I Want To Break Free

A few weeks ago Meeting Of One posted this video in relation to the question of whether to O.R.E.C. or not to O.R.E.C. (Organized Religious Entertainment Centre). (I'm sure people who read this blog "get" it). ;) Going along with the fun, I posted this video.

Well, I know there are some who are still pondering the question, and there are those who have other things in their lives they perhaps are 'struggling' to break free from. Some of it may be quite serious. Spiritual abuse, religion, legalism, lies, bad relationships, a job, a coworker, a church, a church member, you name it. NOT to minimize any of the seriousness of any of those issues, but here's a lighthearted look at the struggle people may be going through, from the boys who call themselves Queen. I don't know about you, but I think this is quite hilarious. :) The actresses... um, actors... play their parts well! The rest of the stuff is, what... art?

I Want To Break Free

Whatever the law says... (Part 4)

This entry might seem a little odd coming from me, but the subject matter here has come up from time to time when I've been discussing grace and law with others. On rare occasions, New Testament writers such as James and Paul have brought up "law" in their talk of the Christian life. So I've heard people say things such as, "See, both James and Paul said law was part of the Christian life!" And so I just wanted to include an entry here in which I shared my thoughts on all this. As always, I'm open to your thoughts as well.

First off, I want to make clear my personal conviction that the law itself does not convict a Christian of sin or of guilt or of having fallen short in any area of Christian living. In the examples I'm going to share from James and Paul, it looks to me as if it has more to do with 1) silencing Christian hypocrisy and legalism, and 2) showing us what is good. I'll explain below.

The life we live, we live by faith in Christ. We live by the life of a Person, not by rules that were written in cold stone. We don't live by law, and we don't look to the law to see how to live. There is no life in the law, but there is life in Christ. In fact, we have died to the law in order to have life in Christ! We don't go back to our old lover... especially when our new Lover is sufficient in every way! We know that "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3), which is something we will simply never, ever find in the law. We live by the very life of Christ, not through looking at the law.

My first example of one of the rare cases of an New Testament writer talking "law" to believers is from James. Again, I can't stress enough that I believe we need to look at this in the context of the full understanding of the law that has been revealed in the NT.

James wrote, "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:8-13, emphasis mine).

Keep in mind what we've already said in this series... that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law. Keep in mind that it was given to stop the self-justifying mouths of unbelievers. Keep in mind that it was given to make the world guilty. And keep in mind that after it did all this in the life of a non-believer, that person turned to faith, and died to the law in order to be married to Christ (Rom 7:4). Keep in mind that "the law is not of faith" (Gal 3:12).

And keep in mind that James was talking to people who knew the law. Remember in Romans 7 when Paul talked about how we had to die to the law in order to be married to Jesus? Paul started off by saying, "I speak to those who know the law." In other words, "I want to explain to you how a person has to die to the law in order to have Jesus, and since I'm speaking to those who know the law, let me use this example, from the law itself, to make my case." Paul wasn't talking "law" for the purpose of putting anybody under it, but rather to make an illustration of something else. Paul could have illustrated his point without using the law, but that's simply how he chose to do it.

I see James doing something similar. James says here, "If you really fulfill the royal law according to scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well." How does one do this? It most certainly can't be a fleshly act (our own attempts at following the law). It's the result of God's divine power that has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. James then says - and this, to me, is the key of the entire passage - "but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors."

Now, if James' words mean that a Christian stumbles in one point and is "guilty of all," and is actually convicted by the law as a transgressor, then that has just made void all that Christ has accomplished on our behalf, and it makes void His life in us! Indeed, as Christians we sin. But we are not convicted by the law as transgressors. The law already did that, and then we died to it and turned to life and righteousness in Christ. Please give me liberty in paraphrasing, then, what I believe is being communicated here:

"My Christian friends, through Christ you fulfill the royal law ("love your neighbor as yourself"), and that is good. But if you show partiality (or "if you have respect of persons," as another versions says), you sin. I know you're familiar with what the law says. Don't you even remember that under the law you were convicted as transgressors? Even if you had kept the whole law and yet stumbled at one point, you were guilty of all! If you didn't commit adultery, but did murder, you were still a transgressor of the law nonetheless. So... now that you're in Christ, by His life love one another and don't sin by judging one another and showing partiality. You know that you were saved by the principle (law) of liberty, not the law of Moses. In the end, you will be judged by this wonderful law of liberty, in which you were made free by the love of God. Act and speak towards others in this same way!"

