Odd phrases often fascinate us, when we tie them to their history. Take the idiom got off scot free. Though rumored to refer to the Dred Scott cases, then also the Scottish, it actually goes back to England. Where they borrowed a Scandinavian idea of the scot tax, tax given to the poor. The scot referred to the tax, the lot – allotment – referred to the amount given to the poor. So to get off scot free would mean you did not pay this tax. Eventually the phrase referred to avoiding any tax and the meaning continued to expand so today it can refer to avoiding any negative. (Source)

And this expanded idea is a powerful one. We love to avoid consequences. We even want to avoid natural flows of life. Whether it is staying young or finding a way to stop paying our mortgage! And this brings me around to Scott Free, brought to us by our very own. He left this comment on the blog from last week:

Scott Craven December 28, 2011 6:46 pm
Hey Sean, some people can make thousands of dollars each time they tweet. We could pay the Church off in no time. You just need about one million twitter followers.

I have an inkling that Scott is right – Twitter goes beyond just a tool to spread my gibberish. Through my brilliant tweets and your help getting a million folks to jump on the bandwagon we can be rid of the church’s mortgage Scott free… Admittedly this plan is half cocked. There is no way a million folks would follow me on Twitter, and I like to believe I would not sell out my tweets for money (though everything has its price – can I be bought?). So let me cut to the chase without any more idioms!

Nothing comes for free. Even the lottery is just a redistribution of wealth (an unhealthy version of the original scot tax, where often the poor seem to pay the tax and business gets the first cut!) . In the same way we will not find a magic fix for our church finances. Nor, for that matter, our personal finances, or broken relationships, or work performance, or …  While we have so many different problems, the root of healing begins in the same place. Relationship with God. As you fix this relationship, other things will fall into place. Not because of magic, but because God teaches you a new way to live. Finances are healed as you become less materialistic. Relationships are healed as you learn to love others with the love Christ has lavished on you. Work perfomance is healed as we learn to work in all of life as if we are serving God.

Not to say everything will be roses. We are only one part of the equation. But, the beginning of healing is in Christ. Even the beginning of THIS world’s healing. After all Christ brought the Kingdom to earth and we are the first fruits (hence my focus on Ezekiel 47). So we are called to live as Christ and in this we bring heaven to earth.

If we know and follow His will… too often the light of the world is in the dark when it comes to scripture. So I have started a twitter account. Beginning this Sunday I will give details on how everyone can follow my updates. Each morning I will post a scripture passage and a brief thought – obviously less than 140 characters!!! More importantly I will attach a link to the passage – so you can read it yourself. This will provide a simple reminder for us to get into scripture. NOT because you need more of my thoughts, but to set the stage for you to hear from God.

And when we do what He says… everything will change.

How to Follow me on Twitter… 

• My Twitter account is the same as the blog, plunge47. If you have a twitter account you can easily follow me. (Just use the link on the side bar!).
• But if you do not have a twitter account (and do not want one), you can also sign-up to get updates via your phone – as long as you have text messaging! Text “follow plunge47” to 40404.
• And with Ryan’s help we have created a way to receive the tweets via email. You can sign up on the church web site (click here).