God loves doing things outside of the system/box!

The Grace In Which We Stand A lot of us are struggling under legalism even though we speak of living by grace. We're trying hard to keep the rules, assuming that God will reward our good behavior and (hopefully) overlook our mistakes. I've been a dedicated rule-keeper myself. My mom and dad taught me some basic rules, and most of them were excellent right over the plate. But they're not biblical, and they have nothing to do with my standing before God. They taught me everyone needs a solid eight hours of sleep each night. When you get up in the morning, you brush your teeth. And do the same before going to bed. Before you eat a meal, you wash your hands. Period. And when you pray, you must close your eyes. Once a visiting pastor spoke in our small church, and when he prayed, he did not close his eyes. (I peeked.) I decided that either he was a phony, or that this particular "eyes-closed" rule might not be of the iron-clad variety. Too often we define Christianity by a list of arbitrary do's and don'ts, reducing a relationship with God through Jesus Christ to an exercise in rule-keeping. But God cannot be put into a box. He's much, much bigger than that. And His grace is super-abundant. Make no mistake. We stand right before God not on the basis of our ability to keep an exhaustive list of rules, but on the rock-solid reality of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. When we place our faith in Him, His grace "covers" us, and His righteousness becomes our own. BrotherBGD#2 Renewed2013 Romans 5:1-11 NLT Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.