Yesterday, we noted this point is very underscored in the area of leadership. We naturally seek after ministers we will respect and follow. —we come across some whose lives are excellent, whose leadership looks to be sanctified of The Lord God, and whose instruction is biblical, sensible, and dynamic. Everything’s great till one such individual teaches something that is not the same as another minister who is similarly admired. That never fails to leave groupies in a confused tailspin. This is a nice time to think about the sage counsel of Bernard Ramm:. How can we settle the truth when 2 folks of equal piety and attention have different opinions? Does the Lord God tell one individual the Rapture is pre-tribulation, and another that it is post-tribulation? The fact that spiritually minded interpreters come to different conclusions about these matters distresses many folk’s minds. They have presumed that if a person is yielded to the Lord, his interpretations must be correct.

2nd , piety is a help to interpretation, but it isn’t an alternative to information or study or intelligence. 3rd , all of us are still in the body and subject to its constraints and frailties. We screw up of interpretation in Scripture as well as mistakes in judgment in the affairs of life. It’s the present enticement of at least Yank evangelicalism to substitute a class of devout Bible teachers for the Catholic Pope. To such folks themeaning of Scripture is that which their fave Bible teacher teaches.

But the Protestant principle must be this : The truest interpretations are those with the best reason. I could just as simply have used an illustration relating to a consultant’s diagnosis or a therapist’s counsel. The difficulty is matching, and it brings us back to where we started yesterday.

If I could change a term and put it in the language of a famous historic document : all males are made fallible.

If you remember that, you will have less surprises and disappointments, bigger knowledge, and a ton better viewpoint in life. Instead of slumping into cynicism because your hero showed feet of clay, you may maintain a healthy and clever objectivity.

You are going to be able to show respect without worshiping her. And when you actually need to understand the truth, you may turn to the Scriptures with firsthand confidence.

Ever since I was knee-high to a gnat, I’ve been taught about and have believed in the infallibility of Scripture. Among the higher levels of doctrinal truths, this one ranks next to the Godhead, the deity of Christ, and deliverance by grace.

We may fuss around with a couple of the events in The Lord God’s eschatological calendar or leave respiring room for differing opinions relating to angels and local church state. But when the topic turns to the infallibility and inerrancy of Holy Writ, I am convinced there isn’t any wobble room. Take away that comprehensive and you have opened a hole in your theological dike that can’t be plugged. Given sufficient time and pressure, it would not be long before everything around you would get damp and greasy.

Make no mistake about it ; the infallibility of Scripture is a dividing line issue.

Let’s stop right there when it comes to infallibility. Before I make my point, let me quote Webster’s definition:.

Not responsible to mislead, cheat, or disappoint. While that’s definitely true for Scripture, it isn’t true for people. When it comes to humanity, fallibility is the order of the day. Meaning what? Just this : there’s not one soul on this earth who is incapable of blunder, who is free from fault, who isn’t able to screw up, who is absolutely and equivocally trustworthy. Just as biblical infallibility assures us that each page is incapable of blunder or deception, fallibility reminds us that each individual is capable of both. When it comes to the Bible, keep trusting. I haven’t got space enough to finish a list, so I should be painfully general and mention one group. I select this group just because it is the one we tend to not query : those executives whom we trust with our bodies, minds, and souls—namely, doctors, psychologists, and priests. Many of us, if asked to name ten folks we admire and appreciate the most, would include 2 or 3 from this class.

How gracious of the Lord God to give us such superb people to help us thru this vale of tears. Yet every one has something in common with everybody else—fallibility. Those whom we most admire remind us of that from time to time ; nonetheless, everything in us cries out to fight such reminders. Of the 3, I believe it’s the minister whom folks incline most to put on a pedestal. The Berean followers are commended for listening to Paul then “examining the Scriptures daily to determine if these things were so” ( Acts 17:11 ).

Apollos and Paul are referred to only as “servants thru whom you believed”. So then neither the one that plants nor the one that waters is anything, but God who causes the expansion. It is simple to forget all that, particularly in a day when we hunger for religious leaders whom we are able to respect and follow. Put defective humans on a pedestal and they’re sure to topple, fail, and disappoint, but God’s Word is holy, inerrant, and fully trustworthy.

