QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
Question: What is required in the seventh commandment?
Answer: The seventh commandment requires that we preserve our own and our neighbor’s chastity; in heart, speech and behavior.
Scripture: 1 Cor 6:18; 7:2; 2 Timothy 2:22; Matt 5:28; 1 Peter 3:2
WE ARE BUT DUST…
(Maybe this really happened)
Deb and I had the grandboys over last Saturday and fed them lunch. During the prayer of thanks for the meal, I took the opportunity to pray in thankfulness for the grace of God through our sin and feebleness. I turned my eyes heavenward and stated, “without You O Lord, we would be but dust …”
Isaac, our-6 year-old grandson who was sitting next to Deb, leaned over to her and asked, “Grandma, what is butt dust?”
It took awhile before we could eat.
TEACH YOUR CHILDREN LESS RULES AND MORE ATTITUDES
From Gospel-Centered Parenting by Rick Thomas, Counseling Solutions
Christ was seemingly the ultimate Rule Breaker! The fundamentalists of His day had a hard time with Him. He didn’t seem to function from any particular list of rules. I’m thinking that He didn’t have a list at all. He was the kind of guy who made the controller and the insecure person miserable.
One day He would do it one way and the next day He seemed to contradict Himself by doing it another way. Though it was said of Him that He was the same yesterday, today, and forever, (Hebrews 13:8) I think part of what “the same” means is that He was consistently spontaneous, nimble, and able to change as the Spirit led Him. (Mark 1:12) He was consistent (or the same) in His spontaneity.
Was Jesus a Contrarian on purpose?
Some people believed He was purposely a trouble-maker. (Matthew 12:14; 22:41-46) This was not the truth at all. He was so God-centered in His approach to life, that the things He did seemed out-of-step with the culture and the religion of His day. I understand how they felt. I’m also accustomed to a certain way of doing things. And just when I become comfortable, it seems that Christ mercifully comes to me and teaches me a new and better way. There are many things I used to believe and practice as it pertained to my religion that I do not believe or practice anymore.
And I am not sad about this. Truthfully, I am very excited. Minimally, growth in Christ means change. This is what the Pharisees would not do and because of their stubborn pride, they missed the life and freedom that Christ offered to anyone who would come. Christ, unlike the legalist of His day, was Spirit led, rather than rule led.
He would hang with an adulteress. (John 8:11) He invited Himself to a hated tax collector’s house for dinner. There had to be some kind of etiquette issue here. You just don’t invite yourself over to someone’s home for dinner. (Luke 19:5) He invited another tax collector to be in His inner group. (Mark 2:13-16) He let an immoral woman wash His feet. (Luke 7:37)
He allowed an unworthy and untrusting man to be part His group. (Matthew 26:47-50) He spent time teaching a divorced fornicator. (John 4:18) He allowed a secret rendezvous to go down with a member of one of His rivals. (John 3:1-10) He seemed to be glad when His good friend Lazarus died. (John 11:14-15) He told His followers to hyperbolically hate their fathers and their mothers. (Luke 14:26) He seemed to diss His own mother. (Matthew 12:46-50) It didn’t seem to bother Him to tell His friends to do impossible things. (Matthew 14:29) And He rebuked them when they did not succeed. (Matthew 14:31) And the bottom line is that in all of these things He never sinned. (1 Peter 2:22) And, btw, He obeyed the laws of his culture. (Mark 12:17)
Out with the rules and in with the attitude
Christ seemed to follow very few religious or cultural codes. Oftentimes He did not meet expectations when it came to the rules of His day. I’m sure His report card would have read, “needs to improve” if His behavior was solely based on cultural or religious norms. There was something else that motivated him. And when it comes to how we live and how we parent, we must be motivated, empowered, and governed by something else also.
For Christ, the rules were passe. He introduced His friends to a new way of living. Yes, it was a sinless way to live, which is what the rules tried to accomplish, but His way was different. And what was it? It was an attitude! It was a Gospel-motivated, Gospel-empowered attitude! The Gospel is better than the law. The Gospel replaces the law. The Gospel frees you to live a sinfree, Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered life that is fuller, richer, broader, deeper, and more satisfying than any rule or list of rules.
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” – Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
The text begins with a clear and refreshing statement of Christ’s will for our lives. Sometimes we get bogged down in a quandary about God’s will. And often we worry about decisions which are simply not a great issue with God (where to go to school, what job to take, where to live, etc.). We need to orient our lives on the clear statements of Scripture regarding God’s will. And here is one: “For freedom Christ has set us free.” Christ’s will for you is that you enjoy freedom. Where you go to school, what job you do, where you live, etc., are not nearly so crucial as whether you stand fast in freedom. If they were, the Bible would have commanded those things as clearly as it here commands freedom. But it doesn’t. So your enjoyment of freedom is much more important to God than many of the day-to-day decisions that fill us with so much concern. A good test of your priorities in life would be whether you are just as concerned about the command to enjoy your freedom as you are about other pressing decisions in your life. … It is a clear and unqualified command: “Stand fast and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” This is the will of God for you: your freedom. Uncompromising, unrelenting, indomitable freedom. For this Christ died. For this he rose. For this he sent his Spirit. There is nothing he wills with more intensity under the glory of his own name than this: your freedom. – John Piper, For freedom Christ has set us free
Christ was free to pick and choose according to how He was led by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God did not lead Him into sin and the Spirit of God will not lead you into sin. Are you free to pick and choose in a way similar to the Savior? Would you be more comfortable if you had a rote list to structure your life? Can you do something one way today and a different way tomorrow because the Spirit leads you one way today and another way tomorrow? Are you enjoying the freedom that Christ bought for you through His death?
Are you saying I can do anything I want?
- Yes! I said, “Christ was free to pick and choose according to how He was led by the Spirit of God.”
- No! I said, “The Spirit of God did not lead Him into sin and the Spirit of God will not lead you into sin.”
The more we learn and apply these attitudes to our lives the more we’ll be able to serve our children effectively. Gospel-centered parenting sets our children up for the most robust and comprehensive life they could possibly live.
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