Today, we are going to look at diagram 4 where we look at determining what is the line, when we speak about living below the line. Remember that there are many types of laws that come down from others: governments that write laws we are required to follow, tribes that have laws and ways of honoring or shaming that date far back, natural laws that existed as God created the earth like gravity, religious practices in different denominations that can feel like laws, village or community unspoken ways of handling communications and disputes, mothers and fathers who raised you in a certain way that can feel like “laws of the house”, and lastly your own sin and flesh.
We asked the question – which is the most powerful? Most of the laws are imposed by others. What makes sin and flesh the most powerful is that it is imposed by YOU! You have created your own prison! Those divine needs are built into each of us, and if we are not getting them met by God, if we are not believing that God can truly provide for all of these needs, then we are reaching to the world, to a creation. One broken creation trying to get its needs met by another broken creation. Why use the term, “broken”? Because we were originally designed whole with a heart and spirit turned to God. When Adam and Eve sinned, they became “broken” desiring to get their needs met in their own way and not God’s. In just a few generations, it got so bad that Genesis 6:5 says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Now I know you can think, “I’m not like that!” Stop for just 5 minutes and catch yourself in your thoughts – I can guarantee that some of them are evil, broken.
Galatians 3:22 says, “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin”. So now it’s not just you that’s broken; it’s everything around you too. So if you are trying to get your needs met by a broken world, how is that going to work? If it is working, for how long? It may be inflating you right now, making you feel on top of the world, but because it is a creation and not the creator, it is bound to end and deflate you. How much inflating and deflating will it take before you come to realize that this isn’t working? And when you realize it isn’t working, what is left? Despair, anxiety, stress, anger…the list is pretty long.
BUT GOD. Romans 5:8 says, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Whew! I don’t have to figure out how to get out of my prison, my box of bad choices. Jesus is the answer, and it isn’t choosing this religion called Christianity. It isn’t another set of rules that seem better. It is an actual life-changing, heart transforming relationship with Jesus Christ!
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