Today’s Quote 4/4/09

There is only one way to live: all-out, go-for-broke, risk-taking, pedal-to-the-metal, ferociously joyful and grateful enthusiasm for the Lord Jesus Christ. Halfway Christianity is the most miserable existence of all. Halfway Christians know enough to feel guilty about themselves but haven’t gone far enough to get happy in Christ. Wholehearted Christianity is very happy.  Ray Ortland

The Public Rebuke of False Teachers

James MacDonald at Straight Up is asserting that we shouldn’t just preach against false teaching but name those who are teaching it. I think so, too. It gets the blood running and the keeps the debate focused. That which is preached publicly should be evaluated publicly. That’s one of the costs associated with being a pastor. To teach something publicly but then demand all criticism be private gets the cart before the horse. Evangelicalism is too nice. It has manners, but at the expense of letting the camel through the eye of the needle.

If more pastors had to answer more publicly for their teaching then we might end up with more insight rather than PR from the pulpit. The megachurch pastors seem to be very careful not to be critical of anyone though they are best placed to lead the church in healthy debate. I guess the thing I like about James MacDonald is that he is one of the few megachurch pastors who takes on false teaching, as does Mark Driscoll, John MacArthur and too few others.

As an example, I continue to wait for some significant figure to hold TD Jakes accountable for his view on the Trinity and make an issue of it. This would be fair. And it is necessary.

Are you really sure you want to go to heaven?

David Hayward at Naked Pastor poted this cartoon.

If this life is where we gestate and develop to be born into the world that will be, the new heavens and the new earth, then one would think that even now we would demonstrate some of the characteristics that being a citizen in heaven brings. One of those characteristics is joy in the glory God receives from saving the “hard cases.” Of course, we would never be one of those ourselves!!! But we would at least theoretically admit that heaven should be filled with those who are “barely saved.” If that is the case then, why do we now seek essentially to be among our own? God’s saving of the far away as well as the near is the grand theme of heaven. If we don’t get that now and find some joy in it, maybe we wouldn’t be all that comfortable in the place Jesus is preparing for us.

Of course, as CS Lewis reminds us, heaven is nothing so much as a good party. For those who find little joy in being with the church now and prefer the life alone, the life of personal choices and freedom and little obligation, how could this be directed related to that life which in the new heavens and the new earth be opposite of that?

As a Pastor I am always amazed at those who are so convinced that heaven is their home who for the present seem to have so little of heaven in their heart. The church is filled with loners who evidence no real desire to connect, serve, laugh, and in general hang together – all of which things they will do in the world to come. If the bent of the tree is any indication of which direction in which it will grow, then heaven might be for some of these the saddest place for them to be.