“Looking for love and encouragement? You’ll never find them in the law. This is why the strictest legalist you know can fabricate an appearance of morality. But legalism will never produce love. Living under a law mentality is like being a slave to a most demanding taskmaster. There’s always more to do. And you’ll never do enough to please him.”—The Naked Gospel, pages 50-51
<idle musing>
This is so true. There is no way that an attitude of love can co-exist with a legalistic mindset. The legalist is always measuring, weighing—and always finding you (and themselves) coming up short. The only escape is the perfect redemption in Christ and allowing him to live through us.
</idle musing>
Idle musings by a once again bookseller, always bibliophile, current copyeditor and proofreader. Complete with ramblings about biblical studies, the ancient Near East, bicycling, gardening, or anything else I am reading (or experiencing). All more or less live from Red Wing, MN
Who? What? Where? Why?
- jps
- Red Wing, Minnesota, United States
- I'm a freelance editor/proofreader in Red Wing, MN along the Mississippi River.
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2009
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October
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- The world, the flesh, and the devil
- New sale
- Death and resurrection
- Are we righteous, or aren't we?
- New book
- Grace and effort
- Those crazy cats
- Oops!
- The "Christian" Law
- The Fall
- What of the Old Testament, then?
- Let's clean house
- Meteors
- Victory!
- The role of Law
- Legalism
- SBL in October!
- Intimacy with God
- What do e-readers do to the brain?
- Committed?
- The Bible Among the Myths Review
- The end of the matter is...
- Fun new books
- But its not that unique, really, is it?
- The FTC guidelines
- New weekly sale at Eisenbrauns
- But where did it come from?
- Control
- More on magic
- Why not magic?
- Apples
- New sales at Eisenbrauns
- Hesed
- The significance of omens
- Frost!
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October
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2 comments:
For years I have sat in the pews listening to sermons from a whole host of Pastors, Evangelists, and Missionaries. Through each and every message ran the same thread of the Pentecostal message. God has priorities and the first two that very are important to him are money and legalism. Bible reading, prayer, and worship are all well and good but nothing and I mean absolutely nothing is more important to the church and God than money and legalism. Without legalism there is disobedience and disobedience is sin. God will not bless disobedience no matter how much money you give. If you expect to be blessed in your giving then you must, must, must also embrace legalism. Everything you think say or do is under God's microscope and his extremely intense scrutiny. You can feel it and sense it God is watching like a dark brooding angry cloud.
We must sell everything that we own and live with as little as possible. Don’t waste your time procreating that just takes money away from the church. Don’t waste your time buying real estate that just takes money away from church. Find a cheap place to live in the worst part of town and wear a bullet proof vest. Don’t waste your money on restaurants that just takes money away from the church. Don’t waste your time on social gatherings that just takes money away from the church. Don’t waste your time visiting family that just takes money way from the church. Live like a homeless person and give all you have to the church. Isolate yourself and own nothing but a dollar store toothbrush Give all you have the church and die as quickly as possible.
And your point as it relates to this post?
You sound angry and bitter; what you were taught isn't the gospel. Instead what you were taught stands in the way of the gospel. The gospel is GOOD news; what you were taught is just bad religious news. See my post Good News/Bad News (http://anebooks.blogspot.com/2009/11/good-newsbad-news.html). Jesus came to set us free, not to enslave us.
James
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