7,8 Paul speaks about eating meat that was sacrificed to idols and isn't at all concerned about eating it. It's just food. 
4. I am not diminishing Reformation Day because I thank God for my (reformed) faith every single day. There is one day a year that kids can ring neighbours doorbells and get treats and to be honest we do this for 2 hours in a 24 hour day. There are 365 to praise God for the 95 Thesis. Then I could always dress Ethan up as Martin Luther that would be a conversation starter! :)
5. Lights turned out does not imply that you are abstaining because you are a Christian. I know for sure that some feel they are making a great sacrifice and statement by choosing not to participate. On our block which is the only place we take our kids half the houses have their lights out. So not being home or hiding makes no statement at all. 

I have prayerfully considered my opinions and God's direction for our family on this for several days and am brought back again and again to Romans 14. 

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.

This is verses 12 to 14 but the whole chapter talks about this. It talks too about stumbling blocks and I know that some may say by allowing this I am placing a stumbling block for those who feel it's wrong. But that is a two way street. Sometimes I feel like my brothers and sisters in the Lord are trying to make me feel something is wrong that I don't feel is wrong because they aren't comfortable with it. We have christian liberty in Christ. We have to decide for ourselves and it's God's business to do the judging! But we should all at least think highly enough of each other to believe that we all have thought about it and do desire to honour God. Friends please don't be distressed, Ryan and I truly have thought this through. We respect your decision please respect ours.

A Place for the Square Peg.

 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.~1 Corinthians 13:2

I was raised and still attend a pretty conservative church by the average christian's standards. It's an upbringing I have always appreciated and still do! (That's a bit of a disclaimer for my mom who now has an ipad and will read my blog posts.)

Recently I have heard our church called pharisaic and legalistic. I have mixed feeling about that, I feel both understanding and indignation for those comments. Are we 'rules' oriented? Yes, for sure. But some of the most well rounded children come out of the most 'rules oriented' families! God doesn't want us just running willy nilly!  I don't think rules are a bad thing, especially for people with a sinful nature that would self destruct left to their own devices. But there are a couple problems with the over-glorification of rules.

 Judgement
When there is a definite set of rules on how a christian should conduct themselves and live then there is a lot of judgement for folks who don't live that way. I get that there are ten commandments and I hold them in high esteem, but do we hold them ALL equally in high esteem? Truthfully we hold some a little higher than others, for example taking God's name in vain and not attending church are REALLY bad. Killing and adultery are bad but mostly we don't do that, WHAT? We don't lust? We don't call each other fool??? Oh oh, seems like we aren't doing any better than anyone else? So why oh why do we dare hold someone else to a standard we have no ability to keep ourselves? Do you know why I judge? Because it makes ME feel better about my sins and struggles.

We. must. stop. 
STOP.

No matter if we have the most sound doctrine out there, if we judge based on a list of rules that we get to give importance and weight to at our own discretion we dishonour what God revealed to us! We blaspheme His Holy Word and His Holy Name.

Stop looking at what our believing neighbour does, stop looking at what our unbelieving neighbour does and place Jesus' summary of the commandments in JUST as high esteem as the rest. 'LOVE your God and LOVE your neighbour as yourself.' When you love someone you do not judge them. You do not live their life. You do not know their circumstances.God walks beside them, He knows their struggles, and He gives the life of His only Child for them. Then we dare to think we are in a position to know better than God? If a person seems to be stuck in a sin the truth is they need your love all the more. How many of us when a sister or brother is not in church calls them to see if they are ok? Visits? How many of us judge them behind their back with words like, 'Well, no wonder they are depressed if they don't go to church because that is where you get lifted up.' I've been guilty of saying that. Then God taught me some really hard lessons.

If the last few years of my life have taught me anything it's this. Life can hurt so much you don't know how to lift you head any more much less attend church. In those times, the love of a sister or brother in the Lord has been Christ to me. Christs love wasn't something unreachable then, it was there beside me. Jesus to the least of these! That is our mission. It is our mission to the adulterer, to the homosexual, to the murder, to the theif, to the unbeliever and believer alike.

Unless we release the judgement that we are clutching in our heart and using to prop ourselves up we will never be able to properly evangelize and obey God. It's ok to have rules, but you may not use them as a measuring stick to see how people come up short. Use them as you would for your kids, a way to love them and keep them from hurting themselves.

A Lack of Joy
Recently I talked to a friend about folks saying there is a lack of joy in conservative churches. The friend didn't understand she finds great joy in our church. I can see both sides of this. If you are able to separate yourself from a list of rules and see them as ways to love God, following them out of thankfulness then they don't bother you. You see them as a safety net. They help you guide your way.

However for some people attempting to follow rules and falling short gives them great sadness. They feel like a square peg in a round hole. Have you ever felt like that? Like you just don't quite 'belong'? They feel like from the moment they darken the church door to the moment they leave that everyone is eyeing them and thinking 'Why is she wearing that, why don't they bring that kid to the nursery, where were they last week, he's not even singing etc etc' And let's be honest, sometimes we are thinking that. That brings us back to judging. If we feel judged we can't feel joy. We can't. We're always looking over our shoulder. Trying to be 'good enough'. But isn't that the point? We can NEVER be good enough. That is precisely why Jesus died. I think when you have struggled with depression you understand this better. You feel Satan beating you down daily whispering 'You'll never be enough.' in your ear, and you just want to go the church and know that you don't HAVE to be enough.

The kind of Joy these people are looking for is not Joy in following guidelines or Joy in working hard for the Lord, it's just JOY, basking in the glory of the cross, and all Christ has achieved for them. Those other 'works' they flow out of such a JOY, not into it.

It seems that some churches have decided to take a different approach with struggling sinners, because they are trying hard to break free of a legalistic mold.  Is it wrong for a church to accept sinners, who live in sin, show them love and pray for the Spirit to change their life?  Should church members be held more accountable than that? I don't think accountability for church members is a bad thing. We are all supposed to keep one another in line in love, but we must remember that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It is by GRACE we are saved. We must try not to sin any more but the truth is we will.We can leave changing hearts up to God, He's REALLY good at it! :)  And maybe the reason saved souls still sin is to teach us humility so that we cannot look down our nose at the person in the pew next to us. Or down the street. Yes that person who smokes the smelly stuff  and screams profanities at their kids, we're not better than them, not really. But the Spirit in our hearts, He is better, and He makes us more than we could ever be.