Another rare example of bringing up the law in the life of a believer comes from Paul in Eph 6:1-3. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother,' which is the first commandment with promise: 'that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.'"

A quick read of this would perhaps make it seem as if Paul is talking about actually using the law as a guide in the life of a Christian. But I don't think so. In admonishing children to obey their parents, Paul points out how this is a good thing. Again, my own paraphrase, "It's such a good thing that God even promised long life for those who would honor their parents."

If we take into account everything else that Paul said about the law, we can clearly see that he is not telling Christians to follow a certain law here. For one thing, Paul himself said that there is no law that could ever give life. This particular commandment promised life... but of course it was conditional upon people keeping the law - the whole law - and no one has ever done that. As James said, if you keep all the laws but break one, you're guilty of all. No matter what, under the law, we're guilty! This case in Ephesians is a very rare reference to the law that Paul made to remind us what is good.

Again, I've heard these scriptures brought up from time to time and I just wanted to share my thoughts on it all as part of this series. The fifth and most-likely final post in this series will be tomorrow, and I'll also get Part 2 of "Love in 1 Corinthians 13" posted soon.

I don't 'really care' about my bad reputation...

I'm taking somewhat of a risk posting the song below. I think most of you "get" me and you understand why I would share something like this, but I know that for some I'm crossing an unnecessary line. And that's all right - I'll take my chances! (I'll say right off the bat, if you're one who doesn't care for certain 'bad' words (one of the tamer 'bad' words is repeated throughout the song - the "D" word), or certain 'bad' attitudes represented in film/video, then you're one of the people I'm taking my chances with and you might not care to read further or watch the video!

As I first give a little background, I'll start off by saying that I've met so many people - in person and online - who have dealt with, in one way or another, the nasty effects of legalism and who are wanting to break free in their hearts from those who have oppressed them and who have been the cause of spiritual abuse in their lives. For me personally, ever since I began to become free in the wonderful grace of God, one thing that has tended to hamper my own growth in freedom is the fear of losing my "reputation" among my super-religious peers.

You know who I'm talking about. Those who follow all the rules. Those who are in church every time the doors are open. Those who dress right. Those who listen to the right music. Those who follow through on their duty to tithe to their local church. Those who don't drink, smoke or chew, or go with girls who do. Those who have all their spiritual i's dotted and t's crossed. Those who do all they can do to protect their godly reputations and who frown on anything that appears even a tiny bit out of line.

Now here's the thing. I love Jesus. I love Him more and more as a result of growing in His love for me. I'm FREE in Him, and my freedom allows me to just be myself and watch Him work His works in me as we have a relationship together, instead of following some divine "do" and "do not do" list. But can you believe this - some people actually frown on all of this, and consider it a flagrant disregard for the things of Christ! Hmmm!

And so at times I've (unnecessarily) carried with me a bit of concern about what they think of me. Sometimes I've (unnecessarily) worried about my reputation among my more-religious brothers and sisters. And it's been too much of an unnecessary burden for me. Now if you know me, you know I'm not bitter or angry about any of this. I've just seen how it's hurt me in the past and I've seen how it's hurt others. But I've become increasingly free of it all and I've also seen many other people breaking free! And so when I see or hear something that seems to represent an example of all of this, I tend to like to share it!

"Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts is a song from the 80's that I heard recently (a few weeks ago) after having not heard it for many years. Then this morning on the radio I heard a rerun of one of Casey Kasem's old Top 40 countdowns in which he played Joan Jett's "I Love Rock N' Roll." Casey mentioned that before hitting it big with that song, Joan and her band had been turned down by twenty three record labels while trying get a record deal.

I then remembered that the "Bad Reputation" video had kind of an "In your face / So there!" theme to it, with somewhat comical scenes showing the various record label executives rejecting the band and their music. But then it goes on to show the Billboard chart with "I Love Rock N' Roll" in the Number 1 position, and gee golly, the record execs suddenly liking the band!

The video and the lyrics (some of the lyrics, not all of them) got me to thinking about the whole "reputation" thing in the church. How often are people looked down upon and rejected when their act doesn't seem good enough for everyone else. It's only when (if) they start to put on a good performance that they get showered with all kinds of attention and accolades. And then they have to keep working hard to maintain their good reputation. If they should slip, even to a degree... Ooooh I shudder to think about it.

Of course the reputation thing is nothing new. The Apostle Paul certainly dealt with it. He came up against those who would "desire to make a good showing in the flesh" (keep up the 'good reputation' of the church) by making Christians keep the Law, just so that they wouldn't be persecuted by the Jews (see Galatians 6:11-15). Paul also had to deal with a similar problem with Peter. When the law-keeping Jewish Christians would come by, Peter would withdraw and separate himself from the Gentile believers (with whom he would normally have no problem having fellowship with), fearing his own reputation among the religious people. Paul "withstood him to his face" about this hypocrisy.

And so, on to my main purpose in bringing all this up: We who are free in Christ, and who have gotten off of the performance treadmill and who have embraced Jesus the Person and chucked aside Christianity the Religion, have no real reason to be concerned about our reputation among our legalistic brothers and sisters in Christ! We are free and we can't let fear of religious people stop us from enjoying our freedom!

The attitude represented in the song "Bad Reputation" doesn't necessarily represent my own personal attitude, and perhaps my way of expressing the thoughts would be a little more toned down than the lyrics of the song. But yet as I've continued to toss around the idea of sharing this video, I just can't deny that once again I've come across a song that was never, ever intended as anything close a 'spiritual freedom' song but yet has spoken volumes to me in that regard!

Second warning on the "D" word... here are some of the lyrics, followed by the video:

I don't give a damn about my reputation
Never said I wanted to improve my station
And I'm only doin' good
When I'm havin' fun
And I don't have to please no one
And I don't give a damn
About my bad reputation

Oh no, not me
Oh no, not me

I don't give a damn
About my reputation
I've never been afraid of any deviation
And I don't really care
If ya think I'm strange
I ain't gonna change
And I'm never gonna care
About my bad reputation

Oh no, not me
Oh no, not me

Too many rules! Vinnie Barbarino is so confused!

I've been on a serious streak lately and I needed a little comic relief! I don't mind being serious. I can be a really serious guy. I'm serious about that.

But of course I love to have my fun too! I've been reading the latest comments on this blog and I'm really enjoying what I'm reading, and I'll be back to tomorrow to join in the conversation, but for now here's a clip of John Travolta starring as Vinnie Barbarino in one of my all-time favorite shows, Welcome Back Kotter. I can relate to Vinnie's "confusion." :) Can anyone else?

Hey, doesn't the nurse in this clip kind of remind you of the heavy-handed dad in the Twisted Sister video, We're Not Gonna Take It?!



Speaking of the TS video, you know I have to post it at least once a month for Aida! LOL... Just kidding! But yet I have been waiting for the opportune time to share something I recently found. It's the full-length video for the song, including one extra minute at the beginning! I guess you could say it adds an extra minute of the context of the harsh, legalistic nature of the household in which the video takes place...

(BTW, if you're new here, search my blog for "Twisted Sister" to see why I'd even begin to think about posting this video. There's definitely a purpose for it, really!) :)

Joyful living and joyful giving - Part 2 of 2

In Part 1, I left off by saying that there was more to the stories about joyless giving that I had briefly mentioned. Check out that post to see the stories.

