Signs Everywhere!
- May 15, 2007
Have you ever noticed
that most signs are all about telling you what you can't do rather than
telling you what you can do? Even some that are supposedly enabling
are prohibitive in nature. A highway sign isn't telling you that
you can go 65 miles an hour, rather it tells you that you are not supposed
to go any faster.
I think it would be interesting
to see a comparative study that would give the proportion of signs that
say not to something to those that say yes. My gut feeling is that
the ratio would be something like 100:1; kind of depressing the more I
consider it.
As I cogitated and ruminated
with regard to this theme one of the songs of the "70's" came back to me.
Do you remember the lyrics? Here's the chorus:
"Sign, Sign everywhere
a sign
Blocking out the scenery
breaking my mind
Do this, don't do that,
can't you read the sign"
Over the past few years,
I have had many opportunities to chat with non-Christians and their universal
theme and rant would seem to correspond to my observations about signs.
They told me that there were too many don'ts; taking too many stands against
this people group or another; publicly declaring opposition to this, being
opposed to that, and so on ad nauseum.
Is there any wonder why
so many people reject the reality of God and faith in Him? Further,
I must say that it should be no wonder that Christian Churches are under
fire from so many sources. Where do you suppose all the negative
messages come from?
It is only my opinion,
but I think that far too many Christians today are deriving their rules
for living from the Old Testament. In that section of the Bible before
Jesus Christ came to dwell among us, God was all about rules and punishment.
All we need look to are the many instances where God punished the Israelites
for their misdeeds.
You see the Israelites
of the Old Testament were under a covenant with God that was established
with Abraham. God declared that the people of Israel would be His
chosen people and if they would honor Him in all things and obey the laws
that He would indeed prosper them. In everything you read about the
Ten Commandments, the Mosaic Laws, as well as the instructions for temple
worship, it was all about what mankind must do to curry favor with the
Heavenly Father.
Everything changed when
Jesus Christ became flesh, was born, lived, died and rose again.
At that time God established a New Covenant with mankind, because Christ
took upon Himself the sins of the world and they were nailed to the cross
with Him. With His sacrifice our responsibility to all of the old
laws ceased, and the New Covenant is only about believing in Christ.
Paul the Apostle wrote
to the Galatians and told them that in Christ we were no longer bound by
law, but should be guided by the Spirit. In fact he said that if
we try to live up to any of the old criteria, we become responsible for
every single law. However, in a spirit-filled life we must love God
with all our hearts, minds and souls and love each other as we would be
loved, and that's all of it!
Far too many all preach
about the punishment and so precious little about the message of God's
love. The Bible clearly says; "For God so loved the world", and you
must note that in that statement it does not specify that His love was
only for Christians. Paul went further and clarified that for us
when he wrote in the book of Romans, "While we were yet sinners Christ
died for us"
We have plenty of self-righteous
radio and television preachers with a public pulpit and they condemn and
admonish everyone that does not believe exactly the way they do.
To hear their version anyone that thinks differently is guilty and should
receive the punishment of hell-fires. They verbally create
the equivalent of several signs such as, "do not enter", "one way", and
"restricted area - authorized persons only". Certainly, if I were not already
a Christian, they would easily turn me off to God.
The best way to communicate
the intricate workings of God's love is to let it flow out of us to others.
Those of us that are Christians should pray that the true love of God would
shine through us, and that the unbeliever would see Christ living in us
and be able to accept the salvation that exists.
