Today a pair of hummingbirds chased each other across the roof-tops, tree frogs played peek-a-boo with us while traveling through a lush lawn and I tried to avoid the seasonal migration of wooly caterpillars crossing rural county roads while speeding along in my eleven ton truck. It's easy to take for grantite the beauty of creation when the moralistic gospel is bearing down on a person's heart, much as it has done to mine until recently.
The moralist's mind can be so chiefly occupied with fixating on the darker side of life; the sins, temptations, and inherent weaknesses within himself that He desires mainly a life of abstaining. He credits himself as righteous for avoiding all the things he think may lead to death but ironically becomes dead in so doing. Because much like the moralist, a corpse avoids doing anything wrong, but of course, a corpse does no good to the glory of God either.
The man who centers his faith on the gospel, the good news that liberates us to freely pursue the pleasures of God and all that God has created for us to enjoy, avoids the trappings of death not by fixating on them. He chases after the greater option. He's not pre-occupied with slapping his own hand away from what is wrong because his hands are already busy with what is right.
The landscape of the United States has been dominated by moralists/legalists determined and even obsessed to define, categorize, and label every possible human behavior as either right or wrong. It is no wonder the U.S. Library of Congress is the largest library in the world and is yet being added to on a daily basis, and yet there is so much corruption still. The liberating gospel gives but one Word, one Law, and one Book (that needs no ammending) that man may use to govern himself.
Breathe ~ Anberlin
This is surrender
to a wartorn life i've lived
scars and stripes forever
in need of change i can't resist
no need to hide anything anymore
cant return to who i was before
i can finally breathe
suddenly alive
i can finally move
the world feels revived
this long of a struggle
finally opened up my eyes
revolutions not easy
with a civil war on the inside
no need to hide anything anymore
cant return to who i was before
i can finally breathe
suddenly alive
i can finally move
cause I realise
i can finally breathe
suddenly alive
i can finally move
the world feels revived
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Jason, I appreciate your thoughts on this. We can think of ourselves as righteous for doing as much as for not doing. This from John Piper (and the Bible;-) encouraged me recently:“God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything, for he gives everything” (Acts 17:25) http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1995/1564_Brothers_Tell_Them_Not_to_Serve_God/ The Lord has freed us from the "do"s and the "don't"s! Janene
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