Posted December 16th, 2011 at 07:09 AM by Lois
For those who may yet be struggling with all the rules which are often passed off as representative of holiness, I wanted to share and encourage you to sit down and read through the book of Galatians. Perhaps do this several times and with different Bible versions.
How these rules are taught varies greatly from church to church. What really distresses me is when I will see people who are yet involved with unhealthy churches write on various boards that 'it's better to be safe than sorry.' What this says is that they don't know for sure if these things are salvational, so they want to do them to be on the safe side, cause it would be better to do them and make it to heaven than to not do them and find they were needed in order to make it into heaven.
That is so sad. People are believing that perhaps God may be hiding something salvational from them and so they'd best be safe.
I mention reading Galatians for this because Paul addresses the problem of people starting out by faith and then becoming entangled with works and then resting in those works to make them right before God.
I want you to think about what I am going to share and let it sink down some. This is what some do who elevate what is often termed as 'holiness standards.'
How would you feel if you found out your child (or sibling, or anyone else you loved) was doing certain things because they felt that by doing so they would gain your favor and love? They feel they must perform just right in order to have your love. By cleaning their room, taking out the trash or doing well at school (or put just about anything in here), they think these things could bring them in right standing with you and you'd love them or would love them more.
They don't understand they have your love already- with or without these acts. These acts don't cause you to love your child more. While you may be glad or thankful that they obeyed you or excelled at something, your love for them doesn't hinge on these things or cause you to want your child more.
Now tie this same thought to our walk with God. How it must pain the Lord to see his children trying to earn His love and favor. He *already* loves them and *already* accepts them. Can you imagine how He feels when he sees believers trying to get Him to love or accept them based upon their rule following when His love and acceptance already was there? When He sees people trying to earn what He has already freely given them?
Many feel that by doing certain things it will keep them in God's favor- or cause Him to not harm them (remember the false image of God holding a baseball bat, ready and eager to whop you at the first hint of anything done wrong). We already have God's favor and love. We already have His righteousness. Nothing- nothing can change these things.
If while we did not know God- if...
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