Yesterday, I mentioned my disgust with the existing concept in numerous evangelical churches that magnificence and class have no place in the landscape of spirituality. But even the traditional places of worship were superbly gorgeous.

The church was a undoubted golden tent that had inside it fantastic artworks : stitching, tapestry, woodworking, and workmanship. Take a look at it for yourself in Exodus 25-40. And the church that Solomon had built? One of the legendary wonders of the planet. Stones quarried to such an accurate size they slipped into place on site. Actually, while the church was being built, no sound of a hammer or ax or any other iron tool was heard in the place ( 1 Kings 6:7 ). Wall beams were dovetailed and “inserted” together, and every bit of furniture was a choice carving, a blinding and unduplicated work of original art.

Centuries later, Paul spoke of having to learn the way to abound. And there’s no clumsy humiliation in his tone or any effort to excuse himself.

Why should there be? It was not till much later the scene modified. That Christians picked up the fallacious concept that it’s excellent to look righteous and non-creatively plain. Of course, you do not have to do so much explaining. And you can forget justifying yourself if you picked up almost all of your stuff from either a garage sale or the bargain basement. You look more non secular whether or not you are or not. As Elbert Hubbard once declared, “To mediocrity, genius is unforgivable.”. Remember, now, I revealed yesterday that some glorious exceptions exist. On occassion, I suspect I am getting a little impatient about there being so few classy and chic swans to beautify the landscape and make Lake Evangelicalism more exciting.

If there were, I think we’d find ourselves with more visitors and travellers than we’d know what to do with.

Yesterday, I discussed my taste for time-management books. It is a critical subject to address because it bleeds into each area of life. Punctuality is simply a time-management matter. Some people feverishly work right up to the cut-off point on each assignment or project they do. But the effort, foreboding, and last-minute panic scouse borrow the fun out of all of it.

And some folk appear forever in a rush, pushing and driving, sometimes running here and there. Resource allocation permits room for ease and humor, much-needed oil to ease the friction made by motion.

Which brings us back to the council we studied yesterday in Ephesians five. Being reasonable, clever, and wise in the rationing of our time. In a book I was reading, The Time Trap ( I informed you I used to be a sucker for such volumes ), I came on a catalogue of the hottest time wasters. They helped identify some specific areas of disappointment I must continually watch. Who has not heard the real life story of Charles Schwab and Ivy Lee? Schwab was president of Bethlehem Steel. Lee, a consultant, was given the common challenge : “Show me a technique to get more things done with my time.” Schwab agreed to pay him “anything inside reason” if Lee’s idea worked.

Lee later gave the executive a sheet of paper with the plan:. Jot down the most crucial jobs you have got to do tomorrow.

When you arrive in the morning begin at once on number 1 and stay on it till it is finished.

Try it so long as you like, then send me your check for what you suspect it’s worth. That one idea turned Bethlehem Steel Company into the most important independent steel producer in the world inside 5 years. How much did Schwab pay his consultant? A few weeks after receiving the note, he sent Lee a check for $25,000, admitting it was actually the most lucrative lesson he had ever learned. I’d just blow it on another time-management book. 

Some folks can’t say no thanks to a salesperson at the door. Others have the toughest time passing up a free puppy. Or driving by a garage sale without stopping. Still others find it incredibly difficult to resist the urge to bet. My weakness is books on the investment of my time. Books that let me know ways to replace being busy with being effective. Books that caution me to think things thru before falling into them. I frequently recall what Bernard Baruch once asserted.

Whatever disasters I’ve known, whatever blunders I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed privately and public life, have been the implications of action without thought. The antidote to that problem is described best by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians:. Ensure you understand what the Master wants. Some alarm down within my system goes off whenever I sense a waste of energy in what I am doing—when there’s some leak in my time dike I have not managed to plug.

Without desiring to be highly-strung about it, I am getting a little twitchy when I suspect I’m really not living purposefully, when I’m not making the maximum of each opportunity, as Scripture so clearly commands. The verse that appears just before the passage I quoted pushs a long, pointed index finger into the chest of its reader as it screams. Today, we’d say it like this : “Hey, wake up.

