Pastor’s Blog 3.13.19

Romans 11:22-23

22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity ; but toward you, goodness , if you continue in His goodness . Otherwise you also will be cut off.23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. NKJV

This is a continuation of lasts weeks post about a balanced life in the Lord.

Living a balanced life before God is best accomplished with a balanced diet of the word and a balanced life in the Spirit. It also comes from a balanced diet of the five fold ministry gifts. Most of us have our favorites based on our own gift and temperaments. The old saying is true – some believers are so Heavenly minded,they are little Earthly good, while others are so earthly minded,they are little Heavenly good.

I want to live in the practical AND the spiritual, the word AND the spirit, judgment AND mercy, praise AND worship, truth AND the Spirit of Truth.

So when is it acceptable to leave balance and be heavy on one side of truth? When a car is heading in a wrong direction (or an airplane) for that matter, an over-steering correction will be necessary to avoid a collision.

In flight training, one of the biggest mistakes we are trained against making is over-correcting and busting through the other directional limit. The principle is in correcting the course, making small corrections, and to be patient for the correct course to be joined. Because over-correcting can take you to the ditch on the other side of the road if not done properly or done too hastily.

I guess the best answer of whether something is an over-correction or not would be the immediate danger of not making a radical change. It may have taken you five seconds to drift over the line, but the next second could kill you! Jerking the steering wheel may cause some fright and startle in the passengers, but it will save their lives.

I believe the message of the gospel is a lot like this.

Jude 20-23

20 Main But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. NKJV

That is definitely two ways of presenting the truth!

It is clear that one size doesn’t fit all when presenting the Gospel or even confronting a wayward believer. What brought you to Christ? The love of mercy or the fear of Judgment? For me it was the fear of judgment. Were you self-righteous or under the power of shame? I was self-righteous, so I had to be pulled down, others under shame may need lifted up. You see I knew God loved me, I never doubted that, I needed someone to “scare the hell” out of me! I had gotten used to believing in God, but living more like hell than heaven, more like the devil, than Jesus.

The clear message here is, the way you view a certain truth may not be the way another views the same truth, and you may both be right or wrong. I love the old saying, “don’t judge a man till you have walked a mile in his shoes”. How true indeed. I have had a lifetime of warfare about falsely judging a person or situation before knowing all the facts, only to be humbled in my own judgment when the truth was fully known. I, like most humans, have a predisposed nature to assume the worst. The longer you live, the more the evidence piles up to support that attitude, just ask any law enforcement officer.

John 7:24

24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” NKJV

I am somewhat opinionated for sure, but I work hard to keep a lot of opinions to myself. I bite my tongue daily. For all you opinionated people reading this remember, you will have a stricter judgment! That ought to tame the most choleric of us for sure! If it were not for the prophetic gift that operates upon me when I preach, I know I would err to pleasing men. However, when I open my mouth to preach, Jesus the Lion roars against the worldliness of His Church. I recognize there is an overemphasis at times on certain aspects of the Kingdom to jerk the church out of the ditch. It is the Prophets and Apostles who are tasked with this assignment and that is why they are the most hated and persecuted. People don’t like having their comfort zones challenged for sure. More than one parent has confronted me after a service and told me they were offended that I said their gay son or daughter would not inherit the Kingdom of God. Then they went and found a church led by a mercy motivated Pastor who would never say “anything so insensitive.”

There are many days I feel the message was too hard, “and this is one reason I know it isn’t me”, but we have lost control of the holiness and godliness in the culture of the Church and I believe the Lord has jerked the wheel and is trying to avoid eternal collisions between lukewarm backslidden Christians and the fires of hell!.

Nevertheless I continue to monitor the content and spirit of the message and culture of the house we live in. I do know this, when we finally get to heaven two things will surprise us, who is there and who is not!

Be blessed!