YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN

This is a long one... get ready! (But I hope well worth the read)

I don't know if you were one of the lucky ones or not when it comes to quality Premarital Counseling, but I was not. My premarital counseling consisted of one meeting with my pastor and that was basically just him asking, "So who is going to stand where?" He gave us the once over and said something along the proverbial lines of, "Ahh, you guys are great! You're committed Christians and you do a lot in the church, you'll be fine." He didn't even give us a book to go through or anything. {Cause you know some pastors simply throw a book at an engaged couple like "Before you Say I Do" or "Intended For Pleasure" or something like that as if to say, "Read this and you'll know everything you need to know."} Which is really funny because I wonder when the last time they (as Pastors) were content with throwing a Bible to a child and saying, "Read this, and you'll be fine." {But that's another post}.

So over the years I have come to realize that I (we) had a VERY neglected view of what marriage was about (meaning: how it was designed, what it meant, and what it means for us today, etc). Only by the grace of God has He shown us the truth and filled our depraved and thirsty souls with a Biblical understanding of marriage. But if I'm honest I do feel a little cheated. I mean it’s not like we didn’t know marriage was important. Duh! But I think we really didn’t know just how important it was. We didn’t understand words like covenant and how God pursues us simply because it is in His nature to do so, He can do no other thing (that’s called his loving-kindness). We didn’t realize what actually was happening when we stood together on that ghastly, brick-red carpet with the Roman colosseum poles in terms of our identity and new-found ‘oneness’. Sure we knew that Christians were not supposed to get divorced so we vowed to never get a divorce. We knew adultery was bad, so we vowed to stay true to each other. Our wedding was not a sad occasion. On the contrary, it was great... (not as great as the honeymoon) but it was still a great afternoon. I don’t think having a Biblical knowledge of marriage would have made the ceremony more spectacular so to speak, but I do think it would have made me more aware of just how big of a stinking deal it really was. So what does Premarital Counseling have to do with the Old Testament?

I say all of that to say this...

I don’t know if you were one of the lucky ones when it comes to OT teaching but I was not. I grew up hearing things like “The OT is good for moral rules, understanding the history of Israel, and some really weird junk concerning dead animals and diets.” I was taught (in not so few words) “Sure the OT was important but we live in the New Covenant (read: Different Covenant).” All the rules were changed. We no longer need the OT for anything other than remembering where we came from and some cool poetry with an erotic story to boot.

So over the years I grew up with a VERY neglected view of what the OT was really about (meaning: How it was designed, what it meant, and what it still means for us today). Only by the grace of God had He shown me the truth and filled my depraved and thirsty soul with a Biblical understanding of His all encompassing Word. But if I'm honest I do feel a little cheated. I mean it’s not I didn’t know the OT was important. Duh! But I think I really didn’t know just how important it was. I was told the books represented groupings of Poetry, and History, and Minor (read: unimportant) prophets.

I didn’t realize that everything in the OT points back to the Law. All the prophets pointed back to the Law, all the Writings pointed back to the Law. When you read the OT and even the NT the writers assume you have a basic understanding of the Law. There is no stark distinction between the OT and the NT like the blank sheet of paper in my Bible indicates. It is not so much the OT and the NT as it is the OT and the ‘same-ole’ Testament. Sure the avenue of salvation changed but faith is still the key (as it was in the OT), the heart is still the goal (as it was in the OT), and the far-off country is still the vision (as it was in the OT). The OT set a pattern of {Establishing a Covenant -> Stipulations (laws) were added-> Breaking of the laws by man -> Convent Renewal -> More Laws Added -> Man breaking the laws again...} This happened over and over and over again and each time the focus was narrowed (go read Exodus and Leviticus). And when the time was right, Jesus arrived and what did he do? He continued the same pattern! Except this time he narrowed it down far enough and small enough for man to finally understand.

Jesus stated... “You’ve heard it said not to murder, But I say to you, if you’ve hated someone, then it’s as good as killing them.” And again, “You’ve heard it said not to commit adultery, But I say to you, if you’ve lusted after someone then it’s as if you’ve slept with them.” Those in ear shot were outraged and perplexed. “How can this be? How then is it possible for us to fulfill this Law set forth by our fathers?”

Jesus said... “Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. Johnny tell them what they’ve won!”

You see its never been about man’s ability or inability to follows RULES, or guidelines, or moral codes, or even by-laws. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT MAN’S HEART! We’ve become perfectionists at behavior modification. Some teach their kids not to do certain things like drink and smoke but never follow that coercion up with anything valid or defendable. It’s the religious equivalent of “Because I said so.” So we have children who grow up to be adults who don’t drink or smoke (THEY DON’T KNOW WHY THEY DON’T DO IT) they just don’t do it. More precisely, they avoid it. They modify their behavior so they don’t have to deal with it. And sadly they often modify their lives so they don’t have to live near or be around others who do. We teach the latest and greatest methods of how to compartmentalize our faith and meanwhile our hearts are far from the truth.

For those who are wondering, this is NOT a rant. I am not belittling my current church or the church I grew up in (I love that place). I’m not even striking out against the elusive “American” church (which seems to get all the blame these days. I mean seriously, can we please quit blaming all our problems on the “American” church? Maybe all these perceived problems is because we once again compartmentalized our faith into regions... as if to say the “European” church has it all figured out. God looks for those whose hearts are for him regardless of location.

This is a basic statement from a man who sees his role as shepherd as a very serious task and desires to help his people become aware of things that he learned far too late in life!