What if you actually studied the New Testament and the original, actual meanings of its original words in their original language …
Utilizing a good comprehensive lexicon that anyone can buy and use?
What if you did it a second time …
And then a third time?
And, after all that, what if you discovered that what you call a “church” or “worship” or the “tithe” or a “pastor” or so much more …
Isn’t?
What if …
Don’t confuse what seems good to you …
With God’s best for you.
The love of God is the culmination of wisdom …
But the fear of God is its beginning.
God’s into plumblines …
Not pendulums.
Some believe God is so sovereign …
That He can’t choose to allow people to reject His grace.
Which means that they’re trying to protect His sovereignty …
By denying His sovereignty.
As a result, they’ve made an idol out of their own trans-Biblical, philosophical view of “sovereignty” …
Resulting in too low a view of God and His actual sovereignty.
Nonetheless, they compound their problems by then straining to filter all the rest of God’s Word – plus all the rest of life and everyone else – through the seeve of that core absurdity.
By so doing, they’ve become the arrogant new Pharisees of our day, captive to a dry intellectual edifice of their own creation …
Built on further absurdities heaped upon absurdities.
Is it any wonder, then, that it’s nearly impossible to find the joyous, dynamic life of Christ – or vibrant, multi-gifted Christian community – among them?
Although they are our brothers and sisters in Christ …
It’s time to recognize that they are our weaker siblings, rather than giving them the prominence they presume to demand among us.
There are many “Christian” idols in our churches these days.
For example, what most churches call “worship” …
Is mostly a contrived, manipulative affront to God.
And I’m not talking about styles of music …
But about turning “worship” into a “church service” rather than living lives of reverent obedience and sacrificial service to God.
Unfortunately, those unwilling to submit to how the New Testament actually defines worship and the focus of our gatherings …
Seldom even care.
And so they’ve elevated their own notions of worship above God Himself and what His Word actually says …
Thus ensnaring many in perpetual immaturity and carnality.
Until we discard the filter of “church” as we’ve come to know it …
We will never see church as the New Testament actually shows it.
In the New Testament, you can’t find – by command, precept, or example – what many call “church” these days.
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
Instead, you see smaller, intentional, participatory fellowships which relate together in their own home towns as part of the local Body of Christ, with throughout-the-week community.
Continue readingWhile a true encounter with God will invoke intense emotions …
Many “churches” today try to invoke intense emotions then call it a true encounter with God.
It’s not.
It’s just fleshly manipulation masquerading as “worship.”
Big difference!
Ideas have consequences, as do doctrines …
Including the bad doctrine that doctrines don’t matter.
When the “Gospel” is reduced to a “decision” without repentance …
It, and anything that promotes it, is a lie.
Including “church.”
The greatest scandal with “church” these days …
Is preaching the “Gospel” of a Jesus who wants what you want.
Beware of false dichotomies …
By which many are led astray.
True repentance …
Brings transparency.
Mature disciples, along with those who are lost and know it, understand the inseparability of God’s:
Promises and warnings;
Forgiveness and judgment;
Mercy and wrath;
Love and truth;
Yeas and nays.
Fools, however, who elevate themselves above God and His written word of Scripture …
Don’t.
Worship.
People keep using that word.
But what they mean …
Is not what the New Testament means.
Which means they elevate their own understanding over God’s direct revelation …
And worship “worship” more than God Himself.
Those who reject God’s authority of Scripture as His written Word …
Are not my brother.
Because they serve a God of their own imagination …
Who is not my Father.
Whoever defines your past …
Owns your future.
If Christians started giving how the New Testament says we should give …
To what the New Testament says we should give …
It’s doubtful that what we call “church” today would survive.
If you can’t keep it real …
It’s not really “church”.
Honor in God’s Kingdom comes not from having fame, fortune or followers …
But being faithful.
Rows upon rows of spectator seating …
Have nothing to do with church in the New Testament.
Paul of Tarsus:
Lashed, left for dead, shipwrecked, jailed, scorned, abandoned, tried, beheaded.
I guess he never read “Your Best Life Now.”
I may have an ability or perspective that you lack.
But I have yet to meet anyone – and I mean anyone – who does not exceed me in some aspect of their own abilities and perspectives.
Likewise, no church or ministry will be healthy if it pulls into itself or thinks itself beyond everyone else.
This is true also with our different sub-cultures, theological “tribes,” and the often unexamined presumptions and perceptions of our own community of like-minded friends.
Unity through diversity with humility, rather than uniformity through control with hierarchy, is God’s intent among those who love Him and heed His Word …
As we learn to submit to one another and together become the multi-gifted, multi-functional, multi-part Body of Christ.
Although we all love the “glory stories,” we also need to tell of our failures …
Because through our failures, we often learn the most.
Plumbline Faith 