Living in the Fulfillment of The Law

Our Precept class has been studying "The Sermon on The Mount", and next week we'll be looking at The Law.

I have had some HUGE "Ah-Ha" moments during this time of study..it's been so rich! It's one of those times of learning that makes me just want to run out and tell everyone I know what God has taught me through this study.

However, some of the ladies in the class read this blog, so I won't spoil next week's discussion for them...I'll share with you after Monday what my big moment was. :)

One thing that we do see all through Matthew 5 is that Jesus took the Law straight to the heart. He by-passed all the excuses that man could come up with. The religious leaders of the day were living in such a way that they would point to the law and (in essence) say, "I don't do THAT! See...I'm righteous!".

But Jesus went to the heart. Like the sword of the Spirit, He cut through the legalism and addressed the heart.

Have you noticed how cliche' even the words of The Sermon on The Mount have become in our culture? I wish I had a dime for every person who tells me that they are "pure of heart" and "have the light", yet are living totally for self, apart from the righteousness of Christ.

I just had an opportunity come up today. A friend of mine is coming to visit soon, and when we were talking about dinner plans today, this friend said, "Hey. We'll just go out to eat on my company. We can expense it."

I tried to gently guide the conversation back to us just grilling out here, and didn't quite know how to handle this graciously.

But you know...it hasn't left me all day long.

The truth is, we aren't clients of this person's company. We (my family and I) aren't counted on this person's per diem.

And, above all... we are the Light of the World. The Salt of the Earth. A City Set on a Hill.

That's what Jesus tells us in Matthew 5.

Once we give our lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and are indwelt by His Holy Spirit, this is how He speaks of us, and of our responsibility to this world.

I don't want to lose my saltiness with this person. I don't want to put my light under a basket. I want to be a faithful follower of my Lord Jesus in everything....I want my life to shed so much light that this person is compelled to repent and follow Christ.

Jesus would tell me that going out to dinner on the company's dime would be stealing. I'm sure of it.

How can I be so sure? Because Jesus took everything back to the heart.

And He's made it clear in mine. Crystal.

Wanna join us for tacos al carbon at the house? We'll be grilling out! (Or going dutch!) ;)

I thought the picture above was amazingly coincidental to this post. :)