Real grace doesn’t exempt us from conviction and repentance …
But loves us enough to take us there.
Category: Simple Faith
“Religion” today …
Means all the stuff in the Bible we don’t wanna heed.
Authentic faith …
Treats grace and repentance as inseparable.
The most enduring qualities of lasting faith …
Are gratitude and wonder.
When we fully confess and turn our mistakes and regrets over to God …
He turns them into stepping stones for good.
Few want to confess and let God forgive them …
Fewer still to repent and let Him define them.
Until we fully surrender the disappointments of our past to God …
We will never fully embrace His joy in our future.
I tire of all the fads constantly being peddled to Christians in some new book, ministry, podcast or program.
Instead, just go and do what Jesus commands, as He’s called you to do it.
When you do, it certainly will look different than the latest hot new distractions making the rounds on social media.
So don’t be diverted by “Radical,” “Christocentric,” “Deconstruction,” “Eternal Purpose,” “Insurgence,” or whatever.
Because once someone brands God and His purposes with some new label and convinces everyone to hop on board …
It’s likely so saddled with egos and extraneous agendas that it’s already way off track.
Instead, learn to discern what’s good and eternal and leave the rest behind, because God’s into plumblines …
Not pendulums.
The greatest obstacle to faith is not doubt …
But our own comfort zones.
Faith versus works is a false dichotomy.
Real faith is trust, expressed not by what we feel …
But what we do.
God’s authoritative Word is not some fleeting inspiration you feel when reading the Bible …
But the Bible itself, as originally given by God Himself as His external standard for what is true, real and right.
It takes great hubris to claim otherwise …
By those who elevate their own subjective perceptions over the eternal, God breathed words of Scripture.
The great lie of our times is that we should follow our heart.
All it has produced, among God’s people, are carnal Christians.
God never said that what we feel is the standard for what is true, real and right.
In fact, God says that the heart is deceitful, foolish and exceedingly wicked …
But His Word endures forever.
Which is why God seeks to redeem our heart …
But never puts it on par with Scripture as our standard for life, doctrine and maturity.
Those who view grace from too high a view of themselves …
Know neither.
The opposite of Godly faith is not lack of faith …
Because everyone has faith in something.
The question is, in what or whom?
The greatest struggle for many is letting go of our hurts.
Often, we let our hurts define us by holding onto the familiarity of our pain …
Rather than chancing the unfamiliarity of a truly new life in Christ.
Even among Christians, few risk the ongoing redemption of confession, forgiveness and repentance to become whole and complete in Him.
Really, it’s not that difficult …
But it does take trust.
There are those who proclaim God’s grace, while ignoring His holiness …
And those who proclaim His holiness, while ignoring His grace.
Neither understands either.
Longstanding hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds can become so ingrained into our sense of identity …
That they begin to define us.
When that happens, we often aren’t willing to transparently expose and turn them over to Jesus …
But tightly hold onto them like a child clinging to a security blanket.
Instead of finding liberation and wholeness through new life in Christ …
We then become our past.
True disciples surrender their biases and sensibilities to God and His written Word.
Both libertine existentialists and self-righteous legalists, however, surrender God and His written Word to their biases and sensibilities …
Thereby elevating themselves above God Himself and His plenary authority of Scripture.
It will be a terrible scene when those who preached cheap grace …
Finally stand before God’s holiness.
But a time of rejoicing for those who proclaimed His true grace …
Thereby leading many to repentance, obedience and redemption before that fateful day.
Those who want a Jesus who wants what they want …
Inevitably fall away.
Those who surrender their wants to what He wants …
Endure.
Those most enthralled with the latest “Christian” fads …
Often know the least about God’s written Word and redemptive history.
Unless Jesus is your King …
He’s not your Savior.
Is Jesus really the measure of all things?
Not when we create Jesus in our own image …
Shaped by hurts from wrongs and disappointments we’ve suffered.
Such a false Jesus is really all about us, and becomes our bondage …
Rather than the authentic, liberating Lord of all.
So it’s always our choice:
Do we surrender our hurts to Christ – as He authoritatively defines us, Himself and so much more in His written Word …
Or let our hurts define us, Him, our reality and even His Word?
Law reveals,
Grace enables,
Faith secures.
When our view of God reflects our own sensibilities …
He’s not really God, but an idol of our own creation.
Plumbline Faith 