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Wonderful insight from my wise friend, Jasmine Baucham…
“If our convictions do not flow from a heart that realizes daily that it is only by God’s grace that we even desire to please him… if the choices we make come from a prideful need to exalt ourselves above others… if we cannot reach out to others with the glorious news of the gospel because we somehow feel they are beneath us… if our gospel begins to include steps that will make the hearers look more like us than like Christ…
In essence our righteousness does not exceed those empty works of the Pharisee (Matthew 5:20), and unless our hope is solely in the righteousness of Christ Jesus (Romans 3:20, 1 John 2:2)…”
Read the rest of “When All the Ducks are in a Row”
6 comments
What a pricking, or piercing, reminder! Beautifully put and straight to the heart of the matter: our hearts. LOVE THIS!
Thank you for posting this! So good. I’ve been sharing it with others. Hope you are feeling well, by the way. Also, Our family just recorded a little scripture CD. You are one of the inspirations for it and I would love to send you a copy for your littles. If you ever have time, drop me an address and I will send it off.
God bless you always,
Very good article! Thanks, I think all of us need to read this!
This is very well written. I often tell my children that we must be so very overt in our friendliness and love for others because some may assume by our appearance/choices that we think we are better than they are…especially other Christians with different convictions. I find that there are more “legalistic attitudes” in those who are “free of standards” toward those who do have some personal or family convictions and standards. (i.e. “if you don’t dress like me, work like me, listen to the same music as me then you are not as spiritually free as I am and I can’t be your friend!” …and then they call me “legalistic”. LOL!) I just try to love them anyway. My mom used to quote “Love and I had the wit to win …we drew a circle that took them in.”
Susan,
My family belongs to a more freedom based church, and I have to say you are right. We have noticed it as much in the ‘free church’ as the more ‘religious’ churches. The thing is, every church has a form of religion that is not of God. It is just the different churches only see the religion in other churches from which they happen to be free. That kind of vision has sure helped the different denominations/churches keep their own religion/legalism with a blind eye. Probably just as the enemy has planned…
Although I do agree with your assessment, I would say calling some “free of standards” is perhaps the wrong wording. (I am pretty sure that you didn’t mean it how it reads) I am sure some may look at us and think that. (My daughter plays softball and wears pants, I wear tank tops, we consume alcohol) But, we submit everything to the Lord before we do it and wait to hear from Him before we move. We try to have God’s standards at all times, they may just look different that others’ convictions and standards. But to look beyond the exterior, I hope that all Christians of all denominations would know our family by our fruit and love.
My goodness, AMEN!! I haven’t clicked the link to read the rest yet, but that whole first paragraph is most excellent.
Having just come off of homeschool convention, I must say that this thought resonates with me so much: “if our gospel begins to include steps that will make the hearers look more like us than like Christ…”
Amen, again. Soli Deo Gloria!