Tuesday, May 14, 2013

DOCTRINE: GOD DELIVERED OR MAN DEVELOPED?

Jesus must be our Lord for we are too foolish to get this spiritual stuff right.  It remains true, our righteousness is in Him.

From kids' interests to doctorate degrees, man faces profound challenges as we wade through the beauty God labels as Kingdom Life.  The Glory remains enthusiastically, eternally explorable.

Man has studied and restudied God's Word to the extent we may have more than dotted every I.  We may have begun to dot some of the Ds and a few of the Qs.  In other words, our devotion at times has led us to conclude ideas and details God may have never intended. 

We must be on guard against our own delving and digging.

A serious challenge for all is that, whatever the topic, humility must be in the lead.  Strangely, ever since the Adamic centering of the self, this is surely more difficult than the most innocent of we egotists can grasp.  And, each of us has significant Adam-ego pouring forth in abundance.  This mistakenly thrusts one into the self-limelight of appearing spiritual when the truth is we have become blindly enamored with where we stand.

We, therefore, must be aware that our conclusions are a result of genuine revelation from God rather than flattery for our own perceptive research.  Calvin Miller addressed this need when he wrote, Outwardness is good but easily spoiled.  A few pats on the back can wean it from its first love and draw it toward self-interest.  Soon outwardness, which first served Christ alone, finds ways to serve itself while it serves Christ.  At last it moves away from Christ altogether and finds a godlike glory in its own interests.

If our positions are God delivered, great is the future to behold.  If, on the other hand, our drive is due to man's burr under his own preferential saddle, we once again swallowed yet another camel while unaware of the gnatism embedded in our own muddled version of spiritual accuracy.

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