Those who elevate their own concepts of Jesus over His written Word …
Know neither Jesus nor His Word.
Author: Plumbline Faith
Simple Truths from a Lifetime of Service to the King of Kings
When “unity” is about everyone conforming to one person’s own calling, ministry, motivation or perspective …
Then “church” becomes a battleground over competing agendas and resources.
When unity, however, is about preferring one another over ourselves in our diverse callings, ministries, motivations and perspectives …
Then church becomes a springboard for God’s multifaceted Kingdom.
Many are led astray …
By unexamined presumptions.
When “church” becomes a scripted show by the “anointed” few on an elevated stage before row upon row of spectator “attendees” …
There is no effective discipleship.
Seriously, where do you even find that in the New Testament???
Let’s be the church once again.
Jesus said that all Scripture points to Him.
Which simply means that all Scripture bears witness to Christ’s authenticity …
Just as Christ bore witness to the authenticity of Scripture.
He did NOT mean, as some now imply, that we can project a false “Jesus” of our own imagination back onto Scripture …
To somehow then supersede whatever we don’t like in Scripture.
Don’t be deceived by those who twist Scripture to elevate themselves and their agendas over Scripture …
Through a Jesus of their own creation.
The many years of repeated failures by the existential fringe of the simple, “organic” church movement – with authors like Felicity Dale, Frank Viola, Milt Rodriguez, Jon Zens, Keith Giles and their buddies – stand as an object lesson moving forward:
Without the plenary authority of Scripture, simple participatory churches don’t succeed.
Although they are now fading away, in their day these fringe authors dismissed the plenary authority and discipline of Scripture – and in some cases even denied that the Bible is God’s written word – to peddle a Jesus of their own perception.
They then used the legitimate yearnings of others for simple, participatory house churches to promote their disastrous, extraneous agendas …
Eventually derailing the hopes and aspirations of many.
Their false Christ – who was little more than a projection of their own “deeper life” angst, post-modern sensibilities and trans-Biblical ideologies – inevitably led to dysfunctional, insular and anemic “communities.”
Continue readingGod created us to have common sense.
Although “faith,” at times, transcends common sense, if it leads to a persistent lack of common sense …
It’s not from God.
And that, my friend, is simply common sense.
Authentic faith speaks truth to power.
Which is why disciples with the right to vote and impact legislation …
Take it seriously.
What good is a life of faith …
If we live a life that needs no faith?
Be courageous!
Sometimes …
Love means letting others own the consequences of their own choices.
Real disciples follow Christ by submitting to the unadorned authority of Scripture as His written word …
While mutually building up each other through ministry one to another rooted in humble, Christ-centered fellowship with Jesus and each other, along side elders who emerge and serve among them.
Misdirected “disciples” instead follow some pinnacle “leader” by submitting to the self-serving authority of his own agendas and ambitions read back into Scripture …
While building up the reach and success of his “ministry” over others.
Big difference!
Just good enough …
Seldom is.
There is no aspect of creation or sphere of human endeavor where Christ has surrendered His authority.
To the contrary, He came to reconcile all things to Himself …
And offers us faith that’s big enough to embrace all of life.
Real prophets pay the price for truth …
Rather than expect you to pay them for it.
“Progressive,” “Red Letter,” “Emergent,” “Insurgence” and “Deeper Life” – oh my!
Such post-modern, existential “Christians” know not Christ.
Instead of submitting their perceptions and sensibilities about Christ to all of Scripture …
They submit all of Scripture to their own perceptions and sensibilities about Christ.
In contrast, real disciples have a vibrant relationship with the Living Word …
In submission to the authority and discipline of His written Word.
Don’t settle for anything less.
Although the Trinity is a great mystery, here’s how I’ve come to understand – in practical terms – one aspect of it …
Not just in creation, but throughout Scripture and in our lives today.
The Father wills.
The Son reveals.
The Spirit enables.
Some proclaim that “Christ is All” in an attempt to deny all of Christ.
Typically, they reject the plenary authority of Scripture as His written word …
By claiming that their personal revelation of “Christ” supersedes all of the commands, precepts, propositional truths, narratives and moral imperatives He chose to reveal there.
As a result, they are left with a false “Christ” of their own creation.
The only thing their false Jesus really is all about is them …
And their own subjective follies and sensibilities.
Be discerning …
Deceptive cults love to use pithy but misleading slogans to promote unspoken premises and hidden agendas.
Unless compassion is combined with steely-eyed realism, I trust neither.
God never intended for either of those gifts to work in isolation.
The question “Christian” existentalists avoid at all costs and never want to answer:
If “all Scripture is God breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16), then what part of it isn’t His authoritative Word?
“Red letter” Christians only follow selective, out-of-context quotes by Jesus which conform to their own sensibilities …
While discounting the rest of Scripture.
Theirs is a pick-and-choose Jesus, supported by a fractured logos as they seek to divide the Living Word from His authority of Scripture as His written Word.
As a result, they know not Christ …
Which may explain their habitual existential angst and inability to create either viable disciples or functional churches.
It’s no accident that the four Gospels …
Are immediately followed by “Acts”.
Who deceived you into believing “church” is where you go to encounter God’s presence?
The New Testament says that if you belong to Christ, YOU are God’s temple and His presence now dwells in YOU …
And that we should gather to mutually build up each other by expressing His presence already in us and thus among us through ministry one to another as the multi-gifted, multi-functional, multi-part Body of Christ.
The idea of instead going to staged “services” so religious professionals can usher us into His presence is NOT found in the New Testament.
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
So let’s shift our understandings and start being the church …
Once again.
Those who habitually are unable to start, sustain or successfully be part of a simple, participatory church in their own lives, home towns or anywhere else …
Often promote the published “organic church” writings of Frank Viola, Milt Rodriquez, Jon Zens and their buddies.
This is hardly surprising, because those authors and seminar speakers habitually haven’t been able to either.
Be discerning, because without authenticity …
Simple church simply doesn’t work.
You can’t love Jesus …
And dismiss the plenary authority of His written Word.
