You Know You are in Legalism if…

I have been thinking about legalism. Hi, my name is Bart and I am a recovering Pharisee. I suppose everyone else has already gotten past legalism in your lives. Well you have not if you are still keeping score. You know you are a in a works based relationship with God when….

• You pray prayers that are more like contracts than conversations. “Lord I will always do better if you will just______ .”(You fill in the blank.)
• You do good things to counter your bad things.
• You see God dropping weights on your scales in heaven when you do good things or bad things. Then worry about which way you are leaning.
• You think that if you go to Church on Sunday night you are better than people who do not.
• You feel guilty if you don’t do ________ (Mine is, go to Church on Sunday night, Ha! Want to share yours?)
• You always feel guilty.
• You are not sure if you are saved.
• Think you are saved by what you do.
• See God just waiting for you to slip up so he can zap you.

Well that is all I could come up with tonight. Feel free to add some more in a comment.

I hope we can all just laugh at ourselves. Jesus didn’t, he cried. I think it really broke his heart to see what the Pharisees had made of the Law and salvation. God has forever wanted to have a relationship with us. He wanted it so bad he was willing to give up his Son for it.

Yes there are certain things God wants us to do. I am not talking about those things. I am talking about our attitude about the things we do. If I think I can do anything to obtain salvation on my own, I am a fool.

Hang in there and God bless.

Vacation Bible School

Well I have been roped into playing the role of Rowdy at Avalanche Ranch (Group Publishing) this year for Vacation Bible School (VBS). I am having fun. Sorry I have been a little absent.

Rowdy is a city-fied wannabe cowboy. The kids love him. I like to make people laugh. Laughing is good.

Well I have a couple of more days of VBS left. Rowdy gets to cut up some more. Take care and God bless.

Legalism and Older Brothers

I am going to put this post in the opinion category for now. I want to develop some thoughts and am looking for feedback especially scripture that goes along with my idea. I have been struggling with legalism most my life. I blame no one except myself. After all, the Bible is the same, only I have changed. For those of you who do not know here is the definition of Legalism (mine)…

Legalism is the belief that salvation or closeness to God is determined or maintained by strict adherence to a set of steps, laws, or processes.

I believe the older brother from the story of the lost son in Luke 15 to be a good example of legalism. He thought that all the years of hard service and obedience demanded repayment and reward from his father. He thought that it made him a good son. He never realized that he was always “with” his father.

Does this sound familiar? When I do the right things I should do, I feel close to God. I deserve his blessing and I can just see he is smiling on me. When I sin, I feel bad. Bad Bart, bad! Then I feel far from God and lost. Causes me to spiral down. I am beginning to believe this is not biblical. What I am thinking is once we have become a child of God, we are in a new position. My sin is no longer counted against me and I am always in close proximity to the Father. Okay, yes, when the younger son was gone or off doing what he wanted, he had no connection or relationship with his father. However, as soon as he returned, he was in tight. There was no “time out”.

I think what the father tells the older son at the end of the parable sums it all up for me.

” ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. Luke 15:31

I hear you God, help me believe.

A Late Father’s Day

I really wanted to get this up on Father’s day but just could not get it out. I have been struggling with issues surrounding grace, the law of liberty, and legalism. Legalism, I am familiar with, grace, love, and liberty are new to me. I say that but do not completely mean it.

As a young man, I related more to legalism. I understood the concept of “you do this you get this.” The world operates on the ideas of work, pay, loyalty, and subjection. It is easy to think that God works the same way. He is a God of wrath, punishment, and judgement. 

BUT!

As an older man, I realize the Bible’s theme is God demonstrating his love and mercy through the obedient sacrifice of his Son. Jesus’s purpose was to demonstrate God’s love and to help us know God.

What has this got to do with Father’s Day?

I have been thinking about the lost son in Luke 15. I am totally excited by the Father. Here is a man who’s son willfully disobeyed him. Basically disowned his family. Despite this, when he saw his lost son still a distance away he ran to him. Would your father run to you in the same situation? Would you run to your son or daughter to welcome them back?

I do know this, my children can do no wrong. That is I do not count their sin against them. Yes they sin, they make mistakes, they do things that disappoint and even anger; however, I do not remember their sin. There might be some punishment for sin but after the punishment it is all hugs and kisses. We talk about how much we love one another.

You know, I could be wrong (I do not think so) but I think this is exactly the state we can be in with God. He does not count our sin against us when we are his children. We are being made into his likeness, growing up, and learning from him how to act like God. What an awesome Father!

God bless.

You Might be an Older Brother: Sin

The number one problem older brothers have is SIN. Everyone knows it, except of course the older brother. You see older brothers do not sin. We do not have room for mistakes especially in others. PERIOD!

#1 problem for older brothers is sin.

Because they do not sin*, they are able to clearly, carefully, and callously pass judgement. It is so easy for the older brother to identify sin in people’s lives. They do it all the time. It is fun too, I’ve done it. Hey, be honest here, you have too. It makes us feel better about ourselves and we can ignore our sin for a little while.

Well guess what. older brothers SIN! Makes me mad. I am trying to be perfect here. Sin messes me up makes me depressed, guilty, and want to kick the cat. (By the way, where is that cat!) Older brothers know God hates sin more than anything. So he hates sinners. Simple really. So if we sin, God is mad at us and I had better watch out for the lightning bolts. Right.

#2 problem for older brothers is an inability to deal with sin and more importantly the guilt associated with it.

