FEBRUARY 25 "I DID IT MY WAY!"

THE song that Frank Sinatra may very well be most remembered for may just be, "I did it my way". Not so much because it was such a wonderful song (although it was pretty good) but more so due to the irony of the song and how it's meaning played out in his life.  Frank Sinatra did not leave behind a legacy anyone would want to follow in. It was certainly a life of failure, misery and destruction. He was an alcoholic, divorced, scattered children, scattered relationships and involvement with the mob.  He died a broken, miserable and lonely man, but yet today, the radio stations will still play one of Frank's greatest hits, "I did it my way".  So what does this have to do with today's reading....well we read that the children of Israel are offering sacrifices in the open fields and God commands them to stop doing this or be cut off from His people. God is telling Moses, "you tell these people they are not to make sacrifices in the open field but are to bring their sacrifices to the Lord, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and sacrifice them there!" (paraphrased by me)  And my first thought is, "so what, who cares where they are sacrificing, as long as they are?, right?"  WRONG! God says "what do you think i instituted this for, for nothing?" (paraphrased by me)  I can't help but think of the Church when I read this; more and more Christians are blowing off the church and doing "their own thing...my way" at home.  And DON'T you dare try to challenge them on it or they will tear you apart. Would not God say the same here?  "No, you're not going to do your own thing, do you think I instituted the Church for nothing, is there not a reason a purpose?" (paraphrased by me)  "But it's imperfect", we say.  Even more imperfect than the church was the practice of the sacrifices, but yet God says, we will continue to do them and YOU will do them at the Temple, NOT just where you want.  And there are many reasons for this that we don't have time to get into, but first and foremost would be the reason God clearly defines and that reason is, left to ourselves, and our ways, we will get squirly. We will naturally start to pervert everything, doing it our way.  "Out on our own, out in the open fields is how CULTS get started, it naturally breeds a perversion and twisting of the way things "ought" to be. The Antithesis of the Christian Faith is "my way".  Remember, when you are doing "your way" one thing you can be sure of..., is you're not doing it GOD'S WAY.