DEWS NEWS: Why add MORE???

Been to the Republic of Georgia and back.
I have to make sure that I say Republic of Georgia because I didn’t on my Facebook status and someone thought I was in the state of Georgia.

Shannon and Katie Ford, Mick and I left last Tuesday to visit friends there. Mick, Shannon and Katie went on to see some friends in Armenia too… I could not go. No visa is required for the Republic of Georgia but one is for Armenia. My passport is too full to put one more visa in it. I stayed behind and was treated like a QUEEN by our friends in the Republic of Georgia.

While Mick and the others were in Armenia they went to an Armenian Orthodox church and took some pictures. One picture was of a dead chicken being sacrificed on the altar. For a Christian it was a very gory sight.

We were talking about this and how we did not understand how anyone could think that cutting up a chicken and placing it on a altar could do anything about their SIN PROBLEM. Mick remarked that MAN (through the ages) has tried to find some other way to take care of this instead of just taking GOD at His Word and simply accepting HIS gift of His Son.
How uncomplicated it sounds (and is!)
But MAN wants to make it so much harder…to ADD MORE to God’s Word…instead of a single act of FAITH in what has been done for us on the cross…man invented a rigid ritual that must be repeated over and over again. With NO PEACE!
God’s way (according to man) needs some improvement. It needs to be harder!

How sad that is!

But I thought about the fact that often man who has accepted that gift from GOD and knows the truth makes the Christian life harder (or adds man’s regulations…MORE than what God has required!)

When Mick went to Gori (the city in the Republic of Georgia that was hit by the war) back in August he bought some quilts for about $7 each. He came home with two of them. One of my friends in Kiev saw my quilts and wanted one. I told her that we would be going back in February and I’d get her one. To make sure that I could come through with my promise I called friends in Tbilisi and asked them to order me a quilt like the ones Mick bought while there.

They ordered my quilt and told the Georgian lady that it was for Dalese. My quilt was ready when I got there. But because I’m the supervisor’s wife they did MORE…MORE than I required, MORE than I wanted. My quilt was no longer a quilt at all, it was a comforter.
The comforter is beautiful…but if I’d wanted a comforter I would have asked for a comforter. I wanted an inexpensive quilt like Mick had purchased. My comforter cost $30, not $7…and it isn’t even what I wanted…it is MORE!

Why is it so hard for us humans (redeemed or not) to do what GOD says? Why do we have to ADD to His Word?
I don’t have the answer…but I’m praying that I will be more aware of my human tendency to ADD to His plan for me and that I will simply TRUST HIM and ACCEPT my FREEDOM and my simple life in HIM!

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:8