Sure it may start out simple enough but before
you know it we have to make exceptions and qualifiers for this and that and
simple gets complex real fast. I drive a school bus. Driving the bus is the
easy part, managing the kids now that is hard. It doesn’t have to be. If the
children would simply sit in their seat and ride the bus home all would be
good. Really anything other than that is wrong and will cause problems for me,
them, their parents etc. The thing is no one wants to do that. There is always
a reason why they did more than sit in their seat and ride home ALWAYS.
The thing is it is never much of
a good reason. So-and-so made me…really they made you how? How did they make
you? No, you chose to do that in response. We are so good at coming up with
reasons why someone or something else influenced us to do what we did all-the-while
ignoring our part in the complicated mess we made. Therein lies a key to faith
in Christ Jesus.
To die to ourselves and be raised
to new life in Christ we must admit we are and have done wrong. We must admit
we played a role in his crucifixion and death. We must admit that he died
because of our sin. The sin we committed. Until we acknowledge that we can’t be
forgiven. Until we say we are bad we can’t be made good. For those who struggle
with addiction the first of 12 steps is to acknowledge that we are powerless
over our addiction. We must take responsibility for our actions before Christ
will assume responsibility for our actions. It is as simple as that.
Even in matters of faith simple
does not stay simple. This is ancient. Paul writes of the need to focus on the
basic message.
This mystery has
been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open...The mystery
in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward
to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our
Message. We preach Christ,
warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound
common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. Colossians
1: 26-29The Message.
I
have heard so many times that we need to do this or that or study this or that.
In the first century not 100 years after the death of Christ people were making
following Jesus much more complex. Jesus said repeatedly “follow me” no more no
less. That is simple, basic non-complicated. Is that what we do? Love God and
love your neighbor. A lawyer asked him to define who his neighbor was. It
seemed simple enough but we would try to exclude someone based on…well you fill
in the blank. It’s almost as if we believe Christ is not enough! If we just add
this or that then…really? That’s what I tell those children who have done more
than sit in their seat and ride home, really? It seems like a simple thing. It’s
not but oh it is!
In
HIS service and yours,
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