rules and grace
Firefighters recently chose not to take action as a man was drowning in the San Francisco Bay. According to the interim fire chief overseeing the responding team, one of the things that prevented them from taking action was a regulation that prevents firefighters from entering into the water. The rescue workers were frustrated because they desperately wanted to take action, but they were prevented from doing so by policy. This preoccupation with rules is a form of legalism, something we find far too often in the church today.
April 15, 2013
How has God helped you overcome legalism in your life?
right thing, wrong reason
I was preaching one evening when a mentally ill man walked down the church aisle, slapped me in the face, pushed over the pulpit, and sent the congregation into a panic. In a protective act, a church member named Gary stepped toward the man as he lunged towards Gary and his wife.
pests we tolerate
What kinds of pests would you tolerate in your home? A recent survey revealed some surprising results. Researchers found that people would pay for an exterminator when the following pests were found in their home: Twenty-four percent would pay an exterminator to kill spiders; 27 percent would pay to get rid of ants; 56 percent would pay to banish the…
fooling ourselves
Last year, a bizarre TV game show began airing in France. Contestants were given questions and all went well if they answered correctly. But a wrong answer proved to be deadly. For the erring contestants were then commanded to throw a switch that appeared to force another contestant—strapped in the “hot seat”—to endure a lethal 420 volts of electricity. This…
safety net
A friend of mine bought a trampoline for his young boys. After he had assembled it, his sons excitedly begged him to let them give it try. He reluctantly let them climb onto it but told them to be careful because he hadn’t installed the safety net around the trampoline. So his boys cautiously crept to the middle of the…
principled
Teaching in a Christian preparatory school, I am accustomed to including an “honor code” on each quiz and test that my students take. Because they live in a world of moral relativism, some students are accustomed to signing on the line even when they’ve cheated. Recently I had to turn a student in for cheating, and as I watched the…
trumping tradition
It’s tough when tradition trumps family. Daman Rao knows this bitter reality only too well. Born in a small south Asia village to a family steeped in superstitious tradition, he was despised and mistreated by them for simply being the fifth child and a boy.
Fortunately, as Daman grew into his teens, he was befriended by believers in Jesus and…
the source of life
An Amazon.com message board comment caught my attention recently. “I have a zillion books in my library,” Michele said in a discussion on New Age spirituality, “books on the Kabbalah, Golden Dawn books, The Zohar, books on the Tetragrammaton, Ernest Holmes books, Dalai Lama books, Ascension books, Christian Science books, Theosophical books, and on and on.” Michele’s vast reading left…
made by faith
What happens when you take 13 non-Christians and get them to live by the Bible's instruction for 3 weeks? The UK reality TV series Make Me a Christian attempted to answer that question last year.
The contestants included an atheist biker and a lesbian schoolteacher. They were mentored by four clergy—an Anglican, a Catholic, an Evangelical, and a Pentecostal. Though this…
directionless lives
I once talked to a spoken word artist named Brett. His primary performance consists of reciting the entire book of Mark from memory, without props or any additional aids. Mark's Gospel is considered to be a masterpiece in literary circles, and Brett delivers its story to mainstream audiences with careful emphasis, colorful inflection, and varying pace. He spoke a couple…
