Faith that’s not relevant to all of life …
Is relevant to none of life.
Author: Plumbline Faith
Simple Truths from a Lifetime of Service to the King of Kings
SPIRITUAL NARCISSISM
Sorry, but when your personal “revelation” of Jesus looks a lot like you, I’m just not impressed.
And when “deeper life” is merely a projection of your own postmodern proclivities and sensibilities, I’m likewise not impressed.
Radical? Hardly.
Really, didn’t you get the memo? Existential angst just ain’t that counter-cultural anymore.
So I guess you’re gonna need some new shtick …
Because spiritual narcissism in search of meaning inevitably leads to dead ends.
Scripture doesn’t address everything, nor does God choose to explain all things comprehensively.
That’s His right.
The plenary authority of Scripture, therefore, means not claiming more from Scripture than it actually says.
But make no mistake:
What Scripture does, in fact, actually say is ultimately authoritative …
On its own terms and contexts, not our’s.
MAKING DISCIPLES
The Great Commission is less about folks “coming” to find Christ at a meeting with me and my friends …
And more about “going” to dynamically establish Christ among others and their friends.
Christ in me, if authentic, should look different than Christ in you.
After all, there are no cookie-cutter disciples in the New Testament.
That’s why mono-churches, which revolve around one gifted man and his own calling …
Are an abomination to church as the New Testament actually commands it.
So stop trying to subjugate yourself to someone else’s measure of Christ, which is rooted in God’s unique gifts, callings and motivations for them …
Rather than His different gifts, callings and motivations for you.
Instead, let’s learn to once again be the multi-part, multi-gifted and multi-functional Body of Christ.
Only there, as we learn to minister to one another can we mutually build up each other as commanded in the New Testament …
Through vibrant diversity in Christ rather than stifling dependency under some particular “leader’s” own abilities, vision and ministry.
Scriptural clarity begins with scriptural authority.
Those who dismiss the latter end up stuck with themselves …
And never seem to find the former.
WISE COUNSEL OR FRAUD?
It seems the only people claiming these days to have “church,” “mission” and “discipleship” all figured out …
Are those selling it but not doing it.
Be discerning, ask and verify.
Are their books, blogs and seminars actually working in their own lives and home towns …
Or are they peddling spiritual fraud at your expense?
It’s easier for a walking concordance to know God’s heart …
Than an existentialist to know His mind.
As Moses learned, it’s easier to take the slave out of Egypt …
Than Egypt out of the slave.
Sometimes God uses our frailties and afflictions …
As sacraments of His grace.
Those who embrace a so-called “Christocentric” hermeneutic join Adam and Eve in presuming the autonomy to decide right and wrong, true and false, real and unreal …
With the further hubris of presuming to then impose it on Christ Himself.
They do this by judging and bending all Scripture to their own concepts of Christ …
Rather than subjecting their concepts of Christ to all of Scripture.
They’re still eating of the tree …
God owes us NOTHING.
Get over it.
Only then can we begin to apprehend the wonders of His grace.
Those promoting a so-called “Christocentric” hermeneutic have too low a view of Christ …
And too high a view of themselves.
They presume to create a pick and choose Jesus through a pick and choose view of Scripture to suit their own sensibilities …
Rather than submit to all of Christ as He authentically reveals Himself in all of Scripture, both Old and New Testament.
Which, by the way, is why they never seem able to make viable disciples or form functional churches.
Don’t be so easily misled by their “new” faith …
Which is no faith at all, except in themselves.
When Satan can’t exploit your weaknesses …
He’ll flatter your strengths.
In the cool of the day, God walked side-by-side and fellowshipped face-to-face with Adam …
Amidst the beauty of Adam’s garden and the fruit of his labor.
It’s OK to be human …
That’s where God wants to meet us too.
“Radical,” “deeper life,” “insurgent,” “movement” this and “movement” that …
Are disingenuous distractions from Biblical imperatives to simply grow up and make a difference by living lives of simple truth, simple faith and simple virtue.
Don’t buy the lie, often being peddled by those promoting themselves and their own agendas …
Because it’s really not that complicated.
Only by perverting “church” as taught in the New Testament …
Can someone lord over others by claiming to be a “servant.”
In Hebrews 13:17, most translations tell us to “obey” those who are leaders in the church.
In the Greek, that verb is in the middle voice and actually means to “be persuaded.”
Yet it is often mistranslated “obey” in the active voice.
Properly translated, we are to be persuaded by those who lead. Otherwise, they have no authority.
There is NO command in the New Testament to blindly follow any leader …
And no mandate for authoritarianism over God’s people.
Let’s learn to be the church as Scripture actually shows it, rather than only doing “church” as we’ve come to know it.
Why?
Because He’s God and I’m not.
Because His Word stands eternal while I am but an uncertain reed blowing in the wind.
Because it is by His will that history bends, not mine.
Because He is the sovereign creator of all, including me.
Because He defines what is true, real and right, not me.
And because He is Lord of all and bids me “go” into a world He yet loves.
Modern concepts of “worship” combined with weekly “sermons” by a “senior pastor” at scripted “services” – along with mortgages, buildings called “sanctuaries” with spectator seating, and Old Testament tithing – were not part of the church in the New Testament.
Surprised? Search Scripture for yourself.
But they do seem to go hand-in-hand these days …
Because, after all, professionally produced staged shows that dependably attract weekly paying audiences don’t come cheap or easy.
So tell me again:
How voting to elect as our nation’s leader an unrepentant, strip club, sex trafficking, serial adultery, wanna “date” his nude posing daughter, boastful of his porn spread third wife, fat cat donor to those who oppose all that you believe, vulgar narcissist …
Maintains your Christian witness and upholds the Jesus you claim to love?
At least Esau got a bowl of pottage for giving up his birthright.
What if your church gave up the show for Lent?
Fixating on sin while ignoring grace …
Perverts the Gospel.
As does a fixation on grace which ignores sin.
Socialism:
Free cheese in a mouse trap.
It never turns out well, history shows, when frustration over inept leaders, social malaise and moral anarchy …
Elects a so-called “strong man” who knows no law but his own will to power.
Scripture says what we sow, we reap.
This election, sow wisely.
