When people are used to build up a ministry, rather than the ministry being used to build up people …
It’s no longer ministry.
People with true gravitas make hard things seem easy because they’ve spent years quietly learning how …
By actually doing them.
Trendy “influencers” with media platforms …
Not so much so.
How can some say they believe in the authority of Scripture …
When they keep reading post-Biblical meanings, presumptions and traditions back into its original words and contexts?
I’m more interested in going and sharing Christ as He uniquely brings life and builds “His church” among you and your friends …
Than always expecting you to come and find Him in “my church” among me and my friends.
Such is the heart of the Great Commission.
Wolves twist the saying “all Scripture points to Christ” …
To subjugate all Scripture to their concept of Christ,
Rather than subjugating their concept of Christ to all Scripture.
If history proves anything, it’s that God’s people change history when they refuse to go along to get along …
And God’s not yet done with history.
Because He loves us, Jesus affirms in Romans 13 – and elsewhere – the State’s obligation to stop evildoers and protect innocent lives …
Through the judicious use, if needed, of deadly force.
Some deny this by elevating their own sensibilities above Christ and His Word …
While reducing love to distorted sentimentalities.
I have yet to see Christ entrust authentic spiritual power …
To those who dismiss His plenary authority of Scripture.
You can’t know the power of His Name …
If you reject the power of His Word.
Choosing the lesser of two evils, at a certain point, is more about rationalizing what is wrong …
Than making an imperfect choice for the greater good.
Tolerance without discernment …
Is like the blind leading the lost.
When corporations use their growing power over speech, commerce and social interactions to oppose virtue …
They become as much a threat to faith and freedom as any totalitarian government.
There is a place where gratitude and sorrow merge …
And we touch the heart of God.
Expediency destroys our witness …
When we no longer speak truth to power.
For-profit non-prophets peddle their wares to naïve Christians …
Because there’s always a market for playing on fears and tickling ears.
Making Jesus all about that one thing,
Which happens to be your thing,
Denies His Lordship over all things,
Including the many other things,
He does through others.
The older I get …
The more I realize how much the Kingdom of God depends on hospitality.
Good values and good choices don’t always produce good results …
But they sure do prevent a lot of bad ones.
The Great Commission isn’t about coming in for prepared messages …
But going forth as prepared people.
When we replace prudence with expediency …
We lose our moral witness.
Feed your faith carefully, because only fools consume fruit …
They haven’t first inspected.
Real love doesn’t just affirm what is good and right, but also opposes what enslaves and destroys.
Those ministering authentic grace to folks who are lost and know it …
Understand this.
Those peddling an abstract faith that’s never put into practice …
Don’t.
Those with the Biblical commitment and personal humility needed to actually function together as part of a simple, participatory church in their home or other hospitable local gathering place …
Do.
Those who don’t and can’t make it work in their own lives and home towns, however …
Seem most inclined, regrettably, to write books and blogs – and travel around – telling everyone else how to.
Unfortunately, great has been the wreckage they’ve caused.
Such “organic church” writers and “itinerants” peddle what they themselves don’t do, under a plethora of misleading titles and slogans like:
“Beyond Evangelical,” “Deeper Life” and now “Insurgence” (Frank Viola); “Subversive” and “Red Letter Christians” (Keith Giles); House2House and Apostolic “Workers” (Milt Rodriguez, Jon Zens and Felicity Dale); “Viral Jesus” (Ross Rohde); and “Houses That Change The World” (Wolfgang Simson).
When it comes to them and their mutual promotion networks, be discerning …
Because you can’t get to authentic from phony.
Nor can you get there with their general distain for God’s plenary authority of Scripture as His written Word …
Or their competing, trans-Biblical existential ideologies.
Please hear me:
For the health of God’s people, it’s time for those of us who are actually making simple, participatory churches work in our own lives and home towns – through a firm commitment to the apostolic foundation already laid in Scripture as God’s authoritative written Word – to begin looking towards each other for mutual encouragement.
If we refuse to be discerning and instead continue to look to – and promote – those who peddle other agendas, pretenses and ideologies …
Then their persistent pattern of failed lives and failed churches will continue to be a hindrance to our own churches and what God wants to do among us.
Their bad fruit and inability to make their own books work in their own lives and home towns – or consistently and sustainably anywhere else – should be a clear warning which we all heed …
No matter how deceptively charming and misleadingly enticing they otherwise may seem.
Healthy churches and healthy lives deserve no less.
So-called progressive “Christians” dismiss Christ’s plenary authority of Scripture, seeking instead a Jesus of their own creation …
Who reflects their own sensibilities and insecurities.
Fundamentally, they worship themselves …
Rather than the authentic Christ of Scripture.
The world claims human dignity comes from self determination.
This destroys individual worth, because dignity – when anyone can make it mean anything – means nothing.
In contrast, Scripture says human dignity comes from God …
Who created us in His likeness and image.
This preserves individual worth, because dignity – when it comes from a fixed standard apart from us – is inalienable.
Scripture is God’s word because He inspired it …
Not because it inspires you.
Seriously, it’s good to be inspired …
But Scriptural authority doesn’t depend on you.
Plumbline Faith 