New Views on Old Concepts

Earlier this week I read about a man who was caught on the roof of a prison... trying to break in! (www.worldmag.com) He concluded that since he had been treated better in prison than he was currently being treated in the 'real world' that he would sneak back in. The former prisoner, Detlef Federshohn said, “Life is so much easier on the inside. They feed you, do your washing and let you watch TV, which I can tell you is a lot more than my mother does.” (Wow. Tough family life!) I’ve been walking through the book of Matthew lately in order to get to a 'fresh' perspective on what Jesus had to say. The truth is all of us need a 'fresh' perspective from time to time. If we don't get one we become very accustomed to our own little viewpoint... one that is safe and treats us like we want to be treated... To break out of that is difficult. In fact, it's often harder to live in the 'real world' with a more 'fresh' reading of Jesus than it is to be locked away, secluded from everyone with our own small-minded interpretation of scripture. So, here's what we do... we get some truth shining into our lives and we say, "Ahh, it was easier without the truth... without the light shining! I want to go back!" I’m not just talking about going back to an old way of living before we met Jesus although that is obviously a problem as well. I’m talking more here about how we get locked into a particular viewpoint. Like for example the phrase, “Kingdom of Heaven”… How many Christians when they read that phrase assume Jesus was referring to the afterlife? How many of us make the connection that He was talking equally about our current life? (Check out The Value of Theological Words entry) If we do make that connection it should speak volumes about how we actually live. And that’s the point. Often it doesn’t. Often we’d rather go back into the ‘old’ way of looking at things like the guy trying to break back into jail than to take our new fresh perspective and apply it to our life. 1John 1:7, The Message - But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.