The world is unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn't fight fair. But we don't live or fight our battles that way--never have, never will. The tools of our trade are not for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.Interestingly, the ground needing clearing first is inside the church. When we know Christ crucified, we are called to lives of obedience, that is, loving others with the love we now know. That obedience must be galvanized into maturity. What does the bible say about maturity? Romans 15:
[Jesus] didn't make it easy on himself by avoiding people's troubles, but waded right in and helped out. "I took on the troubles of the troubled," is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it's written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert to whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we'll be a choir--not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!Jesus waded right into people's troubles. His energy was focused on people who needed him, not the bickering of those who already had him.
I fear the massively corrupt culture is inside the church, erecting barriers against the truth of God. How can we wade out when we are strangled over philosophies from within?
Three pitfalls come to mind: alcohol and visiting venues, who really owns/runs the church, and bible translations, all fought over in the context of the idol of certainty. Splitting, judging, acrimoniously slandering each other, leaving no room for listening, wrestling, grappling--this is a picture of the inside of church walls into which no stranger would or should venture.
How can a warmly, personal God show up there?
How can Jesus teach us how to wade into people's troubles when we are busy teaching strife to each other from our starting blocks of certainty, the I-know-for-sure-and-you-better-know-it-the-way-I-know-it mentality?
If we are strangling the message of Christ, how can people know who he is?
Tomorrow: The idol of certainty.
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