It is a difficult thing to ask straightforward questions about ones faith. This can be seen in our heart, by our carnal side, as a weakness of our trust in God. Satan plays on this false perception and tells us to push down our questions and just take the questions and bury them along with our hearts and minds.
I am attempting to show disciples of Jesus, that we may open our hearts to these questions and glorify Jesus in the exercise.
(Satan has both sides of this dilemma in his hands and plays me alternately, when I allow it.)
God knows that we learn, primarily, by example and not by instruction or direction alone.
He builds on examples through the Old Testament.
He does this with negative examples, like King Saul’s unwillingness to repent of unfaithful decisions, e.g. as when he offers his own sacrifice to God (1 Samuel 13:9ff).
He does this with positive examples, such as King David’s contrite repentance of his sin with Bath-sheba and his subsequent murder of Uriah, her husband. David exhibits bad decision making, just like Saul. The difference is revealed in the way each addressed their sins.
God builds one lesson upon another, until the ultimate example is given in Jesus the Son.
God expects us to see the examples he gives, thus we are not walking blindly.
There is no such thing as “Blind Faith”, where God is concerned.
The title of this blog, “Theology of Nuance”, represents a fundamental character feature that I have found in Yahweh our God.
God is not a zero tolerance God, as is Allah. Look at my post for October 17
The issue of being a religion of lists is not in Yahweh’s nature.
He rebuked Israel many times in the prophets for only going through the motions of religion.
Malachi records this ritual of going through the motions.
The priests have a list of “things to do”, but they are devoid of heart. “Their hearts are not in it” and so God tells them in verse ten,
It is human (carnal) nature to try and make things easy, by boiling our religion down to the essence. ‘I can dump that, because it is not needed, but this, I really need, so I will put it on my list of things to do.’
My attempts to get things down to the basic, is nothing less than an avoidance to give God my heart.
I don’t have to give him my heart if I am following the list. This becomes devotion by proxy, which is not devotion to God, but rather devotion to myself for service to the “List.”
In doing this, my “list” becomes my God.
It is a paradox and it is a nuance.
I would like to show an example of Jesus showing us this nuance and paradox. In Matthew 5:21 He tells us, “You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Do not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ 22 But I say, if you are angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the high council. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.
If you follow this, in the full context of the Sermon on the Mount, you find Jesus actually raises the bar on what the Law requires.
The school administrator “justly” makes the point that “He technically broke the rules, and we do have a zero tolerance policy.”
But, the human way is not God’s way (thank God); God, looks at the heart and knows when the heart is innocent, even when the rules are broken.
It helps me to acknowledge this in my writings, and then when I begin to condemn people for not living up to God’s perfect standards, I can remember that God sees even me, a law breaker, yet innocent in my heart.
I am sorry that I forget this from time to time, but this is why I write.
God bless,
DSM
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