Jesus was a C average teaching....fundamentally speaking One day a man approached me asking me where to find a church. After the rigamarole of doctrinal/theological questions. Are they this... Do they believe in this... Etc. The man eventually shares with me that he used to be a pastor for 10 years and now since then he has been in and out of churches and is backsliding (this term coined out of the thought a person can behaviorally undo what God has done on the cross for them). The man then made a very interesting remark, saying I want a church where the person leading gives the right teaching then I will no longer backslide. I dont know if you caught it, but subtly this man was trying to shift responsibility for his behavior onto people who he sat under. Ive witness many people say the same thing as this man, just in an indirect ways. Ive witness a lot of people apply this logic in the way they view ministries saying we are looking for the fruit. This basically boils down to some invisible standard/preconceived idea theyve concocted with their understanding of the bible and they apply it to unknowing leaders/churches. People like Joel Olesteen, Joyce Meyer, and Rob Bell have been taking a lot of heat because people on the outside are worried their teaching will lead people into heresy. These people are then label/lumped in as false teachers False prophets heretics Heresy- unorthodox religious opinion: an opinion or belief that contradicts established religious teaching, especially one that is officially condemned by a religious authority What I find interesting about this practical application of logic is that it leaves Jesus (whom these fundamental thinking people would call the best teacher) at a C average on the fruit of his leadership team. Very bluntly, out of 12 people, 3 of them epically failed and performed blasphemy/heresy by fundamentalist standards. Judas Betrays God, Peter Denounces God, and Thomas doubts who God is. That my fundamentalist friends is a 75%, C average teaching score for the fruit of the creator of the universes leadership by your logic. (Its important to acknowledge Jesus was considered a heretic by the religious establishment at the time) Now Im not saying anything that I am not saying. Im not an advocate for Olesteen, meyer, or bell as I dont swim in those streams. As well, I do believe there are people that have bunk theology/doctrines and mislead people into silliness. However, I am also humbly aware that everybody has a measure of wrong understanding, perception, or knowledge floating around in their noggins (me). Im also aware that even if you sit under the healthy, wise, and fruitful ministries that some peoples lives wont come to fully reflect that reality. Life is an experience gifted to us to be lived in union(act/state of being one) with the creator of the gift and fellowship (sharing of experiences) with other beings existing in this reality. In science experiments are done in a laboratory. Everything is sterile, measured, and controlled by the scientist. Sometimes this is good and can provide accurate results. However, certain experiments dont work in laboratories because there are things outside the laboratory that are uncontrolled called variables. Variables cause the results of the experiment to become varied. Many people make conclusions about the gift called life and how its meant to be experienced the same way scientist do. In a controlled environment (bible study, church, etc) but they have not experienced variables and therefor have not taken them into account. Therefor their conclusions/perception/understanding, their results are inconclusive to the reality of what is actually happening and can happen. We can apply laws, measurements, and control to try to assess and define the infinite but we have then destined ourselves to a system set on failure. We have been liberated by this thinking and behavior. Paul stated it in these ways, to consider ourselves dead to the law and our relationship to it ended. Likewise, those who are Gods sons live life led/directed by Gods Spirit. Just some thoughts for the day from Muscat, Oman....Cheers
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 08:07:27 +0000
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