Many burnout by repeatedly ministering to folks who want our time, energy and resources …
Without fundamentally dealing with their own underlying issues through honest repentance.
Continue readingCategory: Simple Truth
“Christian” existentialists live lives of angst and doubt, seeking a Jesus of their own perception and definition.
They would do much better submitting to Christ as He perceives and defines them instead …
Because it’s only there that life and liberty are found.
So-called “progressive Christians” insist on a Jesus of their own creation, defined by their own perceptions, sensibilities and ideologies …
Leading to doubt and malaise.
The authentic Jesus, however, defines Himself – along with His creation, absolute truths, redeeming grace and moral precepts – through His plenary authority of Scripture …
Leading to life and liberty.
The Law given as part of the Old Covenant is no longer in force (including the Decalogue), since the Old Covenant no longer is in force.
However, the moral precepts which undergird the laws of the Old Covenant are still relevant.
That’s because God’s overarching command to “be holy for I am holy” …
Is re-stated multiple times in both the Old and New Testament and still applies.
God’s nature does not change, and neither have His moral precepts …
Which are part of God’s own, immutable self-revelation throughout Scripture.
So be holy …
But not Old Covenant.
I have no problem with the doctrine of “total depravity.”
Apart from God’s grace, I see no evidence to the contrary …
Plus Scripture is clear that apart from His grace, we have no hope.
However, I likewise have no problem with the doctrine that we can resist His grace.
Not because we have any power to frustrate God’s sovereign will …
But because He sovereignly wills to grant us that choice.
Why do some only speak up about fraud and abuse in the church …
When it’s to urge silence by the victims and those standing with them?
They are not peacemakers, but enablers.
They are not courageous, but cowards.
They are not principled, but complicit.
What we call “church” these days is so far removed from the New Testament …
That we dare not let those who see that truth …
Also speak that truth …
Without “correcting” it with a “but,” “and” or “or” …
Rooted in presumptions, anxieties and rationalizations from our own man-made traditions.
Deconstruction?
I’m all for examining our assumptions, traditions and doctrines in light of Scripture.
But “Christians” who reject God’s plenary authority, as expressed through His written Word …
Become their own standard for what’s ultimately true, real and right.
Is it any wonder, then, why they never seem to “get” Scripture?
If insanity is doing the same things over and over, and expecting different results …
How can anyone defend “church” as we’ve come to know it?
Often, it’s primarily about a carefully produced weekly “service” designed to advance the “institution’s” own interests by feeding the need for affirmation through a contrived “sermon” that mimics secular motivational speakers …
And staged “worship” that mimics worldly entertainment.
The result has been self absorbed “Christians” who think Jesus is all about reinforcng their own insecurities and comfort zones.
In the meantime, the “church” distorts the “Gospel” to grow its attendance – and its finances – by inviting people to make a hollow “decision” for Jesus …
Without repentance or transformation.
Jesus, however, commands us to go and make disciples of all nations by teaching them to obey all He has commanded …
Not appease the masses by catering to a culture which craves carnal affirmation and emotional intensity – then calling it “God.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8
Let us return to the Lord, and His ways, once again.
Many claim to have a “high view” and believe in the “authority” of Scripture, but be careful.
Often, they are playing verbal games rooted in the existential philosophy of “theologians” like Karl Barth.
He taught that Scripture is “authoritative” only as a helpful – but flawed – jumping point to personal experiences and “revelation” which, he claimed, are God’s actual “Word” and more authentic than Scripture itself.
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When integrity is displaced by loyalty to a leader …
When folks sit silent amidst disclosures of wrong …
When comforting assurances are offered and accepted in lieu of open, true repentance …
It’s not a church …
But a cult.
In pagan Rome, politics was a circus, the mob cheered the lion, shedding innocent blood was a public spectacle, and the emperor was a ringmaster of vice.
Meanwhile, in today’s news …
Authentic love brings truth …
And truth is never neutral.
There is no basis for authentic unity apart from our identity in Christ …
But that identity has no validity apart from the plenary authority and discipline of Scripture as His written Word.
