In today's world we have no code for which we live. Rules are becoming an enemy of our world today. I have been raised to do the right thing, to do things that are good and live by the rules. So when people throw me a curve ball question sometimes I go to the scriptures that I know and it's the answers God wants to be said, but the people of this world just don't want that answer. I guess it doesn't make sense to accept a biblical answer that doesn't fit the world's answer. They want a solution that fits with them, they don't want an answer that goes against their decision they have already made. Every time a question arises that is going against biblical principle it's not going to be the answer they want. Basically, everybody has their mind made up before they ask the question. So I wonder why they ask the question if they are going to go against the word of God. I guess they just feel convicted or that we might say that it is ok and move on because God's will doesn't really matter. Wrong!
Legalists are what we call people who follow the rules of God's word. The Pharisee's were the rule keepers of Jesus' day. They held to the ceremonial part of God's will, by strictly observing the rules of the temple and cleanliness of God's people. When Jesus appeared he threw them and the world a huge curve ball. A curve ball the world still can't hit and never will.
The people of that day were expecting to see the King of King's to arrive with a great entrance and blow their socks off. He didn't arrive in any way shape or form, he arrived as a knuckle ball, not a perfectly thrown fastball. He turned the world upside down then and continues to be the most controversial person ever to walk upon the Earth. The rules of the old way of life were thrown out, Christ came to show what love really was to be about. Something the people of this world had forgotten about. The rules of that time became to overbearing for everyone, and the supposed to be appointed leaders of God became to hostile with their rules and Christ came to give healing for those who had been persecuted by those rules. The refs were controlling the game to much and nobody was having fun playing the game anymore, to put it in a worldly sense.
But Christ didn't abolish the rules completely when he came. He has a pretty good set of rules that we must follow to the best of our ability. The Bible is our plan for playing the game the right way now. If you want to continue to play the game eternally we must follow the rules in some manner. If we played a football game with no rules the game would become a mess. There wouldn't be any boundaries, you could put as many players on the field at once. You could basically bring weapons in the game and take out anybody that got in your way. It just wouldn't make any sense! The refs are basically legalists, we boo them and say they need new glasses and that they look like zebra's. We make so much fun of the refs that I can't believe anybody would want to be one. That's how the world feels about Christians, we are the refs the rule keepers.
Nobody likes us because we try to keep the world from going completely nuts. People get all crazy when we give our opinion to the craziness. The world does not want our answers to their questions, yet they continue to ask us our opinion. And when our opinion is stated they rake us over the coals because they don't understand why we are so insane and why we would give such an answer, or to them it becomes a judgemental statement. We become controversial and they make a mockery of us because what we said was right but not what they think is right.
The world is a mess and it's becoming more of a mess because the rule keepers have gone to the bench and have let the game get out of control. Is that what Christ wants us to do, to not stand up and blow our whistle anymore? We as Christians can't join the game as players but only as refs. We don't have the talent to be a player we are to convicted to do the right thing. Our lives are completely different but in a good way. We can't be fans of the game because we are to convicted to sit and watch. Our hearts have been pierced by a higher power, to see that everyone goes to where we want to be.
We all dream about being a player, but life as a ref is not a fun one unless we make it fun. But within the boundaries of the owner in heaven, we must keep our job as peacekeepers and lovers of those who are lost. We must not be persecutors of those who are going against the boundaries but helpers. We must not convict those who go outside the lines of life, we must show them where we have gone out of bounds in life also. We are helpers we don't throw penalty flags all the time. We don't punish those who are going against the rules but show respect to those who do because we continue to fall out of the lines also. Our lives were a mess at one time also, but now we have been cleansed and our mistakes will continue to happen. We are refs who have been penalized and have spent our time in the penalty box and have been fined by the league for as much as we can be fined. Our dream is one day to be promoted as the owners of the team one day. Until that day comes we will continue as refs who can't find our new glasses and wear uniforms that make us look like convicted felons. Maybe one day we will get the game ball and all the heavenly beings will sign it. It will be the game ball we have earned!
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