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Text of the page (random words):
jesus was not speaking here to irreligious people atheists or agnostics he was not speaking to pagans or heretics he was speaking to devoutly religious people who were deluded into thinking they were on the narrow road that leads to heaven when they were actually on the broad road that leads to hell according to jesus one day not just a few but many will be shocked eternally shocked to find that they were not in the kingdom of god after all let me share with you an experience i had with this passage of scripture an experience that was in retrospect an epiphany of sorts several years ago i was reading through the sermon on the mount as a part of my devotional time at the time i was working on an extended reflective essay on the beatitudes so this quiet time studying and praying over these scriptures had been a part of my focus for several weeks i slowly worked my way toward the end of the sermon hoping for some sort of new insight or fresh angle from which to approach the scriptures little did i know the holy spirit had prepared an ambush it is hard to put into words exactly what happened as the words of matthew 7 21 23 rocketed from the page tore through my defenses and stopped me stone cold in my tracks i had read these verses many times before but on that particular morning in some vivid yet inexplicable way it was as if i were seeing them for the first time moreover i was seeing quite clearly with frightening clarity actually exactly what the master was getting at here basically he was saying that on the day of judgment many folks who think they have their ticket punched for the promised land are in for a rude awakening cry out as they may these unfortunate souls who thought they were in the club of the chosen who had even worked and served in the lord s name were going to be told to hit the bricks after my initial shock my next response was one of great sympathy for these folks how awful it will be for these people many of them perhaps well meaning christian professionals maybe even pastors and teachers will have their hopes dashed on that fateful day how awful it will be for these believers to hear the master tell them depart i never knew you then it finally hit me like a two by four in the back of the head what if he s talking about me part of the problem a significant part it seems stems from christianity s grace vs works dichotomy as an outgrowth of what i think is an over emphasis on the grace side of the equation coupled with the 19 th century evangelical anti intellectual reaction to the enlightenment the faith has devolved into a shallow and largely hollow system of ideas proscriptions and prohibitions that bear little resemblance to the practices and principles espoused by and exhibited by christ this form of christianity produces a cadre of saints who walk about acting as if they have all the answers are the only ones privy to god s master plan and perhaps worst of all sit in judgment of others by determining who is and isn t a heretic an apostate or sibling of beelzebub himself for lack of a better term this form of christianity has come to be known as decisional christianity and is based on a person making a decision to accept christ as their personal savior this decision often made at the end of a service of some kind constitutes a person s entry ticket into the faith at other times the decision is made in more private intimate settings often after praying a short petition known far and wide as the sinner s prayer increasingly critics both within and outside the faith have been reevaluating this sort of ticket to ride christianity nowhere in scripture does it speak of saying some magic formula like the sinner s prayer nor is there any repeated emphasis in scripture about accepting christ as your personal savior jesus said that we would know the relative truth or falsity of a teaching based on the fruit produced and it is accurate to say that outside of inflated numbers regarding the number of saved souls this brand of decisional christianity has produced little in the way of positive fruit in fact decisional christianity tends to result in a highly superficial approach to the faith that requires little of the convert once the decision is made to accept christ as if for some reason this aspect of the triune god the matrix through which the entire universe was created and the force that holds all things together pines away for our acceptance in the first place it is really a ludicrous thought when you get right down to it david platt speaks succinctly and in a straightforward manner regarding this issue you will not find a verse in scripture where people are told to bow your heads close your eyes and repeat after me you will not find a place where a superstitious sinner s prayer is even mentioned and you will not find an emphasis on accepting jesus we have taken the infinitely glorious son of god who endured the infinitely terrible wrath of god who now reigns as the infinitely worthy lord of all and we have reduced him to a poor puny savior who is just begging for us to accept him accept him do we really think jesus needs our acceptance don t we need him platt minces no words in describing the unworthiness of such a response to the person and the mission of jesus and based on the teachings of jesus especially those we just looked at in the concluding section of the sermon on the mount christ expects a lot more as well platt continues i invite you to consider with me a proper response to this gospel surely more than praying a prayer is involved surely more than religious attendance is warranted surely this gospel evokes unconditional surrender of all that we are and all that we have to all that he is platt zeroes in on the essential fabric of our proper response to the incredible god s incredible compassion and love as exemplified by the content of the gospel when he says unconditional surrender of all that we are and all that we have to all that he is in one word here platt is describing a response of abandonment god s grace is given freely but it isn t cheap in fact it cost all that we are in this process of abandonment we are bid to come and die what this means is simply we are to step out of the cockpit and let the master take over easier said than done but absolutely essential if we are to reap the full benefits of being a follower of jesus take up your cross and follow me he who loses his life shall gain it unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies after that fateful morning when the holy spirit spoke to me about those concluding verses of the sermon on the mount and particularly after i got around to personalizing its message by considering that jesus might be talking about me when he said i never knew you i began to take stock of where i stood in addition i could not help but wonder how many other supposed followers of jesus might be in more trouble than they think as i sat in the sanctuary the following sunday i couldn t help but wonder how many of the decent folks sitting there might falsely believe they are true believers in the master when in actual fact they are not i wondered how many felt so smugly assured of their eternal future