With all the best of intentions

 

Starting something for all the right reasons and losing sight of the true goal is an all too common issue for us, isn’t it?  When I started in vocational ministry all those years ago, my desire was to fulfil God’s call as a faithful shepherd of His flock. Gradually, “church leadership” seeped into my mind and replaced pastoral vision.  Big name preachers, books, and conferences convinced me that real success in ministry was measured by numbers in the church building on Sunday. Church growth replaced ‘making disciples.’  It’s not that effective leadership is unimportant but being the best administrator of church business or a great creator of programs is not the core calling of a pastor!

Thankfully, I regained the right perspective.  In another season in life I allowed the message of the Gospel to be compromised with psychology and ‘self-help.’  While it is great to understand why we act the way that we do, I realized that the Gospel is about transformation of the individual by Christ Jesus. The Good News I preach is not just about learning how to marginally improve our behavior!

Is there some place in your life where you have become distracted or confused?

Did you start out with Christ with all of the best intentions only to become coldly religious?

Were you once focused on loving Jesus and now you are just a cog in the church ‘machine?’

Getting faith misfocused from God to people, from a pursuit of Christ to a performance for people, is not only possible, but common. Jesus spoke to the Pharisees of His time harshly. They were people with the best of intentions, wanting to be holy and God-pleasing, but they had become misfocused on gaining the admiration of others. He called them ‘hypocrites’ and ‘white-washed tombs’ that sparkled on the outside, but full of death!

He teaches you and me to keep our eyes on the right place. “Take care! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, because then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. …  When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you." (Matthew 6:1,5-6, NLT)

The late Eugene Peterson wrote “When we take the truth of God and use it in superstitious or manipulative or prideful or selfish ways, that is religion. Its opposite is gospel, the truth of God heard in the power of Christ, listened to in faith, responded to in discipleship. People always hear the Gospel and try to turn it into religion and God keeps on calling us back. … for as long as people try to make a religion without God and achieve wholeness without faith, the Preacher’s work must be repeated. He says "Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few." (Ecclesiastes 5:2, NIV)

Join me in a humble prayer for a renewed focus on the ‘right Person,’ so that our faith will be a vibrant, inviting, fulfilling one. The paradox of true faith is that our behavior is changed, not by duty but by delight!  “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.” — Saint Augustine

Here is the word from the Word. May the Spirit make it truth to live by.  "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4, NIV)

 (Video of this blog at this link)

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 The Solid Rock

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' name

On Christ the solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand

When darkness veils His lovely face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In ev'ry high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil

His oath His covenant His blood
Support me in the whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay

 

When He shall come with trumpet sound
O may I then in Him be found
Dressed in His righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne

 

Edward Mote | William Batchelder Bradbury

• © Words: Public Domain