Expediency denies the efficacy of God’s sovereignty …
And is not a Christian value.
Category: Simple Discipleship
Hollow existential ideologies distort Christ and His Word to appease prevailing sensibilities …
And lack actual spiritual power.
An unresolved past will thwart your future.
To find resolution:
Acknowledge before God – verbally and fully – the hurts, wrongs or regrets your heart’s been carrying;
Openly give or ask for forgiveness as appropriate – in your own words – whether of others or from God;
Then quietly and reverently bundle up the related burdens of your heart and release them in your spirit to the Lord;
Once you do and the Lord takes them, ask Him who you are to Him and how He sees you.
Then stay quiet before Him and let your spirit gently receive His empowering truth and peace in return.
Often the listening ear and patient encouragement of a trusted, Godly friend can help.
Ultimately, though, closure and freedom are always your choice.
Those who claim that the Holy Spirit no longer convicts them of sin because of grace …
Know not grace.
Obedience is not just believing what God says we should …
But also doing what God says we ought.
Daily, I see how God delights in creating beauty from wrecked lives.
My role is to let Him do it His way …
By recognizing that His mercies are not all up to me.
“Church,” “pastor,” “preach,” “teach,” “tithe,” “worship” and “ministry:”
Although you keep using those terms …
I do not think they mean in the New Testament what you think they mean.
Yet you claim to follow the New Testament as God’s written word.
How can that be?
Those who claim that their relationship with Jesus is all about their relationship with Jesus …
Know not Christ.
Faith isn’t about believing God will do what you think He ought …
But trusting He will do what He says He will.
Until we stop using narcissistic labels like “ultimate”, “grand”, “deeper”, “insurgent”, “radical” and “beyond” to describe our faith …
And learn to walk humbly with God and others …
We’re not much good for His Kingdom …
Or anything else.
Never underestimate the power of people – including Christians – to perceive and believe what they want to perceive and believe …
All evidence, logic and morality to the contrary.
Which is why God gave Scripture as His external standard of truth on those issues where He wants to hold us accountable …
To Himself and each other.
And why those who reject God’s plenary authority of Scripture as His written Word become stuck in existential quagmires …
From which healthy churches and healthy disciples never seem to emerge.
It’s easy to have simple church, community, mission and discipleship all figured out …
And tell others “how to” through books, blogs, seminars and online posts …
For those not distracted by actually doing it.
We need more people humbly living it and making it work in their own lives and home towns …
And fewer peddling it everywhere else instead.
God’s saving grace is freely offered, but costs everything to fully accept.
Forget this, and we pervert the Gospel.
Thinking the Great Commission says come find Christ in my new church …
Seldom produces real disciples or real community.
Go express Christ in existing community, however …
And real disciples and real church often happen.
In authentic church, there’s no single ministry or leader around whom everything is organized.
Instead, Scripture says that God bestows diverse gifts and callings among His people.
That’s why His mission for me should look very different than His mission for you …
And why there’s no mono-church in the New Testament.
To get roses …
You gotta work with thorns.
God is covenantal:
He doesn’t force His rule on anyone.
But neither has He surrendered His sovereignty to anyone …
In any aspect of life, culture or history.
Until we understand:
That the Gospel preached by Jesus is the good news of His Kingdom;
That “Christ” isn’t His last name but means “the anointed King“;
That “church” in the New Testament means the local representative assembly of His Kingdom in each community; and
That He never surrendered His authority in any sphere of life or culture …
Then we will not understand His command to make disciples of all who choose the blessings of His rule – including not just individuals, but also nations.
Some cast the nets, some build the boats.
In God’s Kingdom, no one person or calling is more essential than another.
Moses warned Israel that possessing God’s promises meant slaying giants.
Some things never change.
We all want the milk and honey, but not the battle.
Faith that’s not relevant to all of life …
Is relevant to none of life.
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 once again to function as 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.
Plumbline Faith 