rules rules rules...

'The year of living biblically' seemed like a very intriguing book that a non-Christian friend of mine had told me he had been reading and so he told me he would lend it to me. Thankful he has and I am currently reading through it. I have to say it is a very well written book (not that I'm a scholar by any means) and a lot funnier than I had first perceived.

'Angels and demons' just came onto our cinema screens last week and I was busting to see it. I'm not one of these people who thinks we should boycott them because they might have something nasty to say about Christianity but to watch them (not get obsessive about them) but to see what the culture is telling people.) And I have to say, it was a great movie. 

But these two combined, the reading of this book and watching 'angels and demons', it just reinforced  one thing; Christianity is all about rules rules rules. I know some of you will read this and say yeah, but in angels and demons it is dealing with the Roman Catholic church, but I would reply, when you see the film they use phrases that portrayed Christianity... people in today's world might not see the difference.

As funny as 'the year of living biblically' is, it just reinforces rules rules rules, nothing else. That is what is demanded when living for God... apparently, to abide by the rules, to play by the rules, to know the rules.

But the good thing that became evident at the end of the movie and is becoming evident as I make my way through the book, is that old line of wisdom 'rules are meant to be broken' because that is what is shown in the end.

Regardless of what rules people try to live to, ultimately we all fail. The bible tells us 'therefore no-one will be declared righteous (made right with God) in his sight by observing the law(these rules), rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.'

The fact that we all fail at rule keeping should show how far from God we really are, how much we rebel against him and should make us 'conscious of sin'

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not rules rules rules but grace grace grace (undeserved favour, ill deserved favour, kindness).

Let us tell people that to be made right with God, it is not a life of do do do, but a life of done-because Jesus done it all through his life, death and resurrection and by trusting Him, he takes our sin, we gain his righteousness and so we have a right relationship with the one true and living God. Let us tell people about our gracious God, that we 'are justified freely by his grace' so that films like angels and demons and books like 'the year of living biblically' will not win by promoting this false gospel of rules rules rules.

'Inclusivity'

For those of you who don't know, I trust and follow Jesus Christ. I have heard alot recently of the term 'inclusivity', and how we should be inclusive, for example to allow people in openly homosexual relationships to be involved within leadership of the church. 

First thing to say is that the bible is the word of God and is the ultimate authority, secondly, according to Romans and backed up everywhere else in the bible is that we all rebel against God-Romans 3: 23 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.' and so we are all on the same playing field when it comes to God-we can't get to him without help, so he came to us...which brings me to my third point, Jesus first words in Mark's biography are 'repent and believe the good news'.

The Christian life is shown through repentance-which means a complete turn around, turning your back from rebellion to God, this doesn't mean that we're perfect but it does mean a life time of pledging allegiance to the one true and living God who can forgive us for this. 

The problem with the term 'inclusivity' when it comes to Christianity is that it doesn't involve the term repentance and tells people to come into leadership regardless of their lifestyle...I am not saying I am perfect, but someone who is in an openly homosexual relationship hasn't repented. It would be like having the president of the sky diving society being someone who has never sky dived....it doesn't make sense.

I have friends who struggle with homosexuality, I have friends who struggle with heterosexual lust...I myself am one, but it doesn't give me the right to use the term 'inclusivity' to pass over it. 

A word that closely follows this term 'inclusivity' is the word 'love', I agree we all need to love everyone. But we cannot compromise the truth for the term 'love', in the same way we can't compromise 'repentance' for the term 'inclusivity.'

I once heard the story of a dad, whose son threw a hammer threw a window... he was a loving dad, but does that mean that he says, don't worry about it son, or does he set him straight and tell him he shouldn't be doing things like that? No one would think the dad loves the child less, but with the latter he wouldn't be compromising truth for love. 

As Christians, we are to speak the truth in love, remembering the first words Jesus spoke, 'repent and believe', he also said 'no one comes to the Father except through me', that sounds pretty exclusive to me... and since he's the only way to eternity, we better listen and tell other people the same, after all, it is eternity and the eternal God we are dealing with!

WELCOME

well, hello there, welcome to the thoughts of me....please feel free to comment on anything I say and hope you enjoy....let the fun begin...