In story number one, the host of the program made things worse for the woman, in my opinion. It was obvious to me that he was a supporter of Christian tithing, and so instead of addressing the fact that tithing is a non-Christian principle (again, stay tuned and I'll eventually lay out a series of posts, showing how tithing is not a New Covenant principle by any means), and freeing the woman up to simply give freely from her heart as she determined to do on her own, which would by nature involve nothing less than cheerful giving, he gave her a list of rules and principles she could try to follow in order to have more joy in her life.

This is the type of thing in which I tend to have more verbal communication with my radio than I otherwise would have. ;)

And worse yet, in story number two the woman and her husband were commended by the host for what they did. I will mention that the woman said that she and her husband were very happy with what they had done and that they were thankful that they were in a position to be giving to something that they really wanted to give to. If they were truly changing their lifestyle because in their hearts they had decided that this was a way to give, and they did it cheerfully, then I can't argue with that.

But yet the whole story seems to me to be based more on legalism and religion - and not just a small wiff of it. This couple did feel obliged to "pay a tithe" to their local church. It didn't seem like they thought they had a choice in the matter. The root of their actions, it seems to me, was obligation, not giving freely.

When it comes to both joyful living (an overall life of joy) and joyful giving, the root can never be obligation. It can never be religion. It can never be rules. It can never be law. Christ came to set us FREE from all of that! I think that many Christians are living joyless lives, or at least seem to have very little joy, because they are mixing either a little or a lot of law and Old Covenant principles into their Christian lives. It only takes a little leaven of the law and religion to leaven the whole lump (see Gal 5:1-9).

Someone (well, ok, a LOT of people) might want to take some New Testament words and make "rules and principles" out of them. I'm thinking of words such as Peter's words, "What kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives..." (2 Peter 3:9). I recently heard an entire sermon on the radio based upon this passage. It basically turned out to be a list of do's and don'ts for the Christian life.

But the more I find out about my freedom in Christ, I find that the "oughts" of the Christian life are rooted in something much deeper. We can't simply yank passages out of the Bible and make rules out of them. Peter, in the above passage, continues with words that are often overlooked. "...as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." This "ought" was rooted in joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord. It wasn't rooted in any kind of obligation to "be a better Christian" by following the rules. Joy wasn't going to come as a result of trying to live by "oughts."

Rather, the types of lives we live are rooted in the fact that in Christ we have freedom and we have joy. We have a wonderful Savior and Friend, and as we get to know Him intimately and freely, not through rules and oughts, but through His grace and love, then we won't be obliged to change our lifestyles in order to try to do better for Him. Instead, the sanctification process will be much more natural, over a period of time, as we rest in Him. It deeply saddens me that for many, the Christian life is not much more than futile attempts at rules and oughts.

As you read through other New Testament epistles, note how Paul and the others lay a foundation of life, love, grace, etc. And much more than a foundation, life, love and grace are also the makeup of the entire Christian life. And the actions of the Christian life, such as giving, kindness, love, holiness, etc, are not the root of the Christian life. They are the legitimate fruit of being grounded firmly and deeply in God's love and grace!

Joyful living and joyful giving - Part 1 of 2

I've had this in draft mode for at least two or three months, and with recent posts by others, and subsequent comments from others, I thought this might be the time to finish it and post it.

I don't quite understand it (ha ha), but for some reason churches seem to make a priority of teaching on the topic of giving. And many of the teachings I've heard on this topic just make me sad. This is stuff I've heard all throughout my church life but I can't say that I ever get any happier when I hear it.

Here are two sad stories I've heard lately that I believe are direct results of how giving is taught in churches today.

1. On a Christian radio talk show, a woman called in with a problem. The gist of her problem is that she gives money to the church but she just can't seem to do it joyfully. She said something like, "We do pay our tithe to our church, but it just isn't a joyful thing for us."

