Yesterday

Well, if you were looking to rewind yesterday's message and listen to what was said again... oops! The stage mikes were so "hot" that I commented on them about one minute in, so our media guru killed them.

Which was exactly the right thing to do, assuming the speaker has turned on his lapel mike, and unfortunately he hadn't. So the MP3 had one minute on the front, and the invitation on the end. And yes, if you take out the middle, that IS probably some of your dream sermon timing. :)

The main idea was that the freedom we were intended to have received from Jesus has been "Lost in Translation" as we have added man made rules and restrictions to it. Using an early example of it happening - Galatians after all being written primarily to try to eliminate such rules.

We develop over time a system of what religious people of the period would have called "hedges". These "hedges" could also be called "boundary markers" which serve for those who erect them as limits to their freedoms in Christ. They also serve as an evisceration of faith being expressed through the choices we make though. If there's a "rule" we do not have to stop and consider what God would have us do. No need to live by the Spirit's call. No need to be still and know - the rule covers it.

You probably have some. I gave examples of some I have encountered as well as some I have constructed over the years yesterday.

Think of them as "You can't be a Christian if..." statements.

Could be things like drinking alcoholic beverages, watching TV, reading Harry Potter, being rich, buying your kids gadgets, sending them to public school, voting Republican, voting Democrat. Could be almost anything.

They are not prohibited by Scripture. They are left to the individual Christian's decision under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

To get a little tougher about it - which I actually intended to do yesterday...

They don't matter.

The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love.

Period.

And that love is defined by Jesus Himself when He outlined the Greatest Commandment.

"Love God with all your heart, with all your soul,with all your mind. And the follow on "Love your neighbor as yourself."

We work so hard at times to push people out of the circle of faith.

My mission yesterday was to help the people of New Hope draw a bigger circle. As expressed by this poem.

He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!

"Outwitted" by Edwin Markham

My hope is that New Hope would be known as a place where people can come to begin an exploration of what it might mean to love Jesus. If we have to hand them anything other than the Scriptures to explain how to do that, (our own "rules") we're going to push them away.

Be in prayer over how we can hold fast to that which was delivered once and for all, and shed ourselves of anything else.