Coloring Inside the Lines

“Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Psalms 19:7-10

Suppose I were to give an unsupervised toddler a box of crayons and a blank sheet of paper. He/she will scribble pointlessly. On the other hand, if I give that same child a coloring book and offer some guidance on how to color inside the lines, coordination begins to develop and a sense of satisfaction is experienced. In time, the child learns how to create variations of beauty within the preset boundaries. In fact we learn as children that the prettiest pictures are the ones colored perfectly within the lines.

That is how God’s commandments work. God has established preset laws or boundaries for us to live within. We create beauty within those boundaries and thus color our lives many different ways. When we break God’s commandments, the result is ugly, like scribbling outside the lines. When our lives take on the form and function of God’s commandments, they become beautiful diverse expressions of love and life!

Sometimes a child will draw a wild scribble, one at a time, on an entire stack of blank papers, frequently with the same crayon. You can see that there is no sense of accomplishment or satisfaction other than to put a mark on as many papers as possible. Our lives are like that when we do not live within the righteous boundaries of God’s coloring book, the Bible. In fact, outside of God's Word, life is uncoordinated and ugly. We just mark each day with the same mark as the day before; no real lines to guide us, only what is right in our own eyes. Just a scribble. No unifying form, function, purpose or identity. We are all hoping to color a beautiful picture but really do not know how.

CMCC member Chris DiBenedetto made a good point. He said that before knowing Jesus, he used to feel confused about life. He described himself as a person going into a movie theater halfway through the show. He did not really get the ‘plot’ of life because there were some very essential details of the story missing.

This nicely illustrates a main benefit of us worshiping God together and committing ourselves to Jesus Christ. The Word of God clearly shows us the lines; our identity, purpose, responsibility and future. In God’s Word, we learn the ‘plot.’ We also discover that our family unit is a very important part of God’s team and we have been called by God to fulfill His plans and color a unique and wonderful picture. This is an incredible privilege!

Consider these coloring book lines from the book of Galatians:

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or irritate one another, or be jealous of one another. Galatians 5:16-26 (NLT)