Not surprisingly, “Christians” who promote trans-Biblical hermeneutics …
Almost always promote trans-Constitutional jurisprudence also.
I’ve yet to see God turn His face …
From those who love and trust Him.
Seldom will evil fess up to its own culpability …
Which is why it is unrealistic to expect closure from an evildoer on an injustice they caused.
Instead, find closure by fully expressing to the Lord the hurts and wrongs your heart still carries …
Then forgive by releasing your need for justice to Him.
Not to excuse the evil or those who did it …
But to acknowledge the wrong, find freedom and move on.
Honor in God’s Kingdom comes not from having fame, fortune or followers …
But being faithful.
Rows upon rows of spectator seating …
Have nothing to do with church in the New Testament.
Paul of Tarsus:
Lashed, left for dead, shipwrecked, jailed, scorned, abandoned, tried, beheaded.
I guess he never read “Your Best Life Now.”
I may have an ability or perspective that you lack.
But I have yet to meet anyone – and I mean anyone – who does not exceed me in some aspect of their own abilities and perspectives.
Likewise, no church or ministry will be healthy if it pulls into itself or thinks itself beyond everyone else.
This is true also with our different sub-cultures, theological “tribes,” and the often unexamined presumptions and perceptions of our own community of like-minded friends.
Unity through diversity with humility, rather than uniformity through control with hierarchy, is God’s intent among those who love Him and heed His Word …
As we learn to submit to one another and together become the multi-gifted, multi-functional, multi-part Body of Christ.
Although we all love the “glory stories,” we also need to tell of our failures …
Because through our failures, we often learn the most.
The narrow gate is wide enough for each who travels through …
But not enough to also carry all their baggage too.
Real grace doesn’t exempt us from conviction and repentance …
But loves us enough to take us there.
I’m often asked, “Where do I find simple, relational, participatory church?”
Why not start with hospitality …
And see what God can do?
Because it’s easier to share Christ together …
When we share life together.
So let’s open our homes and open our lives …
And be the church once again.
“Religion” today …
Means all the stuff in the Bible we don’t wanna heed.
Every utopian ideology and agenda starts with lofty ideals that ignore human nature and God’s sovereignty.
When its zealots inevitability fail to create their perfect society and transform human nature, however, frustration sets in and they begin to rationalize coercive means to achieve their goals …
Which is why they always end up, if left unchecked, creating tyranny instead.
In Western cultures, Christianity has lost sight of God’s fierceness …
Instead wanting only His comfort and affirmation.
When we define God’s attributes by our own sensibilities, however …
We lose the ability to be effective salt and light not just to individuals, but to whole societies and nations.
May we repent, before it’s too late.
I’d routinely ask men who gave their lives to the Lord in the jail and I mentored there, why it was so hard for them to become part of a church when they got out.
I’d then follow up by asking whether, after being released, they were ever invited into someone’s home for a meal and fellowship from any church they visited.
The answer? Never.
I’ve asked this hundreds of times, not just of men trying to put their lives back together after jail, but also of others living in the woods or in homeless shelters.
The answer was always the same.
In twenty years, I saw no exceptions.
We all love arms-length “ministries” and “programs” that make us feel good about helping “those people,” so long as it’s not too close and personal.
I guess most “churches” are look-alike religious social clubs for cookie-cutter “believers” …
Rather than real Christian communities where imperfect people relate and build up one another to become mature disciples.
How tragic.
In the meantime, our house remains a place of hospitality, friendship and fellowship …
And our lives continue to be enriched beyond measure as real church and community just naturally happens because of it.
Is God using you to build His ekklesia …
Or are you using God to build your church?
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.
Mercy can be either an amazing wellspring for good …
Or a disturbing cover for evil.
Wisdom and discernment make all the difference.
Which is why God never intended that any one gift …
Exist apart from all the others.
Jesus says:
Rescue those being taken away to death; hold back those stumbling to slaughter.
“Christian” existentialists say:
We are neither left nor right, and don’t want to offend, because Christ is All (about our sensibilities).
God distributes different gifts and abilities among us to advance His Kingdom …
By calling us to serve and prefer one another above ourselves as a waiting world watches.
Today, however, many use those gifts and abilities to advance their own kingdoms …
By creating positions, titles, and hierarchies over one another as a disgusted world watches.
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.
Plumbline Faith 