Very well said about the gospel at the end of the burn out!!!!   Amen and amen. 

I know this is off the subject, but is anything going on with the Chesapeake situation or is there just a return to the same old, same old?  Does anyone have an update?

Canary,
Yes I see that.  The recipient doesn’t appear very grateful though, does he, or is that a she–oops, only males allowed.

HA!  Actually, I’ve seen women be far more Pharisical than some men I’ve known.  Women can be alot crueler in their judging of other women.  Maybe it is because we are so insecure, so ready to follow, or so desiring to be looked at as successful in our Christian walk. 

I’m not dissing women, here.  I just know what I’ve seen. When the Pastor’s wife gives her teaching on how to be an amazing wife, we take our notes, scribbling furiously.  Then, we try hard to manage our lives and family the same way.  I really think we are afraid.  Fear motivates us.  We love our families and children, and want God’s protection over them.  So we do what we are told, thinking, superstitiously I might add, that God will then keep us all safe.  We also take pride in our wonderfully behaved children, our clean houses, and our well cared for husbands.  Then, we look condescendingly upon women who aren’t doing as well.

Those of us who don’t do as well (ME!), feel condemned and only try harder in our flesh.  We burn out.  When I finally burned out, I finally found the true gospel.  So, thank God for my burn out, and his forgiveness for all the times that I, as a pharisee, judged women whose kids didn’t behave, or whose house was a mess when I visited.  Not that my house was any cleaner!  Thank you God, for your mercy in letting all my spinning plates fall about my feet, breaking into tiny pieces.  When I stopped all the nonsense, I was finally able to learn about grace.

Another sci-fi…when the alien came into the house to go after our heroes, Meryl was told to “swing away”.  All his adult life had set him up for that moment.  You see, Meryl was an ex-baseball player.  He could hit a ball so hard it made records.  However, he also made another record – the most amounts of strikes ever.  He took every ball that came at him, and tried to hit it.  When asked why he did this, he said, “It didn’t seem right not to swing.”  So, when the alien came after his nephew, Meryl grabbed his keep sake bat off the wall, swung away, and killed the alien.

I think of Peter, Matthew, Luke, Paul, Mary…all the saints that went before us.  Did they know of their faults?  Did they, fisherman, tax collector, doctor, prostitute, and Pharisee, ever see themselves as perfect, able to spread the gospel in its purity?  Huh, I think not.  We are justified by faith, sanctified through faith, and we’d rather swing and miss, than stay benched.  We need the Holy Spirit to guide us. Then, like Meryl, we swing away, because “it doesn’t seem right not to swing”.

I gettcha.  We are weak in our flesh, and make mistakes.  Our weaknesses and hidden faults, as David puts it, sometimes make us say or do something not so “smart”.  But we are aiming to do something right.  Like in “Serenity”, the good guys were not perfect in any way, except that they saw the suffering of the innocent, and decided to “misbehave”  (I LOVE that quote!).

If those men and women in “Serenity” had decided to become model citizens before setting out to give the truth to the universe, the universe would have become din-din to the really bad guys.  The Pastors in SGM seem to expect perfection from anyone who corrects them.  Won’t happen.  So here we are, in all our imperfections, covered by the blood, getting the truth of the good news out to people who are in bondage to a horribe, controlling system that ought not be practiced in the church.  I wasn’t kidding when I said before that legalism cannibalizes our faith.

So, swing away, Jim!

This could be my motto- If we can’t do something smart, we aim to do something right.

Obviously, the mark is often missed. I’d rather take a swing and miss than sit on the bench.

So glad you got what I was saying!  Don’t you think it was funny that the good guys were cowboys who flew a spaceship?  “I aim to misbehave.”  Now, them thar is quotable words!

What amazes me is that the crew of the ship were just ordinary people trying to make a living beneath the radar of a corrupt government.  They weren’t special.  They each had their own faults.  Let’s just say, most of them were out to keep each other safe and alive during a time of great turmoil in the universe.

They didn’t plan on saving people.  They sort of “fell” into it.  Once they understood what was really going on, well, they followed the code of the old west.  Innocent people were dying because of the government’s wrong doing.  The crew could not ignore this.  So, these rather selfish, sinful, unruly men and women risked their lives to get the truth out. 

I aim to misbehave – ha-ha.  Can you imagine if a whole lot of ordinary SGM folk decided to do this – misbehave, by asking questions, coming in late on Sundays, not tything, skipping Care group, reading books NOT from the book table, challenging a sermon during the sermon?  Oops, better not instigate…

So cowboys, saddle up.  If we can’t do something smart, we aim to do something right.  We are revealing the truth about legalism!

