March 14, 2012 Scrawling a Whim

Scrawling a Whim

Mark 7:9-13 He went on, “Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! 10 Moses said, 'Respect your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.' 11 But you weasel out of that by saying that it's perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, 'Gift?! What I owed you I've given as a gift to God,' 12 thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. 13 You scratch out God's Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this.” (from THE MESSAGE)

WHAT DO you think of the phrase “you scrawl a whim in its place”? Today I heard of a church denomination that allows its pastors to stay at a church for only 18 months. My questions to this church are: “Did you scrawl a whim over God’s Word?” I hope they haven’t. Jesus would be most displeased with that.
Yes, Jesus hates the way mankind has “scrawled a whim” to override God’s Word. How dare we form our own understanding of God apart from his Word? God’s Word is as a love letter to you. He has formed his word for the benefit of communicating to you that he loves you. Yet, you and I too often live in doubt and ambivalence of his Word. And worse, we live with an attitude that our words are better than God’s Word.
That’s the Pharisees’ sin. They had put their own word over God’s Word, and Jesus condemned them for “scrawling their whim” on God’s law.
Love and honor God’s Word. He has written it for you.

Pause and consider how you wouldn’t scrawl on a love note to you.