Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Playing by the Rules”
Our Bible verse for today: “Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “It’s not that hard.”
“Playing by the Rules”- on the face of it playing by the rules seems like the only right thing to do. Playing by the rules ensures fairness and justice, and it also brings order out of chaos and it leads to outcomes that are best for everyone involved. Fundamentally, that’s why there are rules.
But the idea of “playing by the rules” is rapidly going out of fashion in our society today. It’s become common to hear about professional athletes who make a science out of breaking the rules in order to gain a slight advantage over their competitors; or of wealthy businessmen who, although they are already rich, skirt IRS rules in order to gain just a little more financial advantage; or elected officials who lie, manipulate, and disregard the Constitution; or of special interest groups who lobby to have laws amended or bent to their own advantage even though doing so will hurt others; and on it goes.
It happens in the Christian world too. We know God’s rules. His standards are clear. Yet how often do we decide to simply do what we want to do, regardless of the clearly established Biblical standards, and then we expect God to bless us anyway? We all do it from time-to-time. This is the most serious and grievous example of not playing by the rules because it involves God’s people disobeying Him.
But as Micah explained to the Old Testament Jews of his day, obeying God and living according to His standards is really not that hard. In the Bible God established boundaries within which His people are to live. Those boundaries are really very wide and God gives us a lot of room in which to fully enjoy life. But still, there are boundaries, and we do have to stay within them. When we don’t, when we stray outside of those boundaries, there are always consequences.
Playing by the Biblical rules is always in our own best interest. It may be out of fashion culturally, but it is always right and it is always best.
All this month we will explore the Biblical principle of playing by God’s rules. We’ll think about what those rules are – and what they are not. We will look at examples of people who lived within God-given boundaries and were blessed because of it, and we will consider examples of people who have chosen not to play by God’s rules, and who have suffered as a result.
Folks, it’s not that hard. It really isn’t. While it’s true that none of us will ever live a perfect life, and therefore we will from time-to-time break the rules, we can still structure our lives according to God’s standards and then do our best to live within those boundaries. By the time we’re done with this month of devotional messages, it’s my prayer that all of us will have resolved to do exactly that.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 