The Goal of His Higher Ways!

The Lord really ministered to me today so I thought I would pass it along.

Is. 55:9-11.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it”.

We have all hear a lot of sermons on this passage but something else struck me deeply today. The reason it did is I kept on going. What is the purpose of the word of God? We all know the correct theological answer is “the Glory of God” but something else hit me, especially where we are at as a church going through a transition in worship leading. So what is the purpose of the word according to Isaiah? That’s what verses 12 and 13 explain.

“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off”.

What’s the ultimate goal of the word of God? Worship! The deepest, most life-altering worship we can ever have. Notice the means of that. Look at verse 13. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle.” That is a very weird metaphor. Think with me. If you have a little thorn bush and it is rained upon and it is rained upon, what do you get? A bigger thorn bush. But that’s not what this passage says. It says that when the rain of God comes down on thorny hearts, what grows there is something entirely different.

The purpose of God’s word (faithfully taught) is radical, personal change that results in renewed living to his glory. That’s the purpose of the word of God. It’s not just theological awareness. All those things have their place, but all of those things are means to a deeper end: that God actually would change the organic content of people’s hearts, that selfish people would become sharing people, angry people would become peacemakers, lusters would become pure. God is not satisfied with anything less than that. That is the sovereign purpose of his word. I must never hold forth his word apart from this purpose.

The person that God is after first in your ministry is you. And you must never celebrate the content of the word of God without placing yourself under the implications of that content for personal, ongoing heart and life change.
"Ministry is never shaped just by your knowledge and skill. It’s always shaped by the true condition of your heart."

Praying for you all that our hearts would desire more of Him,

My Comments on "Hipster Christianity"

What a way to come back from vacation. I have been monitoring the development of this heresy for about the last 10 years. It is quite disturbing.

On a positive note there is a huge orthodox movement as well. It doesn't get any press but it is healthy and growing. The Resolved Conference, and others like it, are the result of young people discovering the real God of the Bible. Students want the truth so let’s give it to them. They can handle it. Sorry, I digress.

The “Hipster” trend is simply the latest efforts of weak leaders to make disciples after themselves. They care more about their own fame than that of Jesus. They know nothing of Isaiah 26:8 “your name and renown are the desire of our hearts”. They are so concerned with their own kingdom that they have abandoned the Lord’s. They preach themselves and their life as if it were something that everyone should strive for and esteem. They even ask the lost what they want to get them to attend, and since the lost are “captive by Satan” (2 Tim 2:26), “can’t understand spiritual things” (1 Cor 2:14), “love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil” (John 3:19) and “hate God” (Romans 1:30) the only way to get anyone to show up is to address “felt needs”. What does a sinner feel they need? More sin, money, happiness, selfishness, praise and everything else Jesus died to redeem us from. The truth is this premise caters to the “seeker” when God emphatically states; “THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD” (Romans 3:11).

Life coach guru (can't call him a pastor) Brian McLaren redefines Jesus' death on the cross by saying "Jesus will use his cross to expose the cruelty and injustice of those in power and instill hope and confidence in the oppressed." It’s junk like this that fuels the “social gospel” movement this article reeks of. Nowhere in scripture are we told to support Greenpeace or save a tree. Our mission is to make a disciple, teaching them to obey all that Jesus taught. We are to “feed His sheep” not placate the goats of the world.

I wonder how these leaders (goat herders) would explain how Christianity survived 2,000 years without out engaging in this kind of relevance chasing foolishness? Actually, the word “relevant” and “rebellion” are synonyms in this article.

Forget about all the postmodern word games and their faux 'spiritual sounding' irrationalism. This is not Christianity and it flat out trashes God's word and what God commanded when He said, "You will have NO OTHER Gods before me" (Exodus 20:3).
Once you jettison Sola Scriptura and redefine the gospel like these folks have, then you will be "tossed back and forth by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, and by craftiness in deceitful schemes (Eph 4:14)

The lives of these youth are barren of any spiritual fruit and the absence of truth among them will more than likely lead to even greater apostasy. Phil 3:18-19 “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things”.

Anything that looks like, acts like and talks like the world IS the world. I’m sure I could have the largest college group in the country if we had free beer and bikini contests every week. Yes, these young people are deceived but it was the churches that did it to them. I too was disillusioned during the 80s when all you ever heard about was the “imminent return” of Christ. That “escapist” mentality is now causing havoc among these kid’s parents who don’t know how to cope in a world they thought they would have been removed from a long time ago. This lack of a biblical model has opened the door for error. Where are the leaders who can say “follow me as I follow Christ”?

Why is it that when we see a crowd we get excited but when Jesus saw one He was skeptical? Actually, Jesus would preach the crowd down to remove the goats with statements like “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you”. The results were “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him”. (John 6:66). Faithfulness is, and always has been, the goal.

I’m not trying to be sarcastic but the truth is these people are perishing while they think they are saved. Sure, you can change the method but you cannot change the content! These poor youth have had both switched on them and are too Biblically illiterate to even know it. That’s why these modern “churches” don’t use the Bible. They are afraid people will come to their senses and join a real church.

This article has reminded me of Paul’s tremendous statement to the Ephesian elders “I have not failed to declare to you the whole counsel of God”.(Acts 20:27). May that statement be true of all of us who minister. How will they believe unless they hear and how will they hear unless someone has a backbone?

Blessings,