2. Another woman called into a Christian talk show (I can't remember if it was the same program) and said that there was a time when she and her husband couldn't afford to pay their tithe to their church, because they wouldn't have enough money left over for other necessary things, but they felt guilty about it. So what did they end up doing? They SOLD their house, and in her own words, they took a huge loss on it. But, she says, now they are in a smaller house that costs less and they can now afford to "pay their tithe" to their church.

OH

MY.

Why do things like this surprise me? It probably happens far more than we can imagine.

But the point is... what has the Christian religion done to us??? We take Old Covenant laws and practices that served specific purposes for Old Covenant times, we stretch them and manipulate them to fit into the ways we've devised to do things in the church, and we call it "Christianity." I've written full commentaries on "the tithe" in the past and I've shared bits and pieces of my thoughts in various newgroups, and even more recently on other blogs, and I have in mind to do a full series here on "the tithe."

But for now I'll just say that I'll bet there are many similar stories to the ones I shared above, with people dealing with joyless giving, changing their lifestyles so they can "pay a tithe" to a church, and other problems rooted in legalism, and this is one of the areas of modern day legalistic Christianity that really gets under my skin.

The stories above didn't end where I left off. I'll pick up where I left off next time.

Super Mario Bros. - We're Not Gonna Take It!

In my continuing (secret) efforts to totally corrupt Aida (that's what little 'brothers' are for, right?)... LOL... I've found the perfect video. :-D

In the comments of my It's a Sin post, Aida said she heard this song on the radio the other day - and was singing along to it - and her husband changed the station - and she told him to put it back on! And then today she said the song was going through her head all day. Well, my good old Nintendo friends from back in the day - The Super Mario Brothers - have their own video for the song and I just couldn't resist sharing it. (For Aida, of course).

(By the way, in case you're new here, this all sort of developed from a blog post of mine from about a year ago. I posted the video for Twisted Sister's song from the 80's, We're Not Gonna Take It, as sort of a comical look at the effects of legalism. Since that time I've watched the TS video several times, and I still continue to get a laugh out of it but at times it also sobers me up to the reality of the effects of legalism).

As for the video below... It's completely comical as far as I'm concerned. :) Introducing Luigi on drums and Mario playing a mean guitar!

It's a Sin

I barely remembered this song from the 80's. I liked the music of the Pet Shop Boys and I mostly remember their bigger hits such as Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money), West End Girls, and their popular version of Always On My Mind (see below). As I listened to It's a Sin today, the music and the lyrics came back to me, and I can say that I was much more struck by the lyrics today than I was back then!

One example of a verse that really stuck out to me was:

At school they taught me how to be
So pure in thought and word and deed
They didn't quite succeed...

(That's just one small part. See all the lyrics here.)

Judging from the video, the lyrics appear to be referring to a Catholic school experience, but I suppose it could refer to any type of private (or public) school experience in which morals were legalistically taught/stressed/enforced... and of course my mind quickly made the legalistic church connection in regards to this terrible obsession with SIN!

It's sad, but I think it's true that this song probably represents the mindset of many people in the world today in regards to their understanding of how God sees them. I pray for the truth of the righteousness that comes by faith, not our own efforts at righteousness, and the truth of the new life and the new identity that God gives us in Christ in which we don't live with a sin consciousness but with a righteousness consciousness and with peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, to continue to be spread all around the world and to FREE people instead of keeping them in the bondage of a focus on sin!

Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin


For Aida... Pet Shop Boys' version of Always On My Mind :)

"I'm a bilingual illiterate. I can't read in two languages." LOL :)

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

I don't suppose I can bring anyone along on the emotional journey I just went through as I watched this video... I'm sure it was an experience unique to me... but I can at least share it with you.

And really... all in all it's just a song from Pink Floyd!

