Many want revival …
But God wants repentance.
Author: Plumbline Faith
Simple Truths from a Lifetime of Service to the King of Kings
In the Garden of Eden, Adam chose autonomy over the Father’s will.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus chose the Father’s will over autonomy.
A gospel of no offense …
Is not the Gospel of Christ or His Kingdom.
Biblical discipleship is about folks submitting to Christ’s authority …
Not your’s.
Over twenty years of intense ministry to men in jail, and when they get out, taught me a fundamental truth:
Without healthy functional families – headed by solid, devoted men – everything else in a community breaks down.
Yup, God can redeem individuals from any mess – but that doesn’t change the underlying social relevance of Psalm 11:3 …
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Many “Christians” define God – and judge Scripture – by their notions of love …
Rather than submitting their notions of love to God and His Word.
They are pseudo Christians …
Who worship themselves rather than the sovereign God of all.
Sometimes it takes grace and wisdom to distinguish between God using a flawed person …
And a flawed person using God.
The older I get, the more I understand that God-centered gratitude, awe and stewardship …
Are essential antidotes to the self-consumed despair, hopelessness and meaninglessness that grip many today.
Sometimes, the smartest thing we can say is …
“I don’t know.”
Effective prayer is more about us hearing and doing what God wants …
Than Him hearing and doing what we want.
We can’t surrender to God …
What we refuse to acknowledge.
That includes the fears, hurts, wrongs and regrets we’ve been carrying …
And the bondage of our own – often subtle – sins committed in response to them.
Holding on to them prevents us from finding spiritual maturity, emotional wholeness …
And even healthy community with other believers.
I have observed, time and again, that the more committed folks are to dispensationalism and its tenets …
The less they know about its underlying origins and doctrinal premises.
Some judge all Scripture based on their notions of love.
True disciples, however, judge all notions of love based on Scripture.
Otherwise, our notions of love become limited to our own subjective, internal sentimentalities …
Rather than God’s comprehensive, objective revelation.
Faith presumes obedience …
Because without obedience, there is no faith.
I will continue to speak, work and stand for real solutions to real problems …
Rather than take the easy out of conspiracy paranoia.
The Sovereign God of Heaven and Earth …
Expects no less.
The fight these days is not between conservative versus liberal or Republican versus Democrat, but between:
Truth versus deception;
Reality versus destruction; and
Virtue versus depravity.
Fortunately, when it comes to what’s true, real and right …
Biblical Christians have the home court advantage.
So don’t give in or grow weary of standing firm for what is eternal and good …
Even if the heathen rage in response.
They’re only protesting their own failures and frustrations …
Born of their own irrational incoherence.
In the New Testament, “church” is not a meeting or a “service.”
Nor is it a building, a staged event or spectator seating.
Rather, it’s a local community of people who serve God, each other and a waiting world, through ministry one to another for the mutual building up of all with Christ as the Head …
While also not neglecting to gather together to encourage and motivate one another towards love and good works.
Pseudo “worship” today …
Exploits a broken generation by stirring up manipulated feelings of fleeting intensity, and calling it “God.”
It has become the new addiction.
The sole remedy is true worship, which is a faithful life of humble submission to God’s sovereignty, on His terms.
Only there can we find true significance and authentic wholeness.
Congregational singing is important for our gatherings, but the New Testament doesn’t call that “worship.”
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
Rather, the New Testament says that living lives of reverent obedience and sacrificial service to God …
Is true worship.
When we say that singing and music are “worship,” however, rather than teach what worship truly is under the New Covenant …
We often end up with carnal churches and carnal people seeking a Sunday morning “worship experience” rather than living holy lives in humble obedience and service to God.
So let’s encourage one another by joyfully singing God’s praises congregationally together when we gather, as the New Testament commands …
While also learning to walk in true worship the rest of the week.
Because when all is said and done, the terminology of the New Testament never tells us to gather for a “worship service” …
But to gather for mutually building up each other so we can live lives of true worship, 24/7.
The prevailing characteristics of postmodern existentialism on both the left and on the right are relativism and narcissism, rooted in notions of human autonomy.
Is it any wonder, then, that we see an emphasis on new “doctrines” which:
Define Christ and our relationship to Him by our own subjective perceptions;
Redefine grace to destroy all concepts of objective standards; and
Dismiss the plenary authority of Scripture?
Yet God is raising up a people who want to truly know Him on His terms …
And to worship Him once again (literally, to bow before Him) in spirit and in truth.
Many know God as only a feeling …
And love the feeling more than God.
Which is unfortunate.
Although the authentic knowledge and love of God often invoke feelings …
They don’t depend on how we feel.
May we be less concerned about offending others with our words …
Than offending God with our silence.
What good are Constitutional protections against governments restricting our:
Freedom of speech;
Freedom of self protection;
Freedom of religion;
Freedom of association; and
Freedom of commerce …
If we allow companies with monopoly powers to restrict our rights instead?
“Worship” these days is often more pagan than Christian.
It’s no longer about reverent obedience to the Sovereign God of Scripture …
But about the pagan practice of conjuring up some false spirit or man-made diety through intense, manipulated feelings.
It does this by convincing people that the more some song, band, or hip “worship leader” can make us feel intense emotions, the more we’re experiencing God’s “presence.”
Of course, an authentic encounter with God will legitimately invoke intense emotions.
But that is far different than the current practice of invoking intense emotions …
And calling it “God.”
This has become the new idolatry, by equating manipulated feelings with God Himself.
It is an addictive distraction from who God truly is, and how He wants to dwell among us and in us as our Sovereign Lord.
It also is a distortion born of carnal men, and is nowhere found in the New Testament.
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
Yet it has become big business, with mega churches and mega recording deals …
While supplanting the simple New Testament commands to congregationally sing God’s praises together for the sole purpose of simply encouraging one another.
Unfortunately, though, it will continue to thrive …
Because just like the pagans, people still want a God who appeals to their carnality and is easy to manipulate.
I know this may mess up some of y’all …
But that Jesus you see in the New Testament is also God in the Old Testament.
Every last bit of it …
Including the parts you don’t like.
And He’s the same Jesus today and forevermore.
Any other Jesus, reflecting your own sensibilities through selective pick-and-choose Bible verses …
Is just an idol created in your own image.
Plumbline Faith 