A friend of mine share this little bible lesson he found posted on
Facebook:
GENESIS
God: All right, you
two, don't do the one thing. Other than that, have fun.
Adam & Eve:
Okay.
Satan: You should
do the thing.
Adam & Eve:
Okay.
God: What
happened!?
Adam & Eve: We
did the thing.
God: Guys!!
THE
REST OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
God: You are my
people, and you should not do the things.
People: We won't do
the things.
God: Good.
People: We did the
things.
God: Guys!!
THE
GOSPELS
Jesus: I am the Son
of God, and even though you have done the things, the Father and I still love
you and want you to live. Don't do the things anymore.
Healed people:
Okay! Thank you!
Other people: We've
never seen him do the things, but he probably does the things when no one is
looking.
Jesus: I have never
done the things.
Other people: We're
going to put you on trial for doing the things.
Pilate: Did you do
the things?
Jesus: No.
Pilate: He didn't
do the things.
Other people: Kill
him anyway.
Pilate: Okay.
Jesus: Guys!!
PAUL'S
LETTERS
People: We did the
things.
Paul: Jesus still
loves you, and because you love Him, you have to stop doing the things.
People: Okay.
PAUL'S
LETTERS PART II
People: We did the
things again.
Paul: Guys!!
REVELATION
John: When Jesus
comes back, there will be no more people who do the things. In the meantime, stop doing
the things.
We laughed as he read it out loud and then we moved on to
the next thing. But then it came back to me later in a less funny way. This is
what too many people think the bible is all about: Don’t do the things; We did the things; Stop
doing the things!!! That’s what they believe religion and God is all about and
that makes me a little sad. I used to think that this God thing was all about
rules—the 10 big ones and all the ones the individual religious institutions
add to them. But then something happened to change all that. I met Jesus and
learned that it’s not about keeping rules, but the relationship I have with my
Creator. It’s not about how pure or how much suffering I endure or even how
many people I convince to come to church. It’s about loving God and wanting to
be with him and share my life with him.
Many years ago, my mother’s entire family (all nine brothers
and sisters and their children) decided to gather for what we thought then was
going to be the last chance we were all going to be able to get together with
Grandma. We had a whole day celebrating Grandma planned and I was excited to
see some my cousins whom I hadn’t seen in years. But my husband was not as
thrilled as I. In fact, he was being a sour puss about it. He didn’t really
want to go and he was making sure I knew how big of a sacrifice it was for him
to attend my family gathering. Before we left I told him to stay home because I
didn’t want him to go out of obligation. I didn’t want him to “suffer” through
it. I wanted him to want to be there and involved.
That’s the way it is with God. That’s why he gave us free
will to choose. He doesn’t want us in a relationship with him because we have
to be. He wants us to want to be in relationship with him and enjoy the time we
have together. We are going to make some wrong choices, some accidentally and
some deliberately. We are going to be flawed because sin is human nature since
the fall. He is a holy God. Our sinfulness cannot exist in the presence of his
holiness. So to make it possible for us to be together at all, his Son took our
sinfulness in exchange for his holiness. This was a once for all time exchange
which give us immediate welcome into the arms of our God always no matter how
holy we feel we are or aren’t. Our holiness doesn’t matter as much as his does.
He isn’t looking at what rules we are keeping –he is looking into our hearts to
see our desire to be in relationship with him. That’s what God sees when he
looks at us.
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