Watching this video, I was brought back to my boyhood. This video somewhat reminds me of my school days in England in the late 70's / early 80's. I attended a private all-boys secondary school that was just behind our house. The school seemed dark and old, and a little run down. I was somewhat scared of some of the teachers. Everyone was to rise when the headmaster entered your room. Canings were still very common, although I never got into the kind of trouble that warranted a caning. I guess I'm painting a pretty bleak picture here, but it wasn't all that bad (and definitely not as bad as in this video!). Overall it was an "ok" experience... but I will say that I wouldn't ever want to re-live it!).

Also... the darkness of fear, conformity, rules, authority, religion, legalism, isolation, abuse, rebellion, are all represented in this video (from my perspective, anyway), and overall in Pink Floyd's 1979 concept album The Wall and in the 1982 rock opera film that came from it. Where do I get all these anti-authority videos from? I grew up with them!

On a more comical note... or actually, on a confessional note... During my teen years I was at a party one time when someone was playing this very Pink Floyd record. People knew that I lived in England during the time this song was recorded, and I began telling them that I had been part of the school choir that sang on this song. :) I said they picked our school out of many schools, and came to our school and recorded us and edited us into the song.

The truth is... my elementary school choir really had recorded a couple of albums right around the same time (strickly "choir" songs)... but being in Stockport, England, we were far away from the North London secondary school that was actually chosen, having been right around the corner from the studio! This was simply one of those things that I made up to make myself appear to be someone I wasn't. Years later, after having all but forgotten about it, I finally "fessed up" when my friend Carianne mentioned it in an email one time. "Oh, yeah... about that..." :D

Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall

Now teacher, don't you fill me up with your rules...

Some people who know me will know where I'm coming from with this.

Others who know me will know that I'm not necessarily coming from anywhere with this. ;)

As for me and my house... it's probably both. :)

I've had my computer down for a few days while doing a massive rearrangement of things in the ol' office, and while I'm planning on continuing with my "Jesus is Not a Religion" series tomorrow, I had other things on my mind tonight. Once I got booted up again, instead of getting caught up on important things... LOL... I spent some time looking at old Motley Crüe videos. :-D

Smokin' in the Boys Room

Persecution

After a recent post of mine, and some comments that followed by Matthew, many thoughts came to mind. I remembered that in the past I had written about what I was thinking about, so below is a repost of my "Persecution" post from January 9, 2007. This was written before I had come to know many of you!

I should note that I do realize that Christians have been and still are persecuted for many different reasons around the world, and persecution is by no means limited to what I'm focusing on here. My focus here is on persecution from legalistic, religious people towards grace people. It's been going on a long, long time, going back even as far as Cain and Abel, although I don't go back quite that far here. :)

-----

Why were Jesus and the disciples persecuted? Why were the people of the early church persecuted? And another important question - who persecuted them?

In Western Christian culture, we tend to think of persecution as "good Christians" being put down or made fun of by "sinners." But I guess I just don't see that happening to Jesus or to the early church. The persecution that Jesus, the disciples and the early church received was from the religious people! Jesus was not put down and mocked - and ultimately killed - because He went around telling "bad" people to start being "good." He was hated by the religious people because He put His arms around sinners. He supped with them. He loved them.

Jesus told His disciples, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you" (John 15:18). It's true that many people today hate Christians. We've done a good job of making sure that's the case! But... I think we've gotten them to hate us for the wrong reasons! In fact, I think we've gotten the wrong people to hate us!

Jesus told His disciples, "They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service" (John 16:2). The people who hated Jesus and the disciples believed in God and wanted others to walk in His ways. But there was something "unsynagoguish" about Jesus and His disciples. I often think they would be kicked out of many of today's churches, too.

Again, who is it that did the persecuting, and why? Why was Saul standing there holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen? Then later, after Saul became a Christian (now known as Paul), why was he so heavily persecuted? Why was the early church so persecuted? Was it because they were "standing up for what is right!" (?) Was it because they were living such good, clean lives, that sinners all around began mocking them and calling them "goody two shoes?" Was it because they were protesting all the anti-Christian behavior that was going on around them, attending rallies and carrying signs and trying to get "moral" laws passed?

