May we live our lives as sacraments of God’s presence before a lost and hurting world.
No one should be allowed into church leadership …
Until they’ve first learned to successfully make their own way in life through their own initiative and labor.
Otherwise, the Body of Christ will continue to be plagued with legions of insecure people clinging to “ministry” out of need …
Rather than calling tempered by experience.
Paul affirmed this with his own life …
And in his credentials for elders and deacons.
It’s time to return to the Biblical norms he set forth.
Otherwise, so-called “pastors” will continue to assert their presumed prerogatives over others rather than promote others over themselves as Christ commands …
Because they know they have no other vocational options.
Jesus didn’t say that “peacekeepers” will be called the children of God …
But that “peacemakers” will.
Big difference!
Peacekeepers tend to tolerate deceit and destruction.
Authentic peacemakers seldom do.
Many want revival …
But God wants repentance.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam chose autonomy over the Father’s will.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus chose the Father’s will over autonomy.
A gospel of no offense …
Is not the Gospel of Christ or His Kingdom.
Biblical discipleship is about folks submitting to Christ’s authority …
Not your’s.
Over twenty years of intense ministry to men in jail, and when they get out, taught me a fundamental truth:
Without healthy functional families – headed by solid, devoted men – everything else in a community breaks down.
Yup, God can redeem individuals from any mess – but that doesn’t change the underlying social relevance of Psalm 11:3 …
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Many “Christians” define God – and judge Scripture – by their notions of love …
Rather than submitting their notions of love to God and His Word.
They are pseudo Christians …
Who worship themselves rather than the sovereign God of all.
Sometimes it takes grace and wisdom to distinguish between God using a flawed person …
And a flawed person using God.
The older I get, the more I understand that God-centered gratitude, awe and stewardship …
Are essential antidotes to the self-consumed despair, hopelessness and meaninglessness that grip many today.
Sometimes, the smartest thing we can say is …
“I don’t know.”
Effective prayer is more about us hearing and doing what God wants …
Than Him hearing and doing what we want.
We can’t surrender to God …
What we refuse to acknowledge.
That includes the fears, hurts, wrongs and regrets we’ve been carrying …
And the bondage of our own – often subtle – sins committed in response to them.
Holding on to them prevents us from finding spiritual maturity, emotional wholeness …
And even healthy community with other believers.
I have observed, time and again, that the more committed folks are to dispensationalism and its tenets …
The less they know about its underlying origins and doctrinal premises.
Some judge all Scripture based on their notions of love.
True disciples, however, judge all notions of love based on Scripture.
Otherwise, our notions of love become limited to our own subjective, internal sentimentalities …
Rather than God’s comprehensive, objective revelation.
Faith presumes obedience …
Because without obedience, there is no faith.
I will continue to speak, work and stand for real solutions to real problems …
Rather than take the easy out of conspiracy paranoia.
The Sovereign God of Heaven and Earth …
Expects no less.
The fight these days is not between conservative versus liberal or Republican versus Democrat, but between:
Truth versus deception;
Reality versus destruction; and
Virtue versus depravity.
Fortunately, when it comes to what’s true, real and right …
Biblical Christians have the home court advantage.
So don’t give in or grow weary of standing firm for what is eternal and good …
Even if the heathen rage in response.
They’re only protesting their own failures and frustrations …
Born of their own irrational incoherence.
In the New Testament, “church” is not a meeting or a “service.”
Nor is it a building, a staged event or spectator seating.
Rather, it’s a local community of people who serve God, each other and a waiting world, through ministry one to another for the mutual building up of all with Christ as the Head …
While also not neglecting to gather together to encourage and motivate one another towards love and good works.
Pseudo “worship” today …
Exploits a broken generation by stirring up manipulated feelings of fleeting intensity, and calling it “God.”
It has become the new addiction.
The sole remedy is true worship, which is a faithful life of humble submission to God’s sovereignty, on His terms.
Only there can we find true significance and authentic wholeness.
Congregational singing is important for our gatherings, but the New Testament doesn’t call that “worship.”
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
Rather, the New Testament says that living lives of reverent obedience and sacrificial service to God …
Is true worship.
When we say that singing and music are “worship,” however, rather than teach what worship truly is under the New Covenant …
We often end up with carnal churches and carnal people seeking a Sunday morning “worship experience” rather than living holy lives in humble obedience and service to God.
So let’s encourage one another by joyfully singing God’s praises congregationally together when we gather, as the New Testament commands …
While also learning to walk in true worship the rest of the week.
Because when all is said and done, the terminology of the New Testament never tells us to gather for a “worship service” …
But to gather for mutually building up each other so we can live lives of true worship, 24/7.
The prevailing characteristics of postmodern existentialism on both the left and on the right are relativism and narcissism, rooted in notions of human autonomy.
Is it any wonder, then, that we see an emphasis on new “doctrines” which:
Define Christ and our relationship to Him by our own subjective perceptions;
Redefine grace to destroy all concepts of objective standards; and
Dismiss the plenary authority of Scripture?
Yet God is raising up a people who want to truly know Him on His terms …
And to worship Him once again (literally, to bow before Him) in spirit and in truth.
Many know God as only a feeling …
And love the feeling more than God.
Which is unfortunate.
Although the authentic knowledge and love of God often invoke feelings …
They don’t depend on how we feel.
May we be less concerned about offending others with our words …
Than offending God with our silence.
Plumbline Faith 