MATURITY
With age and wisdom, I increasingly understand the importance of God-centered gratitude, awe and stewardship …
As antidotes to the self-consumed hopelessness, inertia and despair that grips many.
Category: Simple Joy
Salvation isn’t about “asking Jesus into your heart”.
There’s nothing in the New Testament which says that.
Rather, it’s about repenting and submitting to His Kingdom …
On His terms, not ours.
When we stand before Him on that final day …
It will be the only Gospel that counts.
The Bible doesn’t say to believe in yourself …
But to die to self.
Jesus never said to forgive yourself …
But to forgive others and then ask God to forgive you.
The Gospel isn’t about affirming you …
But about repenting and surrendering to Christ’s rule.
Only then will you find yourself …
Your freedom …
And your validation …
As defined by Him.
Selfless living …
Springs from an attitude of gratitude.
Christ’s incarnation, ascension and promised return affirm we were not created to ever be detached spirits …
But as His followers, we will always be physically embodied beings who exist in a material world.
That’s why mature disciples have hope for the future …
But remain well rounded and grounded in the present.
I’ve yet to see God turn His face …
From those who love and trust Him.
God turns our mistakes and burdens into stepping stones for good …
When we fully confess and turn them over to Him.
Until we fully surrender the disappointments of our past to God …
We will never fully embrace the joys He has for our future.
It is liberating to learn that God did not create us to be like someone else …
But instead gives us different personalities and motivations that match our diverse spiritual gifts.
We experience His pleasure as we learn to uniquely use and enjoy those gifts as He intended …
In our lives, families, fellowships and surrounding communities.
Those who reduce grace to what they subjectively perceive God is telling them, filtered through their own sensibilities …
Often reject external Biblical morality, precepts and commands which stand independently true in Scripture.
For them, it all comes down to what they individually feel and like …
As they elevate their own perceptions as the final standard over what God authentically says.
The New Testament doesn’t say “church” is where we encounter or are ushered into God’s presence through “worship”.
There’s not a single verse in the entire New Testament to that effect.
Nope, not, nadda …
Just ain’t there.
Rather, we are simply told that when we gather as the church we should express God’s presence already in us through ministry one to another …
Which includes singing God’s praises together to encourage each other.
Big difference.
Let’s start being the church as God instructs in His Word …
Not as our own carnality wants.
God created us to be integrated individuals:
Embodied, rational, spiritual and relational.
All great heresies deny, isolate or over emphasize one or more of those qualities.
They distort God’s desire to redeem our full humanity …
Complete and whole.
Don’t confuse God’s grace with His delight.
You can experience His grace, which is unmerited …
But then miss His delight, which comes from doing His will and obeying His commands.
If you doubt this, just do a quick online word search for “delight” in any good Bible translation.
Those who deny this distinction with their hyper-grace teachings …
Know not God or His authentic joy.
Faith presumes no outcome rooted in our own wishes …
But simply trusts God’s goodness.
God’s no thief.
He won’t take the burdens of our heart – our accumulated regrets, hurts, anxieties and wrongs – unless we first own them …
By honestly and fully confessing to Him that we have them.
Only then can we give them to Him …
As an intentional act of release.
Nor is God a cheat.
When we do, He always gives us something good in return.
Most mornings I wake up grateful.
Before the day starts, I like to sit and quietly watch the sun rise while prayerfully contemplating the many blessings God has restored in my life.
I’ve learned not to dwell on what I’ve lost as He prunes me for new growth …
By forgetting to appreciate the wonder of new opportunities, new relationships, and even new purposes and meanings in Christ.
He makes all things new.
Many “go to church” for a directed Sunday “service” performed by the “anointed” few in an odd building where they:
- Sit in regimented rows;
- Listen to a monologue “sermon” by “the Pastor”; and
- Are entertained by a staged “worship” band.
Some, however, “are the church” as they unassumingly gather in homes and other hospitable places where life naturally happens to participate together through:
- Shared teachings with dialogue and discussion;
- Spontaneous songs and diverse gifts that arise from among them; and
- Other involvement by each and every one through active ministry “one to another”, including diverse elders, as a functional community.
What “church”, do you think, looks more like the New Testament?
Life got a lot simpler when the Lord taught me that not every problem …
Has my name on it.
God blesses those …
Who are good stewards of His blessings.
When past hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds begin to define us …
They destroy our future.
If we transparently acknowledge, expose and release them to Jesus …
Then our future can exceed our past.
It’s always our choice, however.
Don’t confuse God’s grace with His joy.
Although God’s grace is unmerited, we know His joy through simple obedience.
Jesus gives us permission to chill out by taking time out …
So our emotional batteries don’t run out.
Daily, I see how God delights in creating beauty from wrecked lives.
Our role is to recognize it’s not all up to us …
And let Him do it.
Only fools sacrifice the lifelong joy of authentic …
For the short term thrill of illicit.
Joy seldom comes without risking failure …
In love, business, faith and all of life.
Plumbline Faith 