I realize that the point I'm making flies in the face of the modern church... :) But the people doing the persecuting were often the goody-two shoes, the religious, the law-abiding legalists! The ones being persecuted were persecuted for rejecting Moses and embracing Jesus. "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).

Saul had been a man who had great confidence in his flesh. Later, when he became known as Paul, he would testify about his past life, before coming to know Jesus: "If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless" (Phil 3:4-6).

Saul had gone around persecuting these new Christians who had rejected that way of life and instead embraced Christ. But then Jesus came to him. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4). After his conversion he realized how he had been so far from the truth. Saul's former "testimony" was cleaner than that of the squeakiest clean of today's squeaky clean Christians! But he turned away from that testimony to that he could have Christ instead.

He went on to share about his turning away from that law-abiding way of life: "But what things were gain to me (the things listed in Phil 3:4-6), these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith..." (Phil 3:7-9).

Paul turned from his law-abiding life (he counted it as "dung") to a Christ-abiding life. There is a huge difference. The first way seemed like it should bear good fruit, but it only bore fruit unto death. "For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit unto death" (Rom 7:5).

Paul may have spent the latter part of his life in the chains of men, being persecuted by his own people for rejecting their ways, but he lived in perfect freedom, the freedom for which Christ had set him free!

The Legalist

Mmm mmmmm! I've had this little book for about ten years now, and I pick it up from time to time to read bits and pieces from it, but it's been a while. So when I picked it up this morning and started from the beginning, it was quite the tasty snack!

The author's name is Jack Stewart, and I don't know anything about him except this book. The book, published in 1989, is called The Legalist - Righteous Before Others But Not Before God. It's an easy read, divided into 26 short chapters.

Some excerpts:
From Chapter 1 - "A Day in the Life of a Legalist"

A day in the life of a legalist is filled with trying to become and never arriving! He seems not to know that Christ means the end of the struggle for righteousness-by-the-law for everyone who believes in Him so he fights bravely and hopelessly on!

Dwelling in a perpetual winterland of barrenness, where the cold blasts of condemnation and despair chill his soul, he rarely sees the sunlight of God's love and acceptance! Clouds of doubts and fear overcast the Father's face, Whom he imagines to be more critical than compassionate, frowning than forgiving.

A legalist's day is usually joyless, lifeless, drab, and bound. He is slave to rules: what to eat,drink, wear, and where or where not to go...

Bible reading, praying, giving, and witnessing are usually looked upon as obligations rather than joyous opportunities for the building and exercising of his faith. The pharisaical strait jacket he wears fails to make him holy, makes him look like he is, and deprives him of the joy of true holiness!

Doing is the fruit of a right relationship with God; it is not the root! And the source of all right doing, is right being. In Psalm 1:3, the words He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water precedes and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

From Chapter 2 - "The Roots of Legalism"

Of one thing we can be sure: if our righteousness is the fruit of our struggle, it is not the righteousness of God for His righteousness is a gift. Self-justification is not holiness even if it looks like it!

If I understand correctly, the book is out of print but I see there are a few copies on Amazon and you could probably find it on Ebay too.

Lies, Lies, Lies!!!

Ha ha! I figured that title would be an attention grabber. :)

Most, or at least many of you who read this blog are familiar with Steve McVey and Grace Walk Ministries. I thought I'd share something interesting and enlightening that Steve is doing. In the past couple of days Steve has begun a new thing on his blog in which he is planning on uploading short videos in which he talks about lies that are taught in church every week. This isn't meant to be a negative thing, ripping pastors apart for the legalistic things they preach. Rather, as Steve says in this video (in which he explains all of this), "Jesus said, 'You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.' If knowing the truth sets you free, then what would lies do? Lies would put you into bondage."

In other words, this is more of a "shake 'em to wake 'em" type of thing in which lies are exposed for the purpose of bringing the truth to light, thereby setting people free!

