Skip to main content

Systems

             Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. (Psalm 119:165)

 

            Have you ever used a butter knife for a screwdriver, and ended up with a damaged knife? Or tried to push open a door that must be pulled? Have you ever read or listened to something about three steps to ______, or any other self-help material? Or tried to put together something that is described as “some assembly required”? I recently replaced a flip phone with a stupid smart phone, which I have yet to figure out how to make it let me answer an incoming phone call or turn off an alarm if I don’t already have the screen active. One of my difficulties with a certain philosophical/political ideology is that it maintains that what we need to do is build a system that will make it impossible for people to do bad things – if for no other reason than that it makes it “unnecessary” to do them.

            The thing that all the examples above have in common is that they tend to not work. Some don’t work because they’re specifically designed not to work. Others don’t work because the design has a flaw.

            Religions and laws, including the Mosaic Law, are systems. They explain what one must do, must not do, should do, should not do, can do, and can’t do. Of course, Christianity and Judaism both have God as part of the system, at least in theory. And if you live according to a system perfectly, life is likely to go along nicely. But the moment you refuse or fail to act precisely as the system demands, you stumble. Some folks say sinning is stumbling, but that’s the point; sinning is not following the system.

          So again, what David is saying isn’t some magical formula. If you do A, B, C, D, and E, God will pour blessings down on you. Doing A, B, C, D, and E is like baking something. If you put the ingredients in and do what you’re told to, you’ll get a tasty cookie, cake, pie, etc. If you use old baking powder, or salt instead of sugar,  you won’t. The blessing is within the ingredients and the system.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more