What good is a life of faith …
If we live a life that needs no faith?
Be courageous!
Category: Simple Faith
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!
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.
“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.
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”.
You can’t love Jesus …
And dismiss the plenary authority of His written Word.
An attitude of gratitude is a mile marker on the road to emotional health and spiritual wholeness.
Church traditions and cultural presumptions read back into Scripture …
Often become more sacred than Scripture itself.
It may seem trite, but it’s true:
Moving forward only happens …
One step at a time.
If your concept of Christ causes you to be offended by portions of His written Word …
You know not Christ.
We have reduced love to what we feel.
Scripture elevates love to what we do.
My dad often said a prepared person is better than a prepared message.
People these days are sick of those who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk …
Often from raised podiums above us.
So make a difference – try getting down off your pedestal and being a prepared man or woman instead …
Because there is no better “sermon”.
The Kingdom of God is simple.
Not nice, neat, tidy or easy …
But simple.
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, (how?) thy will be done, (where?) on earth (extent?) as it is in heaven …”
So we just need to do God’s will as He directs in each sphere and circumstance of our life here on earth …
And where we do that, we see more of His Kingdom – His will in action – being established around us.
Sure, it is often hard and sometimes disruptive …
But nonetheless simple.
When we give thanks …
We become more than ourselves and our circumstances.
Law reveals …
But grace enables.
When Satan worries more about your plans for the day than you do his …
Jesus smiles.
Don’t give up!
Demolition often precedes renovation.
Tired of the “institution” and looking instead for the simplicity of relational participatory church …
But your friends aren’t interested?
Consider opening your life, your home and your kitchen table to the lost, the unseen, the ignored, the marginalized, and the lonely.
After all, if your respectable friends aren’t interested in your hospitality, who does Jesus say to invite instead? The poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame …
Along with those living besides highways and hedges. Luke 14:12-24
If you know none, then get out of your comfort zones!
So go to the kinds of places Jesus went and reach out to the kinds of people with whom he hung …
Not through a “program” but with authentic friendship.
There is no true church, real faith, sacrificial love or advance of God’s Kingdom without hospitality – especially to those considered the least among us …
Not only by the world, but often by our own top-down, agenda-driven “churches.”
Rather than their impersonal “programs,” which try to help “outsiders” without truly embracing them but treating them as mere objects of “ministry” …
My wife and I have opened our home and table as places of hospitality over the years – offering respect, dignity, and genuine friendship to all who accepted our invitations to come.
As a result, fellowships emerged and lives transformed – including our own.
Hospitality: The missing ingredient.
Simple!
In the Old Testament, false prophets were stoned.
Some things never seem to change.
The crazy stuff said by modern day false prophets shows they’re still stoned.
Seriously, they need to get a grip on reality …
And stop smokin’ that illicit weed.
So you’re structuring and operating a “church” like a business to secure your own position and vocation as the pinnacle leader …
i.e., the “Senior” or “Lead Pastor.”
Where do you even find that in the New Testament?
You don’t.
It’s better to pay the price for truth, than to earn your pay from a lie …
Because in God’s economy, integrity matters.
I vote and promote civic virtue and good government in the community and nation where I live.
That’s because I serve a King who has not surrendered one square inch of His sovereign love and lordship over any part of His creation.
Bottom line:
Moral cynicism and cultural nihilism are not Christian values.
Plumbline Faith 