“Last one to the water has to clean the dishes!”

Some man-made rules give the one “up” the advantage. Some simply don’t make sense when you evaluate them. Are you living by any man made rules that will lead you to a “frozen lake” and no victory? (These two are by a lake by the way. I don’t think either of them did the dishes.)

Check out Mark 3:1-16: “Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched Him closely. If He healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse Him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, ‘Come and stand in front of everyone.’ Then He turned to His critics and asked, ‘Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?’ But they wouldn’t answer Him. He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then He said to the man, ‘Hold out your hand.’ So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.”

Some things are no brainers: Do I eat this strawberry shortcake now or wait a few days till after I have run twenty miles? Do I tell my wife that my mother cooked better than her, or do I tell her the meal was delicious (unless it really did stink.)? Once the red light goes on in the car indicating an empty gas tank, do I stop at the next service station or try to go 40 miles to the next available one?

You would expect the answer to Jesus’ Sabbath question above would be easy: “To do good. To save life.”

I really do respect people’s convictions, yet when they get in the way of God’s grace being extended and enjoyed, and they seem to only cater to a particular tradition, without clear a prescription from God’s Word, we need to step back and see what the Sabbath was really intended for. The Pharisees were so caught up in their religious system that they could not understand the meaning of grace and that God was all about extending grace to people. In fact, that was what the Sabbath was really for—a provision of grace. (Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. Someone put it this way: Grace, God’s riches at Christ’s expense.)

It’s interesting to see that Jesus didn’t even lift a finger, break out into a sweat. He simply told the man to “stretch out your hand,” and the man was healed. I guess the stretching of the hand was considered work. But even if it wasn’t, was the Sabbath really designed to stop healing from happening? Something had gotten distorted to say the least.

Many of the items in the following list cause division in our churches. Do any one of them tend to bring life, or bring death? Should some be in the position to do so? Here goes:

Someone called our Church a while back and wanted to know if we had drums anywhere in the building. After being told yes, the conversation quickly ended and they have never shown up. Hmm, guess we better get rid of the drums.

Someone doesn’t like contemporary songs. Better get rid of those.

Oh, and a few do not like the old hymns. Scratch those.

“Where’s the organ?” Better take out the guitar, and the piano.

“What version of the Bible are you reading from?”

“What is that you’re wearing?” “Is it below your ankles?” “Those aren’t jeans I see, are they?”

“You shouldn’t say anything funny while speaking.” “You should try to be more humorous while teaching.”

“I think he should preach through a particular book of the Bible.” “I wish he would preach on a specific topic.”

“We speak in tongues.” “Tongues are dead.”

“You really aren’t going to work on that woman’s house on Sunday, are you?” “Will you help us fix her roof after Church?”

“Where is the order of service?” “We just need to let the Spirit lead.”

“Who gave them permission to reach out to those people?” “We’re just waiting for God to show us where to go.”

Wow. We might as well stop meeting together! Forget about those verses on us being the body, living stones in a spiritual temple, side by side. That family talk? it’s simply talk. And that prayer of Jesus in John 17, the one seeking unity among His followers, that must have been put in later. It should not form any of our behavior.

Where’s the grace? Our traditions, our comfort zones, our insecurities have led us to many wrong decisions and actions. How much of God’s grace are we missing out on due to our attempts to be “holy”?

Carefully consider your beliefs, your traditions. Don’t necessarily discard them, but are they worth dying for? Are they worth the killing of someone else’s joy in Jesus?

Can you allow someone else to enjoy their “healing”?

“By His stripes we were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

We were forgiven, set free! Free to be imprisoned again by tradition, laws, preferences? I don’t think so!

Let’s choose good. Let’s choose life.

I’m praising God that He didn’t wait to heal me till I was in the right! (Romans 5:8).

Enjoy His healing touch today, soak up His grace!

—submitted by Steve, US