The Pharisees so dumbed down the law and sin, that living for God was possible. Like a six-foot high jump you train to conquer. But Jesus raised the bar to sixteen feet, and you can’t use a pole. Impossible. The Pharisees were pseudo-obedient, pseudo-followers of God. Humanly possible.
Have we in the Church, also dumbed down the law and sin, to where it’s humanly possible to “follow” Jesus? Are we really following Jesus, or pseudo-following, pseudo-obeying, pseudo-believing, pseudo-loving, in pseudo-humble fashion, while the watching world yawns? Is anybody wowed by the Jesus in us, enabling us to do the impossible: live as humbly as He, and as loving as He? Living and loving in out-of-character-for-us ways, throwing our lives away for Him? Even in radical ministry today, do we operate by human power, and get human-powered results? What’s impossible about planning and managing?
Impossible to follow Jesus, unless His Spirit is at work in me, freshly convicting me of my sin of independence/pseudo-dependence, so I’m freshly in love with Him, others, myself, and His perfect plan for my life. Asking and thanking Him about everything, including the harrrd. Fresh conviction/dependence/humility doesn’t last long. And I get no credit, glory.
Francis Schaeffer said, in the chapter The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way, of No Little People, that the central problem of our age is the Church tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit.
“The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”
–DumbSheepDave, thankful for the fresh conviction of his Shepherd’s Spirit especially at times over the past year, hoping the pre-believers around him are noticing the difference his Shepherd has been making
To receive my weekly updates, email me, or search for GospelFriendships (one word) on Facebook, and “like” the page, or subscribe to my blog: dumbsheepdave.com