Mitzvah
This was starting out as a post about a movie I watched last week (Ushpizin - Great movie - you should watch it.) and then it spiraled into a long thought train that delved into prayer and our work for God and God's law etc etc. So here goes.
The movie was about a couple who is very poor, so poor that they are behind on their rent and barely have money for food. What's more, the Feast of Tabernacles is coming up and they have no money to celebrate and build their sukkot. So they pray for a miracle, and the money comes (that's not all what the movie is about so I really didn't spoil the whole thing). I was going to write that it was a nice movie, but things like that just don't happen in real life. Then I was wondering why things like that don't happen in real life. We should be closer to God than we were before (Christ). But it seems like we see God working less and less.
But if God lives within us through the Holy Spirit...
In the Torah, there are 613 commandments. These are called mitzvah. After the temple was destroyed, the Jewish people declared that one could do good deeds instead, since they weren't allowed to make animal sacrifices any more. So mitzvah came to mean "good deed", and the goal was to perform 613 unselfish good deeds per year. There is controversy among the modern Jewish people whether mitzvah truly means 'commandment' or 'good deed'. Do we follow the laws of God only because He has commanded them or because we want to perform good deeds? Do we do them because we only want to obey God, or because we want to be good people?
Jesus said that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. He fulfilled it in that now a mitzvah is not only obeying God's command in deed, but also in Spirit. Not only by our actions do we glorify God, but in our hearts also. So mitzvah really means both commandment and good deed. But, we don't have to do these mitzvahs to get on God's good side - we're already there through the blood of Jesus. We do them because God lives in us and blesses others through us.
Actually this reminds me of another movie - Evan Almighty - which we saw at BADCALFF (which also was great and you all should see). In it, Evan says he wants to change the world, and God tells him that the only way to change the world is through small acts of kindness.
So back to the first movie. I was getting all angry and cynical that things like that don't really ever happen, and then I realized it's because of us. I think I knew that all along, but maybe never thought about it before.
So perhaps the goal of the Christian life is simply to bless others.
The movie was about a couple who is very poor, so poor that they are behind on their rent and barely have money for food. What's more, the Feast of Tabernacles is coming up and they have no money to celebrate and build their sukkot. So they pray for a miracle, and the money comes (that's not all what the movie is about so I really didn't spoil the whole thing). I was going to write that it was a nice movie, but things like that just don't happen in real life. Then I was wondering why things like that don't happen in real life. We should be closer to God than we were before (Christ). But it seems like we see God working less and less.
But if God lives within us through the Holy Spirit...
In the Torah, there are 613 commandments. These are called mitzvah. After the temple was destroyed, the Jewish people declared that one could do good deeds instead, since they weren't allowed to make animal sacrifices any more. So mitzvah came to mean "good deed", and the goal was to perform 613 unselfish good deeds per year. There is controversy among the modern Jewish people whether mitzvah truly means 'commandment' or 'good deed'. Do we follow the laws of God only because He has commanded them or because we want to perform good deeds? Do we do them because we only want to obey God, or because we want to be good people?
Jesus said that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. He fulfilled it in that now a mitzvah is not only obeying God's command in deed, but also in Spirit. Not only by our actions do we glorify God, but in our hearts also. So mitzvah really means both commandment and good deed. But, we don't have to do these mitzvahs to get on God's good side - we're already there through the blood of Jesus. We do them because God lives in us and blesses others through us.
Actually this reminds me of another movie - Evan Almighty - which we saw at BADCALFF (which also was great and you all should see). In it, Evan says he wants to change the world, and God tells him that the only way to change the world is through small acts of kindness.
So back to the first movie. I was getting all angry and cynical that things like that don't really ever happen, and then I realized it's because of us. I think I knew that all along, but maybe never thought about it before.
So perhaps the goal of the Christian life is simply to bless others.
Labels: God
posted by Tracy at 9:40 AM
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