Rules or Relationship?

 ²⁰ You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, ²¹ “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? ²² Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. ²³ These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires. Colossians 2:20-23 (NLT)

What is holiness?  Is it adherence to a rigid set of rules?  Rules that are designed to tell you what is right and wrong!  Or is it searching out the Scriptures to discover how God wants you to live and then having such close, intimate fellowship with the Holy Spirit that you allow the Spirit of God to guide your thoughts and actions?

I grew up in an era of legalism: don't go to movies, don't play cards, don't smoke or drink.  Why?  Because it broke the rules.  Did those rules make me holy?  Not at all!  They frustrated me and made me resentful.  When I search the Scriptures I don't find injunctions against those activities, but I do find that I am called to fill my mind with the Word of God and my heart with the love of God and be led by the Spirit of God.  Did those rules prevent me from going to movies?  No!  Does the fellowship with the Spirit and the need for that intimacy with God cause me to say no to certain movies or other activities?  Yes!  Does my relationship with Christ make me holy, yes.  He makes me holy!  My relationship with Christ shows me the parameters and the Spirit of God guides me in and around those parameters.  The rules bound me; my fellowship with the Holy Spirit frees me to be all that God intends for me to be.

God knew that the power of relationship would be greater than the power of rules.  The old adage, "rules are made to be broken" proves that point.  But when I am in a relationship with someone that I love then I go out of my way to find ways to please that person.

What do you think?  Is holiness found through adherence to a rigid set of rules or through the fellowship with the Holy Spirit?

Review of CHURCHED by Matthew Paul Turner

      So I read Matthew Paul Turner's book, CHURCHED.  I had to take my time reading the book, not because it was hard to read.  Indeed it was witty and insightful and actually a very easy book to read.  What it wasn't was easy to DIGEST!
     I laughed with and cried with Turner through out the book because I could relate to his heart's cry which I think was best captured when he said, "What I'm hoping to find in a church is a place all about joining God in the resurrection story.  I want to be a part of the solution, not the problem."
     That's what made CHURCHED difficult to digest. It describes a church that is self-absorbed, closed and narrow in its focus.  It made me stop and think about my own church, what kind of church am I a part of?  There certainly are elements of self-absorption and narrow-mindedness, but for the most part we are a church that is learning how to embrace the grace of God and extend that grace to everyone within our sphere of influence.
     That's what Turner is looking for in a church.  A church that is honest and open and genuine in its pursuit of God and in its presentation of the Gospel to the world around.

Vision and Strategy Church Trends for 2011 and Beyond

Vision and Strategy Church Trends for 2011 and Beyond