rules

Sunday March 17^th, Philippians 3: all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness. All religion has rules and religion all too often is made up of too many rules whose purpose is simply to control.  There are moves to put the Ten Commandments in the courthouses and the right judges on the bench while at the same time, to remove “In God we Trust” from our bills.  We want everyone in the congregation to agree with us on all the important things, and the unimportant ones also while at the same time wishing them their freedom to be in relationship with God on their own without going through an intermediately.  Radio hacks want people to leave churches that preach social Justice when it is at the heart of Jesus’ teachings. When all is said and done, what we are after is not religion at all, but control.  Paul reminds us that the religion of rules is not where it is at, not what is important.  What is important is being in a relationship with Jesus and building relationships with one another, those you agree with and those you don’t.  Some of those rules might be good and some might be bad, but in the end they really don’t matter all that much.  What matters is a relationship with God and a community of support that accepts you for who you are and where you are at.