What kind of Christian blogger am I? What was going through my mind when I decided to not post the week of Easter? I remember, as a kiddo, the holiday church services were always much more crowded. Easter and Christmas seemed to beckon all sorts of people to church. I remember wondering why they decided to come only on those few Sundays during the year. Obviously, attendance every week mattered when it came to calling myself a Christian.
To answer the question of what was going through my ever-loving-mind when I decided to not post the week of Easter, well, I had other things to do. My attention was required elsewhere, and I made a decision a long time ago that I wasn’t going to force something because it probably would not accurately reflect God’s heart. What was I doing that was more important than posting to continue spreading the news of God’s goodness and for your reading pleasure? I was investing in my family.
Actually, that investment involved a lot of messy diapers, laundry, and monitoring temperatures (there was also a lot of snuggling). The stomach bug had invaded our home. It was especially enjoyable since it decided to strike when we were at church. Not just any church, but a church that was over 4 hours away from home (yes, it was a long drive home – and didn’t smell very good either).
We were on our way home from a trip to Georgia and decided to stop in at my dad’s church for a surprise (it was on the way, and we hadn’t seen them since Christmas). There we were, sitting in the front row and I noticed a bit of moisture on my thigh. I shifted the baby right as she decided to spit up (nope, it was vomit) and found that she had leaked through a fresh diaper onto my lap. While my husband caught every drop of vomit with the baby’s blanket, the diaper had failed. Lovely.
After having lunch with the ‘rents, we loaded up for the rest of our journey home. We weren’t yet aware that it was a stomach bug that would end up causing a lot more diapers, several changes of clothes, and a longer drive home. And we weren’t even aware at that time that it would cycle through all of us to one extreme or another over the following week. While I hated that I was missing out on posting the week of one of the biggest holidays of our faith (and the grossest diapers ever), I did love the extra snuggle time, watching movies with the kiddos, and the extra reading I was able to get in.
While taking care of the sickly kiddos and during my own recovery, I read something about Marie Antoinette that I had never known before. Her marriage was arranged (knew that) but she had to have a major make-over. When Marie Antoinette traveled into France to be married to the future King Louis XVI, as soon as she crossed the border into France, she was stripped of everything that was part of her life in Austria (clothes, hair style, customs and even her pet). She was required to leave it all behind because it would not mix with her new life she was to embrace in France. She had to learn and follow the new and forget the old. Sound familiar? Let’s spin this a little differently.
My husband and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary while visiting in Georgia. When I married my husband, I vowed to love and honor him and no other for the rest of my life. I wasn’t going to date other men, I wasn’t going to flirt or entertain thoughts of a relationship with other men, and I would put my focus and energy on him and no other man. Well, that’s the gist. It would be wrong, then, for me to be married to him and bring a boyfriend into it as well. It would be wrong for me to be married and still live the life as a single woman.
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Matthew 9:16-17 NIV
In Galatians 3:1, Paul calls the Galatians foolish – they just couldn’t seem to help but want to mix the old way of observing the Law for salvation with the new way of following the direction of the Holy Spirit. That’s like Marie Antoinette bringing a bit of Austria with her into France, continuing Austrian customs instead of the customs of her new life. Or me bringing a boyfriend with me into my marriage with my husband. It’s offensive (like the smell we endured on that excruciatingly long drive home with Princess Runny-Poop).
Jesus was not crucified alone on the cross over 2,000 years ago.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 NIV
But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. Hebrews 8:8-13 NIV
When Jesus hung on the cross, God turned away from Him just as He turned away from the children of Israel. They couldn’t uphold the written code. Their righteousness could never be earned through it. But God decided to make a new covenant with two unchangeable things: God… and God. He would uphold the Law through His Son. He would be our righteousness for us. He would remember our sins no more. He would not break the covenant He made with Himself. The Old Covenant required that we do everything perfectly. The New Covenant promises that He did everything perfectly for us.
God isn’t after perfect church attendance, He’s not after religious blog posting from yours truly, but He is after your heart. He desires for you to give up the old. Step into your royalty and stop wearing the rags of your former life. Be the bride of Christ without bringing the boyfriend, aka legalistic condemnation, that you were never good enough for. Your Bridegroom will never let you down.