Category Archives: Musings

When “Intimacy with the Lord” Goes Bad

January 22, 2013 By in Existentialism, Fruit, Grace, Grace Movement, Pietism, Works 2 Comments

When “Intimacy with the Lord” Goes Bad is a must-read blog by Steve Crosby.

In the past, I was concerned with some of Steve’s blogs because they seemed to dance right up to the line with some of the “half grace” doctrines and existential nonsense going around these days.

With this blog, however, all’s forgiven! It strikes just the right balance between “being” and “doing”, which I’ve also tried to achieve in some of my own past blogs. But unlike me, he avoids obscure, big sounding words. 😉

Plus, I love his swamp analogy – especially since I often use it myself when I teach!

Hyper Grace – Part 2

December 13, 2012 By in Confession, Forgiveness, Grace, Love, Repentance, Truth, Works 6 Comments
Hyper Grace – Part 2

Real people want real answers and real freedom from real issues – not just the tidy platitudes of half truths.

Maybe that’s what has shaped my strong reaction to hyper grace, which is really half grace: It cannot offer real freedom from real issues because it seeks the grace of God’s affirming love and presence, but not the grace of His transforming truth and rule.

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Words

December 5, 2012 By in Abuse, Grace, Healing, Redemption, Sovereignty, Truth, Virtue 4 Comments

Words have the power to not only define, but to create reality – for good or for bad. Too often, we forget the power of words: not only ours, but of God Himself.

power-of-wordsI don’t think it was a coincidence that God spoke the universe into existence, chose to reveal Himself through His spoken Word of scripture, or came to dwell among us as the Word made flesh.

I also don’t think it is a coincidence that God still speaks to us today, or that He has empowered us to speak authoritatively on His behalf.

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Theology and Reality

November 28, 2012 By in Bible, Confession, Doctrine, Faith, Flying, Science, Truth 4 Comments

Miguel Labrador has posted another thought provoking blog, entitled Theology Precedes Practice, Vice Versa, or Something Else?

Keeping Theology and Reality in Balance

In it, he states: “orthodoxy (theology) & orthopraxy (practice) are ‘simultaneous.’” I think he’s right, in the sense that we must seek to keep both in balance – our walk must match our talk, and our talk must match our walk.

Sometimes, however, the Lord allows one or the other – our doctrine or our practice – to be challenged in ways that force us to then adjust the other.

Regardless, it is important to keep them in sync, as much as possible, and not let one get too far ahead of the other.

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The Cultural Implications of the Great Commission

November 15, 2012 By in Culture, Existentialism, Great Commission, Kingdom of God, Politics, Prophetic, Redemption, Society, Sovereignty 18 Comments
The Cultural Implications of the Great Commission

Rob Moley, in his blog Restore the Word, wrote yesterday on “The Great Commission: Discipling Individuals or Nations?”.

In it, he says this about the Great Commission:

Rather than being a command to influence nations with the principles and truths of God’s kingdom, the logic of the command in Matt. 28:19-20 is to make disciples from every nation. Then, as ambassadors of God’s kingdom, these disciples are able to influence all aspects of society, and God willing, even disciple whole nations.

His point is that the Great Commission is about transforming individuals into disciples who obey all that Christ commands, who in turn transform the world around them.

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Election Postmortem

November 8, 2012 By in Bible, Christians, Culture, Gnostic Dualism, Great Commission, Obedience, Postmodern, State 23 Comments
Election Postmortem

Leading up to Tuesday’s elections here in the United States, I often used this blog and Facebook to urge Christians to vote. (See Does Jesus Want You to Vote?)

When I did, I always got heated push back – mainly from other Christians who oppose Biblical civic engagement.

Generally, they think God is only interested our personal relationships with Him, or that He is solely focused on the Church.

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Postmodern Idolatry

November 1, 2012 By in Authority, Church, Courage, Doctrine, Postmodern, Sovereignty, Truth 18 Comments

Does God do what is right, or is it right because God does it?

Many think God is subservient or subject to external standards – that He does what is right because there is a higher moral code that even He obeys.

This denies God’s sovereignty, and as a result many today seek to hold Him to the standard of their own sense of right and wrong.

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A Doobie Brothers’ Gospel

October 26, 2012 By in Grace, Sovereignty, Truth 5 Comments

Jesus died on the cross because He accepted me, wholly and completely, just as I am…

By His Grace, He Bids Us Come and Die

So I could die to myself in order to accept Him, wholly and completely, just as He is.

This the true Gospel: Accepting me as I am cost Jesus His life, and accepting Him as He is costs me my life in return.

The mystery of the cross is that we die with Him to find new life in Him – but only on His terms.

Yet if you look at social media sites like Facebook, it seems that many Christians only know a Doobie Brothers’ Gospel.

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Generations

October 21, 2012 By in Church Planting, Great Commission, Kingdom of God, Organic Church 14 Comments

Life reproduces life. That’s true in nature and it’s true spiritually. Where there is vibrant mature life, there is reproduction.

