Saturday 8 September 2018

September 8, 2018 - Suggested Reading Colossians 2 for Sept 9ths message on Matthew 5:48 in our summer worship service at 10am


“Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”

Rules seem wise.
The TV character Gibbs in NCIS has life rules, and we marvel at his discipline in following rules.
Parents make rules because children need them for a healthy life, and if parents don’t make rules the children suffer. Just follow the rules we tell our kids as they grow up and move away, knowing rules will keep them safe, because what we want more than anything else is that our grown children
will be safe.
Our highways are based on rules, chaos erupts if more than the rebellious few decide to flaunt the rules, imagine if everyone decided they don’t need to stop at a red light.
Rules are wise for our temporal life, but living our Christian life by rules is a disaster. For rules focus our attention on the external and take our attention away from the internal, and we fall into the trap the Pharisees were in.
We are to live our lives here on earth by faith in the Son of God who loves us and gave His life for us. He took our old sinful self away and nailed it to the cross. He rose from the grave and we rose with Him, dead to sin, alive in Christ, we don’t have to sin.
Don’t live your Christian life by rules- live by faith.
Don’t live your Christian life safely – for without risk in your life, how can there be faith?

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