Just wait until your father gets home!The Exclusive Factor:
You'll never measure up to your brother.The Love Factor:
I love you enough to help you become your best. Now let's work together to help that happen. Remember you can never do anything that will destroy my love for you.Which would inspire you to move in the direction specified by your parent?
God has specified the direction in which to move to find life on earth and beyond (Romans 1:16):
It's news I'm [Paul] most proud to exclaim, this extraordinary Message of God's powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else! God's way of putting people right shows up in acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: "The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives."I've spent 20 years in a church that continually and intentionally works to hone its Jesus voice--to be as aligned with the Spirit of Jesus as possible. We've learned along the way.
Scaring people into faith didn't fit (the Fear Factor). In the South, there is a phrase--hellfire and brimstone--that generally references preaching that primarily uses the threat of eternity in hell to move people.
Acting smug and superior, as if we are privy to something others are not and never will be, lacked the authenticity of Jesus as well (the Exclusive Factor). In fact, in Philippians 2, Paul is clear:
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what.If Jesus didn't use his "privy," then no one can.
The Love Factor has the strength of obedience, the disarming power of forgiveness, and the promise of unconditional love, all rolled into one.
When a church asks God to help them convey truth using the Love Factor, the arguments of who is in and who is out, at what point in time and for what duration, cease. Right standing requires trusting in God and God says trusting in him requires acknowledgment of Jesus.
We see what God is about in 2 Samuel 14:14:
...God does not take away life. He works out ways to get the exile back.His alone to work out. When. How. If.
I hope death is not the last chance to get into right standing with God for life. In fact, there is compelling teaching that traces Scripture as a whole to support this idea. The real truth is, God can work it out any way he wants to. We are to search out his authentic voice and move people (including ourselves) with his parenting style, not our own.
No dynamite needed. As Christ-followers we can agree on the strength of what we can know for sure. Then the world may want to know more.
Tomorrow: Sibling rivalry and the Two-fold topic.
Comments are welcome at feedyourstrength@gmail.com.