As of the time of this post, Steve has posted the first video, Lie #1 - Salvation Is You Giving Your Life To Christ. If you have a problem with calling that statement a lie, I think Steve's explanation will help turn your thinking around. :) Keep your eye out for upcoming videos, and also keep in mind that Steve is offering you the opportunity to email him the religious lies you've heard during your life.

Slow-cooking together

I try to be at least somewhat vulnerable on this blog. I mean, while not getting into the nitty gritty of my deepest and darkest fears, weaknesses, problems, etc, I've tried to be open in a way that I hope others can relate to in one way or another. I've shared about everything from my past marriage problems to my current and ongoing apprehension when it comes to talking on the phone! In sharing stuff like this, I know it's easy to give the impression that I live life in the curled up fetal position, sucking my thumb, afraid to do anything! But of course you know that's not true at all, and I know that that's not the case for anyone else who has shared their experiences here. Whenever I expose any of my weaknesses, it's always for the purpose of pointing to the overcoming God who lives in me!

I lived a good chunk of my life wearing masks and putting up walls. Essentially, being fake. But during the past 10 to 15 years I've been taking off the masks and breaking down the walls and just wanting to be real. There were times in my early Christian life in which I lied about what God was doing in my life because I wanted people to believe in the power of God! Isn't that just plain silly? I hadn't experienced some of the great and miraculous things that I'd heard some of my pentecostal friends talk about, and I thought that perhaps my faith just wasn't big enough. I didn't want others to think less of me. I wanted to impress them by making them think I had great faith! On top of that, I thought that unless I had some great and miraculous testimonies to share, I wouldn't be able to help other people believe in this great God of mine. So from time to time I would greatly exaggerate stories and even make up stories about what God had done in my life.

But over the years I've grown. I've truly seen God at work in my life, and it's generally not been in the form of great fireworks displays, at least not in a way that would make great headlines. It's been mostly slow, steady growth. Not a fast boil, but a nice slow cook. And it's not been because of my "great" faith. It's been because of my great God. Now, there have truly been occasions in which I've quickly overcome various problems and obstacles, such as the story I've shared about suddenly overcoming panic attacks. I'm glad that I can share stories like that without exaggerating. But most of my sins and weaknesses have not been overcome suddenly like that. Some of them have been overcome and put to death over the long haul, and some of them I still haven't overcome yet.

The point here, though, is not to focus on the things I need to overcome. I've found that when I gaze steadily at my weaknesses, there is no power to overcome them! But when I gaze steadily at the Person who lives inside me, the Holy Spirit, then "there is power, power, wonder working power." And again, the thing I've found out, at least in my own life, is that the wonder working power of the Holy Spirit does not generally provide for quick fixes!

Another reason for sometimes being vulnerable here is because I've come to find out that I'm not the only one dealing with various issues in life. When I keep quiet about some of these things, it's very easy for me to think I'm the only one who's ever dealt with certain things. And on the other side of the coin, it's very easy for someone else to think that they're the only one who deals with certain things. But by being open I've found that other people truly do relate, even if the specific issues aren't always exactly the same.

I hope for this to be the type of blog in which people can feel free to just "be." If you're a 'lurker' who simply reads the posts and the comments, but who doesn't participate, I hope you will be greatly encouraged by the things that are said here. And if you do participate, whether often or occasionally, I hope that you feel free to be yourself as you share what's on your heart. I know that that's the case on the blogs of the people who comment here, as well as with the other blogs and websites that I've linked to on the right.

Overall, this blog is for those who are tired of religion and legalism and who simply want to grow in their relationship with Jesus, not based upon the performance-based rules, methods, principles and laws of the church that have only served to leave people hungrier and thirstier (the opposite of what is intended), but rather based upon hunger-and-thirst-quenching intimacy with the Holy Spirit as He teaches us and assures us of the unconditional love and grace of God through the scriptures, through direct revelation to us and through each other! This blog is for those who want to "let your roots grow down into (Jesus) and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught..." (from Col. 2:7 NLT).

We're all in this together!