Bacon…
How wonderful is bacon?!
One of my favorite TV moments comes from Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe. During a debate on a sports show, his co-host Skip Bayless started ranting about how disgusting pork is. Shannon let him go on for a minute, then calmly said, “I eat everything on the pig but the squeal. Mmmmmm!”
Skip, horrified, asked, “You don’t really eat that junk, do you?”
Shannon just grinned and said, “OINK!”
Skip was so disgusted, he ended the segment right there.
Bacon also plays a starring role in one of my favorite stories from our history at our Teach Them Diligently events.
Norm Wakefield was our speaker for our Saturday Men’s Breakfast, and he posted on Facebook late on Friday Night about looking forward to speaking the next morning. Then he said that bacon is always a good excuse to get up early on a Saturday.
Well, the only problem with this pronouncement was that for this particular year, we had chosen to not serve bacon because of the exorbitantly high additional cost the Opryland had put on bacon that year (This was in 2017, not recent, so it made no sense).
Therefore, when I got there on Saturday morning, I had men coming up to me and asking me angrily where the bacon was. I few of them even walked out.
I had no idea what was going on because I didn’t see the Facebook post from the night before. Regardless, for these men having bacon was serious, and it was a painful lesson learned for me.
Trust Me!
Now, we always serve bacon at the Men’s Breakfast!
As I was re-reading the Homeschool Subjects from last week (Here is a link if you missed last week’s), I thought to myself that some of you might misunderstand the main thrust of my teaching.
Therefore, I wanted to make sure that everyone understands the point of the Law of the Lord in our modern-day world.
We are not expected to follow every letter and punctuation of the Law. We are not expected to eat the Passover meal (although a great experience) and do guilt offerings or stay away from bacon and other pork products. And we are not expected to execute transgressors and disobedient children.
The freedom I talk about in the previous email as offered in the Law is not about following every minute detail in the first 5 books of the Bible.
The Apostle Paul references this aspect of the Law in his letter to the Roman church when he concludes that the Law condemns but Grace and Christ sets us free.
So, my point in last week’s email is not that we need to all start wearing cloaks and tunics and make sure they are made with the right material.
The point is that Christ is the path to freedom and the Law of Moses points to that aspect of Christ.
As Paul points out, the Law brings up the impossible task of doing enough to earn our way to Heaven with our Lord for eternity. We can’t “work” our way to salvation (Eph. 2:8-9).
But The Law does illuminate our need as God’s Creation for structure, discipline, and routines.
We need guard rails as we move through life. But we also need discipline and to-do lists, and structure to move forward with what God has for us.
We need a mission and motivation, and we need habits and goals and plans.
We need a commitment to follow Christ but then we need to break down what that means for us on a day-to-day basis. You can’t just wander around. And you can’t allow your children to wander around.
You must be instructing them in the same manner as God did the Israelites. God directed the Israelites. Gave them structure. Fed them. Told them he loved them.
God was clear. Practical. Pertinent. And his directions were clear.
For disobedience, there were consequences.
As a follower of God, this is the way we live and approach relationships and do business and learn. And, what we do illuminates who God is! Make us unique in this world that we live in the same way that The Law made the Israelites unique.
Early in the Exodus, God gave the Israelites tablets with the Law. This Law was their identity. Today, he writes this Law on our hearts through Christ. And Christ is our identity.
When we forget this, we tumble into slavery and idol worship.
To me, this idea of what the Law did for the Israelites is what I want for my children.
I teach and direct and hug and nurture because I want my children to discover and fully grasp the freedom of Christ. I give them standards and wisdom based in Scripture as a physical manifestation of my goal to bring them to Christ.
By doing this, I am bringing them into freedom and not slavery.
To instruct them how to live free in Christ, though, I must be free in Christ as well.
