Increasing Faith

Those of you who know me and my background know that I have a fairly conservative upbringing.  In fact, in some regards, there was a large amount of legalism mixed into the teachings I was raised under.  These teachings encompassed most areas of my life from music to movies to dress and on and on it went.  This was my reality.

Thankfully, the Lord in his graciousness converted me out of this.  Slowly but surely, God used his word to break through these idolatrous high places I had erected to spirituality.  Now I refer to myself as a ‘free Christian.’  Not free to sin so grace may abound, but free to live life and enjoy life.  Free from the made up rules of the modern day Pharisees.  Free to love and serve God to his standards, not man’s.

One of the most ludicrous standards foisted upon others is the need to wear certain attire on Sundays.  I remember one time when I was younger a pastor driving a female parishioner home to change out of her slacks and into a skirt.  Another time, a member of the worship team was sent home to change out of jeans.  This is all done under the auspice of spirituality.  To many of these folks, better dressed = more spiritual.

The irony is, from my experience, the very people championing this standard, would when it was violated be the first to grumble, complain, gossip, and backstab.  In other words, they were willing, and eager to violate standards set be scripture in defense of their manmade standards.  How twisted is that?  By scriptural standards, I refer to Philippians 2:14, Romans 1:29, and II Corinthians 12:20.

Let me say this again, the supposed spiritual violate God’s standards in order to uphold their standards.  Does this remind you of anyone from scripture?  If you said the Pharisees, you win a prize.  These are modern day Pharisees which have crept into our churches to sap the life out of the church.

Read through the New Testament, and look for the similarities, and then also look at how Christ reacted to them. Doe we really want Christ to have the same reaction to us? Do we want to be like Christ or the Pharisees?

Just to be clear, if you see me in church, I typically have on jeans and a t-shirt.  If I feel like dressing up to look nice for my wife, I will put on a collared shirt.  During the summer, I change things up a bit and wear shorts.  Those of you who have not fainted at this confession, lets look at what God says about this.

In I Samuel 16:7, God makes his thoughts very clear.  “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  Some people do not like the statement that God does not care, but in regards to clothing, he does not.  My only caveat on this would be clothing that does not cover you up.  Christ is quite clear about the responsibility on a person who temptation comes through, so dress modest.  Other than that, he does not care.

Why?  Because God cares about your heart.  Pharisees of old and modern day Pharisees always seem to miss this point.  They suppose that by controlling external behavior, the heart will be kept under control.  Boy are they wrong.  A healthy apple will not make a sick tree healthy, but a sick tree will make an apple sick.  External does not drive internal, but internal drives external.  What is inside will come out.

We all know of folks who have been in the church for 10,20, or even 50 years and then one day they throw it all away and start living for the world.  These are folks who were model church goers.  They were deacons, elders, pastors, pastors’ wives, ushers, choir directors, etc.  You name a position in the church, and I guarantee that someone in that position has ‘fallen away’ at some point.

Why does this happen?  Because for all those years, they had the wrong relationship.  They had a relationship with rules, and not with Christ.  They had things backwards all along.

I will write more on our freedoms in the future, but for now brothers and sisters, please be open to seeing spirituality outside of the rules man has created.    Our faith does not rest on rules.  In fact a faith on rules is a diminished faith, but a faith in Christ and all the freedoms he gives us leads to increasing faith.

Love Christ, Love others, Love Freedom.