False prophets will tickle your ear …
While true prophets speak what you don’t want to hear.
Author: Plumbline Faith
Simple Truths from a Lifetime of Service to the King of Kings
The great lie of our times is that we should follow our heart.
All it has produced, among God’s people, are carnal Christians.
God never said that what we feel is the standard for what is true, real and right.
In fact, God says that the heart is deceitful, foolish and exceedingly wicked …
But His Word endures forever.
Which is why God seeks to redeem our heart …
But never puts it on par with Scripture as our standard for life, doctrine and maturity.
Those who view grace from too high a view of themselves …
Know neither.
The opposite of Godly faith is not lack of faith …
Because everyone has faith in something.
The question is, in what or whom?
What about those who peddle an appealing Christ of their own perception through enticing books, blogs, seminars and posts …
While dismissing His plenary authority of Scripture as His written Word?
It’s not that they’re always wrong.
After all, even broken clocks are right twice a day …
But only fools would try to use ’em to tell time.
The worst deceptions …
Start with affirmation.
Slowly but surely, God is shifting the paradigm of church and leadership.
It is becoming genuinely organic, simple and participatory, with healthy fellowships beginning to emerge.
All I can say is forget the buzz words and existential agendas of past advocates like Viola and Dale – along with their fellow “itinerant” buddies like Zens, Rodriguez, Giles and Rohde.
They tried to peddle their own cookie-cutter, trans-Biblical perceptions of Christ and the Church on God’s people …
Through books and blogs that they never sustainably made work in their own lives, home towns or anywhere else.
As a result, they have left behind a legacy of ruined lives and failed churches.
Instead, build on the sure foundation already apostolically laid through Scripture as God’s authoritative written Word, in the unique context of diverse communities …
Where He still sends us today to make disciples and redeem nations.
That, my friends, is real “organic” church and leadership.
In the Old Testament, God let a jackass speak …
Not to affirm the jackass, but to affirm His Word.
Some today would do well to remember that distinction.
These days, whether something makes us feel good about ourselves …
Seems to be discernment enough.
The greatest struggle for many is letting go of our hurts.
Often, we let our hurts define us by holding onto the familiarity of our pain …
Rather than chancing the unfamiliarity of a truly new life in Christ.
Even among Christians, few risk the ongoing redemption of confession, forgiveness and repentance to become whole and complete in Him.
Really, it’s not that difficult …
But it does take trust.
There are those who proclaim God’s grace, while ignoring His holiness …
And those who proclaim His holiness, while ignoring His grace.
Neither understands either.
In Hebrews 13:17, some English Bibles tell us to “obey” those who “rule over” us in the church. These are very unfortunate translations.
In the original Greek, the verb translated “obey” is in the middle voice and means to “be persuaded.” Yet it is often wrongly translated in the active voice as “obey,” which has an entirely different meaning.
The verb phrase “rule over” also is a misleading translation.
In the original Greek, it is not referring to anyone with hierarchical authority “over” others.
Rather, it is simply talking about those who have earned your esteem by having given thought to and walked farther along the same path.
If they can’t persuade or earn your respect by having actually thought through and lived what they’re saying, then we are under no obligation to accord them any influence in our lives.
Bottom line:
There is NO command in the New Testament to blindly obey or follow anyone – and no mandate for authoritarianism, “covering” or control over others – in the church.
Church leadership in the New Testament is straightforward:
Be persuaded by those who thoughtfully walk the walk and are further along in their faith and life experience, yielding to their example as we submit one to another.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Longstanding hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds can become so ingrained into our sense of identity …
That they begin to define us.
When that happens, we often aren’t willing to transparently expose and turn them over to Jesus …
But tightly hold onto them like a child clinging to a security blanket.
Instead of finding liberation and wholeness through new life in Christ …
We then become our past.
The New Testament says we should sing God’s praises together to encourage one another.
That’s it. That’s the only reason given.
Contrary to current presumptions, however, it never says we should do it to somehow persuade God to show up.
Nope, not nada …
Just ain’t there.
That because the New Testament instead says He’s already present in those who know Him …
And automatically among us – even with only two or three gathered – when we meet in Christ’s name.
Anyone claiming some special role to “lead” us into His presence, therefore, is committing spiritual fraud …
And peddling counterfeit “worship.”
Healthy civilizations and societies are a Christian virtue …
Promoted by those who heed Christ’s Lordship in all spheres of life and human endeavor.
Using civil government to compel personal faith and piety, however, is a Christian vice …
Promoted by those who don’t understand Christ’s different jurisdictional limitations for particular spheres of life and human endeavor.
For many, “church” has become a circus – a staged show where they go to be entertained, amazed, awed and sent home feeling good.
This perversion is sustained by convincing folks that the more they are entertained, amazed, awed and feel good …
The more “God moved” and the service was “anointed” and “inspired.”
It is collective narcissism at its worst.
Among those who thrive on the show, questioning what “church” has become initially invokes blank stares …
Then an incredulous disconnect as they quickly change the subject.
They will avoid at all cost having to consider the very idea that the Body of Christ is supposed to be something very different …
And so much more significant.
Those perpetually stuck in the wilderness …
Shouldn’t be preaching at everyone else about how to live in the Promised Land.
True disciples surrender their biases and sensibilities to God and His written Word.
Both libertine existentialists and self-righteous legalists, however, surrender God and His written Word to their biases and sensibilities …
Thereby elevating themselves above God Himself and His plenary authority of Scripture.
It will be a terrible scene when those who preached cheap grace …
Finally stand before God’s holiness.
But a time of rejoicing for those who proclaimed His true grace …
Thereby leading many to repentance, obedience and redemption before that fateful day.
It’s amazing how much huff, puff and indignation arise when you simply ask those pushing their books, blogs and conferences on how to “be the church” or otherwise function as a church …
If they actually are part of one in their own lives and home towns like they keep peddling to others.
Hypocrisy is not a Biblical virtue …
Nor should it be tolerated in those who presume to be leaders among us.
When you finally start feeling gratitude for your scars …
Is about when wisdom begins.
I would no sooner put a narcissist – repentant or otherwise – back in church leadership after preying on people entrusted to their care …
Than I would put a recovering alcoholic in charge of an open bar.
Narcissistic leaders know how to make you feel needed and special.
It’s how they control and use others to feed their own need for affirmation and validation.
But their charm comes at great peril, because ultimately they will consume you to advance their own self-serving interests and agendas.
Don’t be co-dependent, no matter how gifted they seem.
God created you – and His Church – for better.
Those who want a Jesus who wants what they want …
Inevitably fall away.
Those who surrender their wants to what He wants …
Endure.
In the New Testament, civil government is not charged with making us righteous …
But with protecting us from the unrighteous.
Plumbline Faith 