A Way or away?

Hello!

How fantastic was Gary Rucci's talk  on Sunday at WCC.  I LOVED it.  And you can listen to it again (as well as his wife's talk from the first service) at www.watfordcommunitychurch.org.  It was so great that he was totally on the same wavelength as last week's blog!  I was well chuffed - praise God.  He was talking more about how God just doesn't fit into our boxes and our neat little packaged frameworks.  He is SO much bigger.  

To be honest it's been a real relief.  (And this does tie in with the readings from yesterday, hold fast...).  The more I'm thinking about things this week, the more I'm realising that I totally put God into a little box.  In fact so much so, that I can be quite harsh on myself and others if things do not fit the 'God mould'.  I am defnitely on a personal journey of learning about culture versus God - how much of our faith is just culture shaping religion, and how much of our faith is based on God bringing freedom?  Don't get me wrong, some 'cultural', 'ritual' and seemingly 'do's and don'ts' provide an excellent framework for us to follow as Christians.  We definitely need parameters.  However, where do we fall too much into trying to squash God in a box and getting annoyed when He doesn't fit?


One thing which Gary's talk has definitely assisted in is realising just how 'chained up' we can often be in our faith - approving before accepting, following law rather than grace, being satisfied at the same time as trying to live a life of rules and regulations... no people.  Faith is freedom.  I think for me, I get so scared of doing the wrong thing, that I often try to obey all of the 'rules' out of fear and getting it wrong, rather than relying on God and His savng grace to work and live in me.  I get SO scared that I am going to cut myself off from God that I often become legalistic, heeding law rather than freedom.  


Yet yesterday I read this verse which ties in so amazingly.  It was a tiny verse strategically 'plonked' in the middle of the reading which just totally jumped out and assisted me a whole lot.  I can't even properly remember who said what to who, but the meaning was so much more significant for me.  It says this:

    
'Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.'
Samuel 14v14




Totally amazing.  God is not sat on His cloud (lol - I'm joking), with a ticklist of every 'law' we break.  Neither does He count our sins against us.  God does NOT WANT us to be far from Him, or cut off from Him.  NO!  

But that's not the end.  

He even goes as far as devising, making, plotting, working out, drawing up, designing, testing out ways to bring us back to Him so we do not remain cut off or 'banished'.  How awesome is that?  I think the most obvious way is through Jesus who made a way back to Father God and who died to take the wrath of our sins and make a bridge back to God.  But how cool is it to think that God loves us so much, He makes plans and devises a way to bring us back to Him, should we wonder off the path.  I am no longer going to obey 'laws' 'rules' and 'regulations' out of fear of being cut off from God.  Yes the Bible says that anyone who knows the right thing to do and does not do it is sinning (James 4v17), this is not an excuse for doing wrong.  However it takes the pressure off, and removes the chains of religious observation as opposed to freedom and grace. 


Praise God for His awesomeness.  I love this verse :)


Have a blessed day :)