Making everything about my thing, even when it’s a God thing …
Denies His Lordship over all things.
It seems “grace” has become an excuse these days …
For not growing up.
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.
”Christians” who interpret Christ and judge His Word by their own notions of love …
Rather than conform their notions of love to Christ and His Word …
Worship love, not Christ.
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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God’s norms apply to all cultures …
But often are uniquely expressed in each.
While holding to those norms, I’ve learned to not interpret another’s situation and culture through the lens of my own situation and culture.
Doing so thwarts mutual esteem and understanding.
That’s true even when done with the best of intentions.
In contrast, the Great Commission requires us to go beyond our own reality and enter into very different realities …
Where people are very different than us.
They may be across the globe, or just down the street.
Few do it.
Nonetheless, Jesus bids us “go” with a fierce love that takes us outside our own limited perspectives.
Only then can we truly embrace “others” as brothers in Him.
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.
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 “Lead 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 open dialogue and discussion;
- Singing God’s praises together from among and within the congregation as they encourage each other; and
- Each and every one actively ministering “one to another” out of the different gifts God distributes among them – including diverse elders – as a functional community.
Which “church,” do you think, looks more like what the New Testament actually commands?
Is it any surprise when men refuse to give up their God-given masculinity …
For the borderline Jesus eroticism which masquerades as “worship” in many “churches” these days?
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.
Some things just don’t make sense when you cut through the enticing, nice sounding rhetoric.
For example:
So-called “progressive Christians” calling Jesus “Lord”.
Yet at the same time, they implicitly claim the right to define Him on their own terms …
By explicitly rejecting His plenary authority and discipline of Scripture as His written Word.
At the core, they know not Christ.
Rather, they serve a God of their own perceptions, created in the image of their own sensibilities.
They may be charming. They may be inspirational. They may even occasionally say good things.
But in the end, their way leads to destruction as they lead others over an existential cliff.
Where they hold sway, you will not find viable local churches (of any stripe), the power and authority of the Gospel, cohesive functional community, God’s Kingdom conquering darkness, or the Great Commission in action.
But hey, they do write good books and blogs telling others “how to” on all the things they themselves “don’t do” because their self-centered ideologies simply don’t work.
That’s why, when you look closely, you inevitably find that they repeatedy fail to make their own ideals – which they peddle to others – work in their own lives …
When they even bothered to try.
It’s time for clear discernment.
It’s time for clear talk.
It’s time to move forward as we leave their hollow existential angst and postmodern fraud behind.
The times once again demand authentic disciples who embrace all of Christ and His Kingdom …
While boldly going forth into all spheres of life with the confidence and power of His Word.
May we once again affirm a vibrant relationship with the Living Word, in submission to the authority and discipline of His written Word.
Christ’s mission for us, and His love for a watching world, demand nothing less.
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.
Christians who dismiss some as beyond the reach of God’s redeeming grace …
Stand outside His redeeming grace.
If good never confronts evil …
What good is it?
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.
Grace without truth …
Can be just as corrosive as truth without grace.
Isn’t it interesting that there’s more open sharing, participation and fellowship at a funeral service …
Than a typical “church” service?
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.
Plumbline Faith 