Preceptivity

I've been thinking a lot about God's precepts, his Word, his commandments. My own experience is reflecting what I see the writers of Scripture trying to convey about obedience to God's precepts. It seems to me that all of this is less about right and wrong, good and bad, and much more about healthy and unhealthy, beneficial and detrimental.

Stay with me for a minute. David says that God's precepts bring joy, wisdom, freedom from the oppression of others, and a deeper love between himself and the Lord (Psalm 119). He never once presumes it makes him "good" or "perfect." You see, the "acceptable standard" view of the law is what Paul rails against as the "law of sin and death;" it is not the law of the Spirit of life.

When we as individuals or we as the church portray our obedience to God's precepts as a standard for being righteous, we have just shackled the listener with the law of sin and death. When we teach God's precepts as a remedy to our brokenness, and it is God who helps us move more and more into a life of obedience as we submit to him, then we introduce the law of the Spirit of life. In a sense we don't make ourselves good, we defer to the goodness in us - Christ.

I think postmodernity is much more capable of hearing "the things you are participating in are unhealthy for you" than they are "you are bad because you don't do what's right and YOU better start doing what's right so YOU can be good and not bad." Everything may be permissible for us, but not everything is beneficial. Understanding that is having what I call "preceptivity."

Parent Trap

I sometimes will joke with others and say, "We never knew what we were getting into when we became parents." The roller coaster ride is sometimes exhilerating and sometimes nauseating.

I was reading the first chapters of Matthew this morning and thinking that Mary and Joseph would say the same thing. Fleeing to Egypt, moving back to Israel, but not really home due to continued threat. Starting over again in a strange town all because of this little child. I wonder if Mary allowed herself to look ahead and contemplate what was said, "your own heart will be pierced."

Some Questions

"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

This was my FaceBook verse the other day. I wondered about it quite a bit in some meditation time. Do I love him? Do I believe in him? Am I filled with joy? Inexpressible joy? Does my faith even have a goal? Can I honestly say that Peter could have written that to me?

I guess the answers, for me anyway, are matters of degrees rather than straight yes or no. I do love him, but so often it is not with all of me. I do believe in him, but don't always trust his faithfulness and goodness. I do have a measure of joy and there are times when it is beyond words...but not at all times. I am encouraged, though, that Peter thought to write this to someone...someone whom either was further along or someone who needed encouragement to get there. I'll take it as the latter.

Accusations

I am reading through the NT and have hit Revelation...ah yes, light morning reading. In chapter 12 I read this about the "red dragon who is called the devil and Satan;"

...for the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them day and night before God, has been thrown down.

I sometimes forget that the very one who tempts and woos us to destructive disobedience is the same one who accuses us of it. Like the White Witch in Narnia who first explains how power will come to Edmund if he helps find the other humans and their helpers, and then accuses him of doing just that before the others and before Aslan.

Remembering this really hammers home Jesus' role as Advocate (remember, he tells the disciples that he will send ANOTHER advocate when he ascends...so he is the first). He is the one who defends us against these accusations by the cross. Chapter 12 goes on to say, "And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb..."

The Result of Prayer

The result of prayer is life.
Prayer irrigates the
earth and
heart.

- St. Francis of Assisi