Older brothers have missed the point!

The lesson that the younger brother learned was, his daddy loves him and forgives him. WOW! Having intentionally sinned for a long time, Daddy forgave him. Lesson, God forgives us when we sin. In fact, we can live in such a way that sin is not counted against us. It is pre-forgiven. When Jesus died on the cross he freely offered himself as a sacrifice for my sin I will commit tomorrow.

Paul tries to explain some of this in his letter to the Romans.

One man’s sin brought guilt to all people. So also one right act made all people right with God. And all who are right with God will live. Many people were made sinners because one man did not obey. But one man did obey. That is why many people will be made right with God.

The law was given so that sin would increase. But where sin increased, God’s grace increased even more. Sin ruled because of death. So also grace rules in the lives of those who are right with God. The grace of God brings eternal life because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done. Romans 5:18-21

Hallelujah! My sins are covered. Yours?

*This is a lie remember 1 John 1:5-10

Self-Indulgence & Taking Life Easy

I mentioned how much I enjoyed Robert Fraser’s book Marketplace Christianity in a previous post. He has many lessons in the book that spoke directly to me. One was from Luke. Being the Luke-ophile I am, I could not resist passing on some of Robert’s thoughts. If you get the book you can find more about this topic on pages 157-158.

I think from a child I always dreamed of retiring early. It is the American dream. Work a little play a lot. I wanted that so bad. It affected the way I thought about work. Work being a necessary evil, was something I dreaded and trudged through. NOT, enjoyed, improved, mastered, and produced much valued in. Needless to say I was wrong. But I digress.

Our culture promotes self-indulgence and living lives of ease. When we wake up Monday morning we are looking forward to Friday. Luke talks about this in the parable of the rich fool.

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ‘

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God Luke 12:15-21

From Marketplace Christianity, Robert writes..

But to seek a life of ease is to seek earthly reward instead of heavenly. It means we have ceased from our spiritual calling. It makes sense that in Jesus’ parable of Luke 12, God took the rich man’s life – it no longer had any spiritual purpose.

What is my spiritual purpose. To take life easy, or to live a productive life of giving that glorifies God. Hmmmmm. Not to hard is it?

Robert Fraser’s Marketplace Christianity

I have just finished Robert Fraser’s book Marketplace Christianity. I have really enjoyed the book. I highly recommend it. Here are some of the things I learned from the book.

1. My #1 goal in life is to know and glorify Jesus Christ. Everything I do should reflect and reinforce this.
2. The “church” (that is what we typically call the building and what goes on there) is NOT my Christian service/worship. I think of Romans 12:1 here…Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
3. As a royal priest, my service is 24/7, as interact with everyone I come into contact with.

Some of these things you may already know. You might not, you see, us older brothers are a little clueless about true religion. So as I continue to peal the scales off my eyes to see clearly, I hope I can help someone else too.

There is so much more in the book. I plan on rereading it and marking mine up. So do not ask to borrow it. Go buy yours.

Read the book. It is good. God bless.

Law of Liberty

James talks about the law of liberty in his letter. He mentions it twice in his letter.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James 1:23-25 (English Standard Version)

And

But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:9-13 (English Standard Version)

Older brothers have a big problem with legalism. This was a struggle for the Pharisees. It is tough to keep from boiling down a relationship with God into a few rules and regulations. That is not what God intended.

Merriam-Webster defines liberty as..1 : the quality or state of being free: a : the power to do as one pleases b : freedom from physical restraint c : freedom from arbitrary or despotic control d : the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges e : the power of choice

Freedom from arbitrary or despotic control. Well to be honest I had to look up despotic. I think this perfectly describes the problem many people have under the lordship and authority of many religious organizations. Instead of a law of liberty they impose a law of bondage.

Funny thing is, I always took James as a rather legalistic fellow. Kinda big on works. Well he does talk about works; however, he was looking into the law of liberty.

Do you? God bless.

Man’s Anger Kills

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. James 1:19-21

I have written before about anger in You Might be an Older Brother: Anger. Anger is something that comes so naturally to us all. I am amazed at how many times anger is the way people react to situations. We react to other drivers on the road, people who work with us and people who live with us with anger. (I know there is good anger; however, 99.9% of our use of anger is not the good kind. I made up that statistic, if your’s is better let me know.)

James says we should be slow to get angry because man’s anger does not produce righteousness. When we get mad we do not act like God. No man’s anger murders, hurts, abuses, offends, manipulates, and <input your offence here>.

CHANGE DIRECTION!

Okay looking at the positive, what should I be quick to? LISTEN! Now as a Christ follower, I am empowered to act differently. Oh, yes I can act out of my sinful nature, like men do. That is not how Christians should act.

No, I can choose the spiritual. My new nature, powered by Christ, can listen, anylize, and love in the environments that would normally produce anger. That is the whole point, behaving different. Being able to minister to the people I normally get mad at.

God, give me wisdom. Help me act like you not man.

Hope, Inheritance, Power

I have found another instance of the three themes of my favorite prayer. I have written before about Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in his letter to them. The prayer can be found in Ephesians 1:18-20. In it Paul prays that they would know hope, the riches of our inheritance, and know the power for us who believe.

Peter has his own twist on the theme in 1 Peter.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

God has shown us the way. It is in his Son, Jesus Christ. Now we have been born into his family to receive the inheritance of princes. Not only that, we are protected by God’s power. Now that is something to hope in.

God bless.