Yes, the air is good where I perch.  Notice who gets the “fruits” of my dinner!

I was in PDI near its beginnings.  Before they took over our church, we were always talking about building a New Testament church.  When the apostles came in, we began to hear about seeking holiness (that was after the church split).  Then, we heard how we should have a passion for doctrine (Brent’s words).  THEN, it became all about the cross.  Do you think, eventually, these guys will finally make it to the risen tomb, and Jesus Christ?  No insults intended, but it does seem to me that the focus keeps being redefined.  Wonder what will be next?  Or will they remain at the cross, powerless, comfortless, and sinful?  Only time will tell. 

Yes, I agree with you whole heartedly about the pastors sincerely believing that they are doing what they are called to. 

Mentioning Brent again, if I may, when I knew him, he was just as hard on himself (even more so) than he was on the rest of us.  He was an honorable man at least, because he practiced everything he preached.  No problem with sincerity there.  I suppose the judaisers that Paul spoke of in Phil. (I think – need to look it up), were very sincere in preaching legalism, but Paul still called them “dogs”.  I am not calling any pastor a dog, myself.  Back then, to call a Jew a dog was the worst form of insult.
Paul MEANT his words.  It angered him when anyone tried to give a gospel apart from grace.  It shoud anger us, or at least stir us to speak the truth to everyone we can, like we try to do here.  Anyway, good insights, Bethany.

The goal is all wrong and all the effort to reach it is directed at “self,” rather than toward God. Everything bows to the goal, even their particular polity which they deem necessary as the enforcement of that pursuit.

And then when the good guys are making up their minds to go public and “pass on the bad report,” the captain says, “Somebody has to speak for these people…[because of] the belief that they [the government] can make people better, and I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave.” Then one of the crew says this inspiring line, “[If you] can’t do something smart, do something right.”

Well, I get it, too, Canary. Glad you mentioned it. : )

Love that question! I would also love to hear what a pastor would have to say in reply. The system they are setting up sets the church up to become our idol. I started to realize that as I talked to my friends that they can no longer see certain aspects of idolatry when it comes to the local church. It was really sad to realize that no one makes a distinction between evangelism/missions and planting churches.
 :-/

London Welcome!

Bethany, EXACTLY the same thing happend to me. I trid to explain and people didn’t get it, and then when I finally just came out and said “The CHURCH is my idol” they said “Well how can that be? The church is good?”

My care group leader said that the church EXPOSES idolatry, not encourages it,and is accountability. And I said, “yeah, I know it is SUPPOSED to work that way..but in my case it didn’t!”

How can the church protect us from itself?

First time poster here (I think), but long time reader.  I LOVED the link you gave to Dr. Storms.  Very clear and explanatory.  I did a little exploring of his website and there’s a lot more there that can be used in personal Bible study, thinking/contemplation, and prayer.  I’ve bookmarked it for later reading and study.  Thank you!

London

That is so true. When I tried to explain the legalism no one understood. So I then tried explaining it. I believe many of the sheep have good intentions and honestly believe they are doing the correct thing (following after godliness) but it is taken to the far and becomes a legalistic mindset.  My friends also couldn’t understand how holding the local church as an idol was a bad thing because the church is ”good.”

He’s been a pastor 27 years and he has NEVER dealt with idolatry of the church itself? Or legalism in the church?

Clearly it goes without saying he isn’t gifted with discernment.. mercy and helps- yes, but not discernment.

Anyways…his response made me feel even MORE insane and like somehow I didn’t really know what was going on - which I didn’t. I didn’t know there were “higher powers” at work – I’m talking about both the human kind and the spiritual kind.

We have to keep teaching and sharing that legalism in sanctification IS the problem with most Christians, since many don’t believe you can work for salvation (although some do, I don’t deny that) but most of the brothers and sisters steeped in shepherding and the like also believe in eternal security, perserverance of the saints, etc…so when we say legalism, they respond with ”huh?”

it makes no sense how this type of practice could be the result of such grace-based doctgrines..geez, they are called doctrines of GRACE after all, not the doctrines of works! Yet somehow, many of us didn’t experience much grace in SGM churches. I think if you experience grace from the Body of Christ it surely helps you to experience and understand the grace of God. When you are surrounded with people who won’t accept you unless you do x,y, and z, then you start thinking God is that way too..

a wicked, wicked system of works. Who has bewitched SGM?