The moon is under my feet...

The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel. -D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say,'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her children -Matt. 11:19

In Colossians 2:18-23 Paul addresses a very important issue concerning  those who seek to teach christians to live their spiritual lives according to what he calls “the elementary principles of this world” (vs. 20). These people present a faith that revolves around “decrees”(vs 21) that focus on “do not handle, do not taste, do not touch”, which he says derive not from scripture but “commandments and teachings of men” all of which have “the appearance of wisdom”(vs. 23). 

They teach a spiritual life centered on “the things that are on earth instead of setting peoples minds on things above.” (3:1). That means salvation becomes a subjective experience based on me and my ability to do this or that; instead of an objective event that Christ accomplished for me and which I enter by faith. One is constantly uncertain and the other is a finished work. 

When we base our spiritual life on anything other than Christ and what He has done, we become prey to a host of unsettling winds and waves that can prevent us from experiencing the LIFE that is ours through Him.  I rarely hear christians speaking of Christ and the work He did for them as their present reality in their walk but more about what they need to do to get closer to God.

Most Christians dont believe that they are united with God through Christ but must do something to draw near to Him and most of their reasonings are based on how they feel moment to moment, sin to sin, not what the scriptures say. Again they monitor their spiritual health by subjective analysis not scriptural truth. 

So if I base my spiritual health on a list of things I must do or not do, then I am the continual barometer of life not Christ. So shadows and sin management become my drum beat for myself and everyone else. Enjoying life is replaced with a tightrope mentality that is fearful, timid and bound up instead of free. Soon everything looks like sin, every tree in the garden is a bad tree, instead of only one tree is bad and the rest are good to eat. 

We are called into a new creation in Christ...where we can taste the powers of the age to come. Freedom for the christian is a taste of that new creation. We should be mirroring the Sun that is rising, the kingdom that is here and coming instead of the moon light of a reflected and shadowy era. 

The moon is under my feet according to rev 12 and I am clothed with the sun! What a powerful revelation of truth that is to those who can believe it and choose to live within and by that truth.