I am thinking today....... and if you have been following my musings for any time, you know it is something I consider pretty important....this thinking thing. So important that I keep suggesting that you join me in the process. My today thinking centers around two religious philosophies.... two schools of thought..... two camps, as it were, that have been at war forever..... the mercy/grace camp and the law/rules camp...... kind of scary but that's the best the anti-Christ has ever been able to come up with (both camps even fight about who the anti-Christ is!!!) ....... and the war between the two camps has been going on forever.

On the one hand you have the law..... the rules....if you do not obey all the rules you will not make it. You end up burning in hell forever. Really a fun camp to be part of.... there you go young feller, you blew it.... again.... go rot, crash and burn forever. You'll never make it. All you want to do is sin. Jolly stuff. Particularly bad because all the different folks in that camp, each has their very own rules!!! It can get a bit confusing. :)

Then there is the other camp. God loves you so much he understands how difficult it is to obey any of the rules, so His marvelous grace covers all our sins so just do the best you can...... live any way you like,....everything is ok.......some call this greasy grace......just go enjoy your sin and you slide right into heaven on His grace.... :)

May I just offer another model? I think maybe the best thing to do is simply throw out both models...... bring in the old bulldozer, rip out all those silly foundations and lay a new one that is just Jesus. The rules thing will never work. I can never live the Christian life. I was never meant to. Living the Christian life is way beyond difficult.....it is impossible! The only one who ever led that life was the One who is Life...... His name is Jesus.....and if He doesn't live that Life inside of us, we will never, ever live it! It is His life not our life.....which is why it always goes back to my relationship with Him..... never to rules and regulations and religious systems.

And that other school? It doesn't work either....we sow and we reap....if we just go ahead and sin and sin and sin our lives will be so far beyond messed up we will regret the day we were born. I've said it before and I'll say it again. This life is not about heaven or hell. It is about a relationship with Jesus. When we live our lives in Him, He changes us by that marvelous grace into His very own image.....we start to look like Him....act like Him....be like Him.

Not a bad way live either.

:)