Your decrees are very trustworthy. Holiness befits Your house, O Lord, forevermore. (Verse 5)
Here are some of the rules for the Farish children when they were little:
*No hitting
*Don't say "Shut up."
*Chew with your mouth closed
*Don't touch things on anyone's coffee table
*Obey me the first time I tell you to do something. I will not count even to one.
*Brush your teeth.
*Don't lie to me
*Don't talk back disrespectfully. You have a right to express your opinion but not to smart off.
*Respect the space of your siblings
*Don't throw a fit
I didn't sit down with Bill and write these out before we had children. I taught school first. What a place to see the kind of kids you don't want to rear. Many, of course, were happy and well-behaved, but, sheesh, others were always avoiding and recreating any boundaries. And boundaries are good. Especially for kids. They want to know who keeps evil out and who establishes good. The most unhappy children I taught were the ones who'd never been disciplined. Who always had their hands into mischief and were burned because of it. Our rules were established in light of the character we were looking for in our children. You might not think brushing their teeth and chewing with their mouths closed is about character, but I do. We are responsible for body, mind and spirit. And...it shows how truthful our kids are. More lying about the whole teeth brushing thing than any other rule we put in place. What's that about anyway?
God has decreed some things. Number one is He is the only God we worship. Because, He IS the only God. That really should make sense because if we worship anything else, we're just making up an idol. That's why edict number two is don't make idols for yourselves. Out of wood, gold, alcohol, sex, power, relationship. Idols bring death. God wants life. Don't curse using God's name, keep a day of rest from your work, honor your parents, don't murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or covet. All about character and boundaries. All set up for our benefit so that we can approach a holy God. All of these decrees make sense. They aren't restraining us from happiness, but from evil. Man running amok is quite the depraved creation. We need to understand what the Creator has put up as boundaries. The problem with rules, though, is age old. They are made to be broken. Test the parameters. See what it's like out there where God said don't go. See if the stove is hot...since we don't yet know what hot means. Ouch! See, I told you. And on it goes.
Knowing we can't keep what seem like pretty simple commandments on our own, the Godhead designed a plan. Sacrifice for sin. At first a lamb. Smoking on a sacrificial altar. Bled out over its coals. Good for a year of atonement. But man wasn't changed on the inside though millions of lambs over hundreds of years were offered up. No, God needed to live inside of man. Write those ten things on his heart. Prodigiously climb Himself onto the altar of our shame and once for all time cleanse our sins, dropping God-blood into the dust below the cross of His sacrificial offering. Jesus got up three days later, presented His hands and side to the Father, and sent the Holy Spirit to those who would believe. Our Father is a much better parent than I. I couldn't get inside my kids and energize their obedience with my wisdom. I had to depend upon their respect and love. That they would catch the spirit of authority and do the right things when I wasn't there to see. They made mistakes. Me, too. But we don't have to be ruled by our mistakes any more. You are controlled by your new nature if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And remember that if anyone doesn't have the Spirit of Christ living in her/him, they aren't Christians at all. Yet, even though Christ lives within you, your body will die because of sin, but your spirit will live, for Christ has pardoned it. And if the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you, He will make your dying bodies live again after you die, by means of this same Holy Spirit within you. So, dear brothers, you have no obligations whatever to your old sinful nature to do what it begs you to do. Romans 8 (Italics, mine)
So, when God says, "Trust Me, you don't want to do _____ fill in the blank" you can. If anyone knows what is right and good, it's the Holy God of All. Since He has loved us so much that He took our punishment upon Himself so we could have the power to do what is pleasing to Him, we can lift our eyes to our Faithful Parent Whose steadfast love for us never ends and obey Him from the heart. Besides, He sees when we brush our teeth (so to speak) and when we are lying about it. Sometimes rules help us understand our own hearts. And that isn't a bad thing.
Here are some of the rules for the Farish children when they were little:
*No hitting
*Don't say "Shut up."
*Chew with your mouth closed
*Don't touch things on anyone's coffee table
*Obey me the first time I tell you to do something. I will not count even to one.
*Brush your teeth.
*Don't lie to me
*Don't talk back disrespectfully. You have a right to express your opinion but not to smart off.
*Respect the space of your siblings
*Don't throw a fit
I didn't sit down with Bill and write these out before we had children. I taught school first. What a place to see the kind of kids you don't want to rear. Many, of course, were happy and well-behaved, but, sheesh, others were always avoiding and recreating any boundaries. And boundaries are good. Especially for kids. They want to know who keeps evil out and who establishes good. The most unhappy children I taught were the ones who'd never been disciplined. Who always had their hands into mischief and were burned because of it. Our rules were established in light of the character we were looking for in our children. You might not think brushing their teeth and chewing with their mouths closed is about character, but I do. We are responsible for body, mind and spirit. And...it shows how truthful our kids are. More lying about the whole teeth brushing thing than any other rule we put in place. What's that about anyway?
God has decreed some things. Number one is He is the only God we worship. Because, He IS the only God. That really should make sense because if we worship anything else, we're just making up an idol. That's why edict number two is don't make idols for yourselves. Out of wood, gold, alcohol, sex, power, relationship. Idols bring death. God wants life. Don't curse using God's name, keep a day of rest from your work, honor your parents, don't murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or covet. All about character and boundaries. All set up for our benefit so that we can approach a holy God. All of these decrees make sense. They aren't restraining us from happiness, but from evil. Man running amok is quite the depraved creation. We need to understand what the Creator has put up as boundaries. The problem with rules, though, is age old. They are made to be broken. Test the parameters. See what it's like out there where God said don't go. See if the stove is hot...since we don't yet know what hot means. Ouch! See, I told you. And on it goes.
Knowing we can't keep what seem like pretty simple commandments on our own, the Godhead designed a plan. Sacrifice for sin. At first a lamb. Smoking on a sacrificial altar. Bled out over its coals. Good for a year of atonement. But man wasn't changed on the inside though millions of lambs over hundreds of years were offered up. No, God needed to live inside of man. Write those ten things on his heart. Prodigiously climb Himself onto the altar of our shame and once for all time cleanse our sins, dropping God-blood into the dust below the cross of His sacrificial offering. Jesus got up three days later, presented His hands and side to the Father, and sent the Holy Spirit to those who would believe. Our Father is a much better parent than I. I couldn't get inside my kids and energize their obedience with my wisdom. I had to depend upon their respect and love. That they would catch the spirit of authority and do the right things when I wasn't there to see. They made mistakes. Me, too. But we don't have to be ruled by our mistakes any more. You are controlled by your new nature if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And remember that if anyone doesn't have the Spirit of Christ living in her/him, they aren't Christians at all. Yet, even though Christ lives within you, your body will die because of sin, but your spirit will live, for Christ has pardoned it. And if the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you, He will make your dying bodies live again after you die, by means of this same Holy Spirit within you. So, dear brothers, you have no obligations whatever to your old sinful nature to do what it begs you to do. Romans 8 (Italics, mine)
So, when God says, "Trust Me, you don't want to do _____ fill in the blank" you can. If anyone knows what is right and good, it's the Holy God of All. Since He has loved us so much that He took our punishment upon Himself so we could have the power to do what is pleasing to Him, we can lift our eyes to our Faithful Parent Whose steadfast love for us never ends and obey Him from the heart. Besides, He sees when we brush our teeth (so to speak) and when we are lying about it. Sometimes rules help us understand our own hearts. And that isn't a bad thing.
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