Re: [TruthTalk] Legalism

[Caroline Wong]

Hi Terry;   I'm in complete agreement with you. Obedience is important. But I feel compelled to tell you 2 stories and this is the first one.   It is from Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz. His pastor, Rick, became a Christian when he was nineteen and began to "choose purity over sin, and for a while he did well, but soon he found that he wanted to party with his friends, or he wanted to have sex with his girlfriend, and from time to time he would fail at his moral efforts. Rick tells me that those were the most depressing moments of his life, because he felt that he was failing the God who had saved him.   "My pastor was anguished by an inability to control his desires. He felt that he had been given this new life, this key to heaven and yet couldn't obey Jesus in return. So one evening he got on his knees and told God he was sorry. He told God how much he wished he could be good and obedient. He then sat on the edge of his bed and swallowed enough muscle relaxants and sleeping pills to kill three people. He lay down in a fetal position and waited to die."   Now Terry, believe me when I say Donald Miller, his pastor Rick and I all agree that obedience is an aspect of being Christian.   Anyway, Miller continues the story. "Rick tells me that as he lay there in his bed waiting to die, he heard God say to him, "Your life is not your own, but you have been bought with a price," and at this point he felt a certain peace. Rick told me he understood, cognitively as well as emotionally, that his role in his relationship with God was to humbly receive God's unconditional love."   "My pastor, of course, is still alive, a miracle he cannot explain. Before he could save himself, he drifted into sleep, but he woke the next morning with ample energy, as if he had never swallowed the pills at all."   Quotes from Blue Like Jazz chapter 4 by Donald Miller   The next story is biblical and on the next post. ----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Clifton To: TruthTalk@mail.innglory.org Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 4:16 PM Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] Legalism Caroline Wong wrote: Obedience is a complex thing.   Folks, some people have reduced the relationship with our heavenly Father to obedience and that is sad. Some people have reduced God's revelation to isolated biblical verses, ignoring the grand sweep of the narrative revelation, the stories of biblical people living out their faith. That is sad too.   Love,   Caroline ============================================================== Who are these people?  We need to explain to them that while obedience is mandatory, it is also a natural response to one who loved us enough to die in our place.  It is gratitude, even when we sometimes grit our teeth at the thought of dying to self.  Sometimes it is easy, sometimes almost impossible, but we do it anyway, because He is not only our Savior, He is LORD.  Do it for your Savior because of love.  Do it for your Lord because you serve Him.  In any case, do it.  A relationship that does not require obedience is all take and no give.  That is not love. Terry