Unfortunately, that seems to be a hard and offensive “word” for many today …
Who presume the right to define Christ – and thus us – in their own terms.
They create anarchy – as everyone does what’s right in their own eyes – leading to tyranny …
Rather than healthy community and Godly liberty.
Biblically committed Christians need to vote, stand for truth, support candidates who most closely embrace our God-given values for the blessings of all, and be actively engaged.
But let’s keep it in perspective:
We lose our witness when people end up judging our values by particular candidates …
Rather than judging those candidates by our values.
So in our fallen world, where we often must vote for imperfect candidates …
Let’s unabashedly hold even those who get our votes accountable to those values.
I have yet to see lives consistently transformed from despair to maturity in the Lord …
Or viable local churches emerge …
Among those promoting a dichotomy between Jesus as the Living Word and the plenary authority of Scripture as His written Word.
Things Jesus never said:
“Because all Scripture points to me, your own notions of me supercede Scripture.”
Don’t be deceived by so-called “progressive Christians”, who elevate a Christ of their own perception over Scripture …
To dismiss Scripture and impose their own unbiblical, existential agendas on everyone else.
When a candidate or politician becomes the measure of our values, rather than our values the measure of a candidate or politician …
We lose our witness.
The greatest threats to liberty today come from so-called “Progressive Christians” and their Leftist buddies.
They reject Scripture as God’s written Word, with plenary authority over all it addresses, including limits on human authoritarianism.
Instead, they want government – in the name of a false Christ created in their own image – to impose their own existential, authoritarian ideologies of control and coercion on everyone else.
Biblical Christians, in contrast, take seriously our personal, God-given obligation of individual responsibility for our own wellbeing …
And our personal, God-given (not bureaucratic driven) obligation to care for one another and be our brother’s keeper.
For these reasons, we must stand firm in answering to God for our own obligations, and not to “progressive Christians” …
Who want to use ever-expanding government spending and power to foist their own statist notions of those obligations and how to fulfill them – however well-sounding – on everyone else.
Fundamentally, God delegates to government the duty to protect us …
Rather than “fix” us by compelling everyone to comply with some so-called “progressive,” authoritarian notion of what is “good” and “right.”
Even God doesn’t ask the State to usurp our individual obligations to provide for our own wellbeing and help those who can’t …
And there is not a single passage in all of Scripture which assigns to civil government – by precept or by example – the overall societal obligation for us as individuals, families and communities of faith to be charitable and care for one another.
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
So who do these repressive “progressive Christians” think they are?
Their oppressive agenda of ever-expanding State authority is a threat to all who stand for eternal, Biblical precepts …
Like ensuring authentic civil liberty, and authentic charity, through our God-ordained right to pursue what is true and virtuous – free of oppressive government bureaucratic inefficiency, control and coercion.
You can either answer to God, or you can answer to these new legalists who seek State power to become the new enforcers of their own rudderless, humanistic sensibilities.
It’s your choice …
Which is why elections matter.
When shifting concepts of personal autonomy become the supreme law of the land by the whim of judges …
Who circumvent democratically elected representatives and constitutional constraints …
Then all our God-given rights – including those expressly enumerated in the Constitution – eventually will fail.
Everyone’s an expert on how to …
Until they have to.
I love Godly mercy but discreetly conceal carry.
If that seems like a contradiction, then maybe you’ve confused faith with comfort zones and mushy sentimentalities.
Where God sent me, however, life was raw and edgy …
And evil real.
Yet I saw lives redeemed on a daily basis:
Whether in the ‘hood to ransom those trapped in addiction …
Or protecting my household from a deranged stalker trying to intimidate me because I helping teenage victims who were sexually abused by his cult’s so-called “apostolic worker.”
So before you judge me, first explain why you’re not also going beyond the fringes of polite society to rescue those lost in great darkness.
In the meantime, may God send more where others fear to tread.
(Btw, I take gun control seriously. That’s why I go to the range – to insure good control of my EDC Sig 365xl. Here’s a full mag of tightly clustered rounds at 30 feet. Not bad! 😎)
Those who never pay a price for their beliefs …
Should not be upset when their beliefs are accorded all the worth they are due.
