Spirit of the Law

Every law student knows about IRAC (or the newer CREAC). Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion. The crux of it, that which determines the top and bottom half of the class, comes from knowing the rule and applying it to the facts presented. That is what lawyers do...why they are paid so much sometimes. They have to use their minds to take a rule that can seem impersonal and distant on paper and apply it to a real scenario, involving real people.

It is application that makes those stale words in books come alive. More and more, I'm understanding that is what I need to do in my life as a Christian. In the song "Everything to me" by Avalon, the lyrics go like this:

I grew up in Sunday school
I memorized the Golden rule
And how Jesus came to set the sinner free
I know the story inside out
I can tell you all about
The path that led Him up to Calvary
But ask me why He loves me
And I don't know what to say
But I'll never be the same
Because he changed my life when He became...

Everything to me
He's more than a story
more than words on a page of history
He's the air that I breath
The water I thirst for
And the ground beneath my feet
He's everything, everything to me

Living in a modern world, it is sometimes hard to remember that Christ really did live those words written in the bible. He cast out demons, raised the dead, walked on water, and most important, took the sin of the world with him on the cross and conquered death for us. The significance of that is hard to grasp until you really dig into scripture and see how we are suppose to live. However, the first step is to realize that those stale words on the page won't mean anything to us individually until we apply them to our lives.