Be wise.
Don’t sacrifice the lifelong joy of authentic …
For the short term thrill of illicit.
Category: Simple Virtue
Let’s see:
Morning cup of coffee. Check.
Log on and notice all the social media posts about the latest outrage du jour. Hmmm.
Wisely decide to wait a few days until the real facts come out. Priceless.
In the meantime, continue to live a life that makes a difference in this world by loving God and obeying His commands. Eternal.
The fruit of the Spirit are rooted in …
Truth and virtue.
The best bulwark against human authoritarianism in all its many forms …
Are the precepts of God’s written Word.
By which, history shows:
Free men stand;
Liberty springs; and
Tyrants fall.
Until we stop using narcissistic labels like “ultimate”, “grand”, “deeper”, “insurgent”, “radical” and “beyond” to describe our faith …
And learn to walk humbly with God and others …
We’re not much good for His Kingdom …
Or anything else.
When exposed, some play the victim by seeking sympathy for the consequences of their hidden sins on them …
But never openly confess, repent or ask forgiveness for the consequences of their sin on others.
If so, they remain a danger to all.
Unless you understand Nietzsche, you will fail to understand Trump …
The misogyny, the boasts, the narcissism, the arrogance, the immorality, the lack of consistent convictions, the fascination with totalitarian dictators, the opportunism.
And unless you understand where Nietzsche’s ideology has led other nations …
You will fail to understand why discerning Christians are pleading with those who profess Christ to affirm your faith and turn from Trump while there’s still time.
Evil seduces many with the rationale of expediency.
To get roses …
You gotta work with thorns.
Convenient silence – or willful ignorance – over exploitation and abuse of others by an inspiring church leader …
Is a damnable form of idolatry.
It sacrifices innocent lives on the altar of personal ease and misplaced loyalties.
God will not hold us innocent.
Faith that’s not relevant to all of life …
Is relevant to none of life.
Sometimes God uses our frailties and afflictions …
As sacraments of His grace.
“Radical,” “deeper life,” “insurgent,” “movement” this and “movement” that …
Are disingenuous distractions from Biblical imperatives to simply grow up and make a difference by living lives of simple truth, simple faith and simple virtue.
Don’t buy the lie …
It’s really not that complicated.
So tell me again:
How voting to elect as our nation’s leader an unrepentant, strip club, sex trafficking, serial adultery, wanna “date” his nude posing daughter, boastful of his porn spread third wife, fat cat donor to those who oppose all that you believe, vulgar narcissist …
Maintains your Christian witness and upholds the Jesus you claim to love?
At least Esau got a bowl of pottage for giving up his birthright.
It never turns out well, history shows, when frustration over inept leaders, social malaise and moral anarchy …
Elects a so-called “strong man” who knows no law but his own will to power.
Scripture says what we sow, we reap.
This election, sow wisely.
I serve the risen Lord of all who is King of all His creation …
Which is why I reject cynicism and care enough to vote and make a difference in a world He yet loves.
Never underestimate the easy corruption of truth …
By those who benefit from a lie.
I often see quiet, unspoken acts of honor, of dedication, of sacrifice, of integrity, of gratitude …
And it gives me hope.
There are still those who value Godly virtue above themselves …
And make a difference in this world.
No nation knows liberty …
Without embracing virtue, prudence and diligence as Divine obligations.
May God’s people stand in the gap once again.
In life, we will encounter situations we cannot fix or understand …
But God’s grace is sufficient, and they need not define or overcome us.
Scripture teaches that our worth comes from being created in God’s image …
And our dignity from choosing to live accordingly.
Unfortunately, so-called “Progressive Christians” and “Christian Nationalists” both distort Scripture to promote their own – but different – anti-God agendas.
Fundamentally, they each believe our worth comes from recreating us into their own ideological image …
And our dignity from using government power to compel us to live accordingly.
Don’t surrender God’s authentic liberty for the bondage of counterfeit Christianity.
It is shameful how some Christian leaders cozy up to power …
Rather than speak truth to power.
Jesus never said to disengage from the disarray of nations …
But to engage all nations.
It’s called the Great Commission, which commands us to go and redeem not just individuals …
But whole cultures.
All laws reflect somebody’s sense of morality …
Whether right or wrong.
This doesn’t mean, however, that laws have the ability – or governments the power – to make us virtuous.
That seldom works and often morphs into tyranny.
Rather, Scripture says that government should protect us from evildoers …
So we have the liberty, of our own volition, to pursue virtuous lives as God directs.
A government which oversteps those bounds …
Oversteps its legitimate, God-given authority.
Fully confess, squarely ask God to forgive you, then humbly give Him the related guilt, condemnation and regrets your heart’s been carrying.
Do this …
And there’s no room to “forgive yourself.”
It’s settled, done, finished.
The many years of repeated failures by the existential fringe of the simple, “organic” church movement – with authors like Felicity Dale, Frank Viola, Milt Rodriguez, Jon Zens, Keith Giles and their buddies – stand as an object lesson moving forward:
Without the plenary authority of Scripture, simple participatory churches don’t succeed.
Although they are now fading away, in their day these fringe authors dismissed the plenary authority and discipline of Scripture – and in some cases even denied that the Bible is God’s written word – to peddle a Jesus of their own perception.
They then used the legitimate yearnings of others for simple, participatory house churches to promote their disastrous, extraneous agendas …
Eventually derailing the hopes and aspirations of many.
Their false Christ – who was little more than a projection of their own “deeper life” angst, post-modern sensibilities and trans-Biblical ideologies – inevitably led to dysfunctional, insular and anemic “communities.”
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