Are you undercover?
Join us as we expose the subtle but rampant tactics the enemy uses against believers-the failure to recognize and properly relate to Divine authority. Learn how the kingdom of God is ruled by a King, and how to live under His blessing.
1 comment:
Jon,
Hey, this is Ben Harris. I work with Joanie and my wife and I sat with you two at the dinner dance awhile back. Went to the Christmas program at Oak Creek on Saturday and really enjoyed it, great job to all involved! One thing has kept rattling in my mind though . . . enough that I looked up your church page where I found your blog and saw this blurb about your upcoming series. Great topic, by the way, very important!
But, back to what bothered me from the Christmas program. During the 'altar call' the one thing that I really got out of it is that God is gentle, so gentle. Which is true. Jesus is the lamb of God and - as Hebrews says - we have a great high priest who in not unable to sympathize with our struggles. God does deal gently with the heart that is broken and repentant before his throne. But Jesus is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah who will one day establish the physical kingdom the Jews were hoping for and expecting in the first place and he will trample the rebellious and all who refuse to acknowledge him. I'm not saying that Oak Creek doesn't acknowledge/teach this as well, but it's always more productive to say something and be corrected when you're wrong than to stay silent when you're not sure of something. A.W. Tozer said that the essence of idolotry is a wrong concept of God. That's a pretty shocking statement when you really think about it because I would tend to say that the essence of idolotry would be the worship of idols ;) . . . but at it's core worshipping an incorrect image/concept of God is just that. It is worshipping an image. Maybe it's not a 'graven image' or a golden calf, but my mental construct of what I want God to be or what works well for me in my current situation is no less idolotry. All that to say I believe there is a great deal of idolotry in the Christian church today. Well, I ramble, but I am writing to encourage you to always pursue Christ, even when the image that emerges doesn't fit well with your previous teaching, your lifestyle, your comfort zone, or what you learned about how to bring people 'in' to the church and keep them around. It is certainly what I am trying to do, though I stumble every day. Be strong in the Lord,
Ben
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