Grace and repentance?
Authentic faith embraces both as inseparable.
The most enduring qualities of lasting faith …
Are gratitude and wonder.
When we fully confess and wholly give our greatest mistakes and related burdens to God …
He turns them into stepping stones for good.
Mercy can be either an amazing wellspring of good …
Or a disturbing cover for evil.
Jesus:
Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
“Christian” Existentialists:
We are neither left nor right, and don’t want to offend, because Christ is All (about our sensibilities).
The New Testament says God distributes different gifts and functions among us to advance His Kingdom …
As we minister one to another and a waiting world.
Today, we use those gifts and functions to advance our own kingdoms …
As we create titles, hierarchies and “ministries” over one another before a disgusted world.
Many want God to forgive them …
Few to define them.
Until we fully surrender the “what if?” disappointments of our past to God …
We will never fully embrace the “why not?” joys He has for our future.
I tire of all the “new things”, hip new labels and conference extravaganzas – peddled through the latest amazing book, ministry, “revelation” or program.
Just go and do what Jesus commands, as He calls you to do it.
When you do, it will look different in different people, cultures and places …
Than it does in some hot new book or conference someone’s trying to promote.
“Missional”, “Christocentric”, “Neo-Evangelical”, “Eternal Purpose”, and even “Organic”:
Once they brand God and His purposes with some new label and convince everyone to hop on board …
It’s likely already so saddled with egos and extraneous agendas that it’s veered off track.
Learn to discern what’s good and eternal …
And leave the rest behind.
The greatest obstacle to faith is not doubt …
But our own comfort zones.
We need more elders sharing lives among us …
And less “preachers” on podiums above us.
Unfortunately, few are willing to give up the recognition and privileges of the latter …
For the humility and sacrifices of the former.
Existentialism is a philosophy which claims that our own perceptions are the ultimate criteria for detetmining what is true, real and right.
As such, it rejects external, transcendent standards of truth, reality and morality in lieu of individual subjectivity.
Thus, for example, so-called existential “Christians” dismiss God’s plenary authority of Scripture as His authentic, external written word.
For them, how they feel or react when reading Scripture is higher revelation – and ultimately more authoritative – than Scripture itself.
But they are crafty folk, and rationalize their subjective perceptions by calling them “Christ” or otherwise trying to recreate Him in their own image …
As though Christ and His written Word are at odds and stand divided.
Regardless, their muddled philosophy dares to judge God and filter Scripture through their own individualistic sensibilities …
And leaves them stuck with themselves.
They are, in a word, fools …
Peddling deception to other fools who pay them heed.
If environment and external circumstances determined fate …
Then Adam and Eve would still be enjoying Eden.
God doesn’t define sin to condemn us but to warn us about what harms and destroys …
Because He loves us enough to want us to have abundant life.
When we reject that …
We condemn ourselves.
Faith is trust:
Expressed not in how we feel …
But how we act.
I am aware of NO instance where the Bible condones covering up the improprieties of those who claim to be leaders.
In fact, the Biblical approach – Old and New Testament – is quite the opposite.
Furthermore, truly repentant leaders will not try to hide their leadership sins, but openly confess and publicly repent.
Absent that, they remain a danger to all …
Which is why 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 specifically commands that church leaders who abuse their position must be investigated and publicly exposed as a warning to all.
“Church” too often means expecting others to fit our own molds, in order to support the sensibilities and biases of our own cultural perspectives.
In contrast, I have learned to allow “church” to emerge in all its splendid diversity by letting the life of Christ take root in the rich soil of different cultures and communities.
Could that be why the Great Commission says “go”, rather than “come”?
God’s authoritative Word is not some fleeting inspiration you feel when reading the Bible …
But the Bible itself as His external standard given for all.
It takes great hubris to claim otherwise …
By those who elevate their own subjective perceptions over the eternal, God breathed words of Scripture.
False prophets will tickle your ear …
While true prophets speak what you don’t want to hear.
The great lie of our times is that we should follow our heart …
Which leads to carnal Christians.
God never said what we feel is the standard for what is true, real and right.
In fact, God says the heart is deceitful, foolish and exceedingly wicked …
But His Word endures forever.
Which is why God seeks to redeem our heart …
But never elevates it above 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 the absence of faith …
For all have faith in something.
The question is, in whom or what?
What about those who peddle an appealing Christ of their own perception through enticing books, blogs, seminars and posts …
While dismissing His plenary authority of Scripture as His written Word?
It’s not that they’re always wrong.
After all, even broken clocks are right twice a day …
But only fools would try to use ’em to tell time.
The worst deceptions start with affirmation.
Slowly but surely, God is shifting the paradigm of church and leadership.
It is becoming organic, simple and participatory, with healthy fellowships beginning to emerge.
All I can say is forget the buzz words by past advocates like Viola, Dale, Zens, Rodriguez, Giles, Rohde and their buddies …
With their failed attempts to impose their own existential, cookie-cutter visions of Christ and the Church on God’s people through books and blogs that never lined up with reality in their own lives and home towns.
Instead, go and let the Lord express Himself as He sees fit, building on the foundation already apostolically laid through Scripture as His authoritative written Word, in the unique context of diverse communities …
Where He still sends us today to make disciples among the lost and redeem nations.
That, my friends, is real “organic” church and leadership.
