Peripatetics: The Art of Walking

Peripatetics: The Art of Walking

  
This page is for the students at Crossroads Bible Church in Double Oak, Texas, because...

We're convinced that walking with Christ is the truly abundant life. There's an art to it, and we're trying help each other live that kind of life. Maybe this will help...

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    Monday, September 05, 2005

    Changes

    I don't like change.

    I don't mean in the general sense that most people say they don't like change. I REALLY don't like change. I don't even like it if we rearrange furniture in a room in my house. I don't like it if I move my desk in my office. Really, I don't even like the idea of change.

    So, I'm not sure I can imagine what it would've been like to have been growing up in the first century...about 20 years after the death of Christ.

    Your entire life would've been in upheaval if you'd decided to follow Him. This is WAY more than furniture moving. This is your entire way of living life.

    Let's say you were born to the nation of Israel, and you'd grown up under way of relating to God. It involved keeping the Law. Not only keeping the Law, but also the addendums that people put on those 10 commandments that would make it "easier" for you to keep those 10 Commandments.

    Your entire daily life was centered around the Temple system. You'd go to the Temple to make the requisite sacrifices for the various breeches you'd committed during the week. There'd be offerings to make, tithes to give...

    ...not to mention the sacrifices.

    To atone for your sins...just to get a temporary covering for your sins you'd committed...you'd go to the Temple. Maybe buy some birds or larger animals. Then you'd make a blood sacrifice to God for them. Sometimes maybe burning a grain offering. Others maybe pouring out wine for the relationship with God. It was gross. It was nasty. It was a picture to the Israelites of what was coming when the Messiah came and would offer up the sacrifice once-for-all...but the payment for sin would always require the shedding of blood.

    Then the Messiah comes and sheds the blood once-for-all. It would never have to happen again.

    You accept the free gift after an apostle who walked with Christ told you about it...and now your entire way of living life changes.

    You're free.

    You never have to go to the Temple again. The debt has been paid once-for-all. Now you can live a Spirit-led life...just like David and others. How sweet would that be?

    But then, over time, you begin to lose a sense of who you are. Of what made you unique. Of what set you and those like you apart from the rest of the nations. Maybe you get a twinge of jealousy of those who weren't Jewish getting to accpet the same free gift of the Messiah. They never had to go to the Temple and make the sacrifices. They never had to go to the festivals. They never had to do those things. They never got to experience what it was truly like to be a nation set apart for God's own purpose and be unique and special to Him...

    That combination gets you to a point where it makes you more comfortable to put the "furniture" back in the spot where it was before. You decide there's got to be something in the middle. A balance between the two. So, maybe you can get the best of the Jewish religion and balance it out. Get the new converts to become Jewish first. Circumcision to signify being grafted into the covenant of the nation. Teach them the ways of sacrifice. Teach them the essence of being Israel. And, you get Christ, too. What could be more meaningful.

    I get it. It's scary how much I understand the line of thought.

    But I also get what Paul had to write Galatians to deal with that line of thinking.

    That's the backdrop of the letter.

    Rules that make your relationship with Christ "better" or "more as it was intended" can quickly rip the fabric of what a relationship with Christ is supposed to be and take it into the realm of people doing things to gain His favor...which is really nothing more than Modern Day Phariseeism. And the results are scary.

    So, I understand the passion with which Paul writes...and I see the same things every day.

    For today, let's come up with a list of some of the rules of the modern day Pharisee stuff we see in our Christian culture...I'll start...

    ...You must have a "quiet time" (whatever that is) every day.

    Ready...Go!

    Brent 6:46 AM
    Comments:
    You have to feel the spirit moving in you when they dim the lights, pull out the accoustic guitar, and chant the same chorus about a thousand times?
    posted by Blogger Hollywood : 2:57 AM
     
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