April 20, 2007

Tomorrow I will share a disturbing scripture for the worship service. It’s a passage from the Old Testament that calls for the death penalty for those who break the Sabbath. I don’t want to preach on that text. I wish I would have changed it.

I didn’t change the Bible text because it speaks to something that needs to be said. Apart from God we are nothing. I wanted to change the text because it is so easily misapplied. We take fearful passages and use them as primary motivators.

Fear is a powerful short-term force for change. The problem with fear is that we forget. Then we don’t pay attention anymore. They we need to be frightened again. Then we shape up. Then we forget. . . and so on and so on.

So to break this cycle, God asks us to remember. And even though a relationship with Him is a matter of life and death, He doesn’t hold that over our heads. Instead He draws us to him with cords of love.

““I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” Jeremiah 31:3

PS. That uncomfortable passage? Exodus 31:15

Rejoicing in hope,
Pastor Steve