Life Reproduces Life!

Last week, we saw that truth confirmed yet again as a third-generation fellowship emerged among what some consider a “disreputable” segment of our county.

This new community of believers is in a subculture where Christians and other churches previously lacked the courage to go. Until now, they had been written off as beyond hope.

These new believers found life in Jesus because some cared enough to go where most feared to tread.

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Balance

October 15, 2012 By in Doctrine, Existentialism, Gifts, Love, Organic Church, Spiritual Disciplines, Truth 16 Comments

The greatest challenge facing the Church today are those who promote truth out of balance:

  • Those who think the Person of Christ can be fractured from His concurrent propositional truths, moral precepts and commands;
     
  • Those who want the vibrancy of the internal Living Word, without submitting all things to the authority and discipline of His written external Word;
     
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Beyond Scripture? (Part 2)

October 9, 2012 By in Absolutes, Bible, Existentialism, Frank Viola, Humor, Postmodern, Relativism 36 Comments

Jesus Loves Me

(An existential version of that favorite childhood song.
I encourage you to have some fun by singing along as you read it.)

Jesus loves me, this I know,
Postmodern grace has made it so.
With His Spirit in my heart,
External truth now has no part.

Chorus:

Did Jesus tell me?
Oh, how can I know?
I feel Jesus told me,
I hope that makes it so.

Additional Verses:

The Bible says that I must go,
Proclaim His Word – oh no no no!
Now existential I’ve become,
‘Cause His commands just leave me numb

My sense of Jesus is true light,
I do not worry what is right.
With my sensibilities,
I do not need moralities.

The Bible’s NOT the Word of God.
My own perceptions earn my nod!
The Jesus I have come to see,
Surprisingly looks just like me.

I only want the Living Word,
The Bible seems just too absurd.
Now I perceive reality,
The way I want it all to be.

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Beyond Scripture? (Part 1)

October 5, 2012 By in Bible, Existentialism, Truth 28 Comments

It is a sign of desperation: Those who indefensibly deny the plenary authority of scripture as the written Word of God inevitably proclaim – when all their other arguments fail – that you are making the Bible your god or elevating the Bible to the level of divinity.

Lost in an Existential Maze of Their Own Creation

Lately, I’ve been hearing this more and more from those who believe their personal narrative and perceptions about Jesus are more authoritative and higher revelation than His written Word.

They proclaim “Christ is All”, but their “all” ignores much of who Christ has revealed Himself to be in scripture. (See The Problem with “All”.)

I do not worship scripture or elevate scripture to the “level of divinity”. I do elevate it to the level of divine authority, because it is the external Word of God Himself – and thus supersedes all subjective claims of personal or private revelation.

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The Power of God

October 3, 2012 By in Bondage, Existentialism, Faith, Gifts, Life, Postmodern 5 Comments

We don’t go looking for or emphasize miracles, but in our fellowships we’ve been seeing the miraculous happen time and again.

We had one man collapse and then die right in front of the paramedics and the fellowship he had been helping to start in the jail – and then come back to life shortly thereafter on the gurney in the jail infirmary after brothers gathered together to pray for him.

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Intercession and Repentance

September 25, 2012 By in Bible, Church, Culture, Intercession, Leadership, Prayer, Repentance 18 Comments

Our nation’s continuing moral and economic decline, and the growing malaise of our increasingly dysfunctional churches, has caused a renewed focus on intercessory prayer.

Heavy Lifting

Intercession without Repentance Is Not Effective

But intercession without transformational repentance – which Biblically involves changing the way we act by changing the way we think – is seldom effective.

While desperately seeking to touch the heart of God through intercession, few seem willing to do the concurrent hard work of understanding the mind of God. The challenges facing our nation, and our churches, require both.

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The Problem with “All”

September 14, 2012 By in Emergent, Existentialism, Frank Viola, Grace Movement, Leadership, Truth 23 Comments

Nearly every move of God gets sidetracked when its main leaders fall into the trap of thinking that their own measure of Christ is the full measure of Christ – and thus start promoting their own perspectives and motivations as normative for all.

Truth Out of Balance is Always Precarious

No one person can ever reflect or express the full measure of Christ. Never – even if they started out truly grasping some essential, needed element of His nature, their ministry initially bore much fruit, and they even once transformed the Christian landscape.

Tragically, it often seems that such leaders slowly and subtly shift from sharing their own measure of Christ, to eventually acting as though it is now the full measure of Christ.

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Organic Church Dead Ends

August 30, 2012 By in Church Planting, Fellowship, Great Commission, Institutional Church, Kingdom of God, Organic Church, Postmodern 75 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot about why significant segments of the organic church community in the Western hemisphere have failed to achieve Biblical viability – becoming instead anemic, self-focused and insular.

Even a casual observer must acknowledge that “organic” or “simple” churches in the West (unlike other parts of the world) seldom exhibit dynamic spiritual power; consistent reproduction, growth and maturity; or tangible, transforming impact.

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