living from the inside out

Teaching about the Law

17 "Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.19 So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God's laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
20 "But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

matthew 5

lately, i've been going through a dry season in my spiritual walk. talked to a friend yesterday and i feel so much better. everything's coming back to me. why i follow jesus. why i do the things i do. why i love people so much. why i sacrifice so much time and energy. all for Jesus, all for Jesus. i gotta keep my eyes on Him. all i was focusing on was how negative things were. i was focusing on the waves and the storm again. wow. i wrote about that in this blog, too. God's here, though. He's always been here. i've been depending way too much on my feelings and emotions to see if God is around me. it doesn't matter how i feel. amazing things have been happening. thuy just got baptized and tem accepted Jesus Christ on wednesday. God is moving. i just have to remember to keep my eyes focused on Him. just read a bit of forgotten god by francis chan, really good. asking us if we actually want to be changed by the Holy Spirit. a lot of us don't. we're comfortable where we are. scary, huh? he brought up this book by c.s. lewis about this boy who turns into a dragon and the only way to become a boy again is to peel off the dragon skin. it's painful and it hurts. and it's the same way with us. we've been living in sin for so long that for us to start finally peeling off the layers of dirt and grime is painful. i mean, really really hard. but it's necessary for us. the Holy Spirit doesn't mean to harm us, but He does seek to make us Christlike, and sometimes it's painful. good stuff.

alright, so for today i was going over this verse. two things stuck out to me. that i ignore small commandments all the time! and ok, yes, i know i shouldn't, and i'm going to try harder because i want to do my best. that part was easy, but i realized that i don't know a lot of commandments. i don't know a lot of the bible for myself, actually. now, i could easily just say that since i don't know those commandments, i don't have to obey them. haha, what a cop out. i think i have to make it a point for myself finally to read the entire bible, jotting down what God says about everything.

also, steve carter talked about this last night, kind of. he was in luke, but it had to do with this. verse 20. Jesus didn't mean that we had to keep the commandments better than the pharisees with all the tiny little regulations added onto the original 600 or so. He means that our righteousness shouldn't just be on the outside like the pharisees. see, the pharisees just did everything for show, but their insides were full of greed and selfishness. Jesus wants us to be righteous from the inside out. it starts with, as we all know, our hearts! if our hearts are right with God, it will simply show through the way we live life. the way we interact with people. the way we handle difficulties. woo, good stuff. be blessed today. =]