Of Life and Law

Sometimes guest house ministry looks like this: taking window measurements for new curtains.

We're going to switch to white curtains for all the rooms.  It'll bring a freshness and continuity to the space, and I'm excited to show you what it looks like once that project is done.

Happy birthday, Addie!

He's always like, "Hey, let's take a picture!"

And then he smiles like this.

Cracks. me. up.

- - -

When I used to read through the Bible years ago, I'd start out all pumped and excited.  Yay, Genesis!  Yay, Exodus!

And then...Leviticus.

Who gets excited about Leviticus?!  I know it's inspired and it's important and there's a reason all this stuff is in here, but...Leviticus.  Sigh.

Well, I've been listening through the Bible in both Spanish and French since the beginning of the year, and good ol' Leviticus came around again.

Genesis and Exodus are both mainly narrative, which makes for easy listening.  But Leviticus is full of vocabulary that I don't even use in English regularly, so I find it takes much more concentration to follow along in another language.

The other day, as I was mustering up every mental ounce of concentration to keep up and feeling increasingly overwhelmed, I had this thought...

Suppose I actually had to know all this well enough to live my everyday life by it?

The prospect is enormously daunting.

I can't even manage to keep up with my own expectations of good habits and discipline.  If I get to sleep on time and drink plenty of water, I inevitably miss exercising.  If I get up early and have a good quiet time, I don't get to the dishes or forget to take vitamins.  No matter how hard I try, I can never keep all the balls going at once.

Suppose I was expected to keep every minute detail of the Law...perfectly...all the time?

Of course, the Law was never designed to make us righteous by keeping it; it was designed to show us that our own efforts can never reach God's standard of perfection.

And that sense of inability and utter inadequacy is entirely proper in the face of God's standard.

But Jesus.

The One the Law pointed us toward, the One who fulfilled the Law, the One whose perfection means I can be right with God, not because I am good, but because He is completely good.

I'm no longer under the Law, but in Christ.

Oh, this grace.