“the simplest thing in the world is to drift thru life in an obscure, careless demeanour.

He tells us to take time by the throat, give it a good shake, and declare : “That’s it. I am going to manage you—no longer will you manage me. That angle is a most important step and a major secret to living above our circumstances instead of under them.

Undiscerning love spawns and invites more heresy than any individual are prepared to believe. One of the tactics of survival when facing “the flaming arrows of the malevolent one” ( Ephesians 6:16 ) is to make absolutely sure we have cinched up the belt of truth rather firmly around ourselves. And what helps us do battle with the enemy also bolsters us in relations with chums. A Christian without discernment is sort of a submarine in a harbor plowing full speed ahead without radar or periscope. Or a loaded 747 attempting to land in dense mist without instruments or radio. Tons of noise, a great amount of power, good inclinations, till.

Do I hear you exclaim you would like discernment but do not know where to go to find it? James fifteen guarantees knowledge to people who ask for it. People who have the illness are regularly highly transmissive.

God is looking to us to determine if the Cross of Christ is embellished on our hearts and lives. The early Christians adhered to the picture of the Cross as it helped them remember Jesus.

They didn’t see Him as still hanging on the cross, but viewed it as a symbol of God’s eternal love and forgiveness. So I may hold dear the old craggy cross, until my prizes at last I lay down ; I will be able to adhere to the old craggy cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.”. The Cross wasn’t the end or the final word on the state of humankind.

It definitely was an obligatory step that needed to be taken by Jesus before God’s deliverance might be completely realized by all who would come to like and worship Him. When we take up the Cross of Christ, we crucify all that we are except for Jesus. This is our glory, and the empty cross represents our crucified life.

I have to underline a foundational fact : God’s goal is not to be sure you are ecstatic.

Irrespective of how tough it is for you to believe this, it is time to do so. Life isn’t about your being cushty and chuffed and successful and agony free. It’s about becoming the woman or man God has called you to be. Sadly , we shall infrequently hear that message announced today.

much more reason for me to assert it again : Life is not about you. How am I able to say that with assurance? Due to Paul’s reply : “Most smilingly , I will be able to rather boast about my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may dwell in me.

And he went with it for the remainder of his days. When you and I boast of our strengths, we get the credit, and we keep going under our own head of steam.

But when we boast in what he’s doing in the middle of our brokenness, incapability, and ineptitude, Christ comes to the front.

The things we fear and run from in our lives are exactly what brought contentment to Paul. Glance at the list : I’m content when I lose. I’m content with problems and pressures that are so tight I will barely turn around. Why? “Because when I’m feeble then I am strong.” understanding that brought the apostle, on fire with the flaming oracles of heaven, to his knees. What a technique to live your life—content in everything—knowing that divine strength comes when human weakness is obvious. That is what gave the person of grace true grit. 

This is a nice time to correct faulty thinking. It isn’t always God’s will that you be healed. It’s not always the daddy’s plan to alleviate the pressure. He hasn’t got an excellent ( meaning “comfortable” ) plan for everyone’s life—not from a human point of view.

As with Paul, his response isn’t what we prayed and was hoping for. recalling that he’s forming us more into the image of His Boy , it helps us to grasp his reply is based on His long-range plan, not our immediate relief. Fortunately, in the middle of that suffering, He gently murmurs, “My grace is acceptable for you” ( v. As with Paul, His grace supplies more than we want to endure whatever it is that is threatening to undo us. His grace is more satisfactory than your strength. His grace is more satisfactory than the recommendation of any trained advisor or best friend ( though God uses both ). His grace is acceptable to hold you thru whatever your own unique “thorn” might be.

Do you want to understand why? Because God’s power is perfected in weakness ( v. And all this time we assumed power was perfected in success.

We have been taught all our lives that it is accomplishment that makes us robust.

But the good news is this : when we are puny, He pours His strength into us, which gives a wholly new point of view on agony and suffering, trouble and pressure. It’s at that point our God comes thru, takes us by the hand, and by His grace lifts us up.