when in the master s eyes they are total strangers i fear more than a few are in this predicament whether they know it or not i say this not out of some self righteous grandiosity on my part instead i say it out of the humbling perspective of one who realized that he was not nearly as secure in his faith as he thought i say it out of the experiential realization that i was not living anywhere close to the level of commitment and obedience that christ was calling me to finally i say it out of a genuine heart of compassion for those sincere believers who may be in a similar circumstance perhaps many of those folks were taught that reciting the sinner s prayer church attendance and coughing up a few bucks for the collection plate was what this faith was all about as a pastor david platt eventually became acutely aware of the implications of the closing verses of the sermon on the mount in his remarkable little book platt describes what he frequently felt as he gazed out across the congregation on any given sunday the danger of spiritual deception is real as a pastor i shudder at the thought and lie awake at night when i consider the possibility that scores of people who sit before me on a sunday morning might think they are saved when they are not scores of people have positioned their lives on a religious road that makes grandiose promises at minimal cost we have been told all that is required is a one time decision maybe even mere intellectual assent to jesus but after that we need not worry about his commands his standards or his glory we have a ticket to heaven and we can live however we want on earth our sin will be tolerated along the way much of modern evangelism today is built on leading people down this road and crowds flock to it but in the end it is a road built on sinking sand and it risks disillusioning millions of souls jesus calls us to a life of far greater potential filled with possibilities for service to others and positive work toward the establishment of his kingdom here on earth the master calls us to become the optimal version of ourselves all for the sake of others and for the furtherance of his kingdom yet he directly tells us and in so doing leaves no wiggle room that there is indeed a price to pay for full status as his follower jesus and the gospel that he authored and lived requires a response from us and that response cannot be half baked if we reject jesus we do so outright but if we accept him then we must accept him with totality again in the words of david platt surely this gospel evokes unconditional surrender of all that we are and all that we have to all that he is think about it l d turner 2017 all rights reserved spiritual complacency and quiet desperation part one on may 27 2018 by mick turner in spirituality leave a comment l d turner even a cursory exploration of scriptures from many faith traditions will reveal that universal intelligence by whatever name we choose to call it wants us to be successful it is to no one s benefit if we allow ourselves to wallow through life in the muck and mire of mediocrity no experience reveals that what we here at lifebrook often refer to as sacred light wants us to succeed in achieving our dreams provided those dreams and desires are in accordance with positive universal principles and spiritual laws in addition we live in a universe that is limitless and fill with everything we need in order to lead rewarding fulfilling and successful lives yes scriptures from the whole range of faith traditions point to the reality that we are called to lives of success here i am not speaking necessarily of financial abundance the prosperity gospel or teachings related to money although success can be manifested in that way what i am talking about is being a success in the spiritual sense and the best way to do that is to become the absolute best that you can be god did not create us and give us a mandate to slog our way through a life of mediocrity the problem arises however when one takes an honest look at what seems to be going on in the daily lives of most people the vast majority of sincere earnest and spiritual people are not particularly happy even those that do profess a degree of happiness when pressed admit to a vague sense of dissatisfaction with life many exist rather than live thoreau had it right many years ago when he mused that most people lead lives of quiet desperation what causes such a tragedy obviously the issues that contribute to such a widespread complex phenomenon are many to make our task in this particular writing a bit more manageable i want to emphasize two problems areas that seem to beset many folks especially those who consider themselves spiritual individuals this pair of problematic obstacles to our god given drive for success consists of lack of focus and complacency i have a confession to make in my life i have wasted a significant amount of time and energy running here and speeding there chasing what i thought was brooks living water but turned out to be a series of dust filled wells putting it in honest terms i was busy but not effective as i look around me now i can see that i am not the only person who is engaged in these fruitless races on a near daily basis i encounter sincere people who have convinced themselves they are diligently racing toward a meaningful goal only to find that like solomon they are chasing after the wind these individuals like myself expend time energy and other resources in pursuit of self defined visions that in the end are empty and unsatisfying others never quite reach the intended goal but instead waste valuable efforts chasing their own self designed greased pigs i vividly recall when this issue came to a head for me one sunday morning as is my habit i arose early i spent time asking sacred light to speak to me regarding an issue i had been struggling with for some time as is often the case my tampering with this problem eventually led me to a state of perplexed paralysis it was an issue related to how i was to proceed with one aspect of my professional life after praying i sat quietly and gradually began to feel the peace of sacred light fall over me it was nothing earth shattering and no burning bushes spoke to me nor did any donkeys give utterance but i had a palatable sense of the sacred light s presence this is significant in that it had been months since i had felt any sense of light in my life it seemed that in my busyness god had somehow gone on sabbatical i longed for light s touch even if only brief and subtle i was in essence in a stark period of spiritual dryness i had several books at my side that i had been reading prior to my prayer time i opened one of the books and soon came across these words by the french mystic francois fenelon be silent and listen to god let your heart be in such a state of preparation that his spirit may impress upon you such virtues that will please him let all within you listen to him now comes the good part don t spend your time making plans that are just cobwebs a breath of wind will come and blow them away you have withdrawn from god and now you find that god has withdrawn the sense of his presence from you return to him and give him everything without reservation there will be no peace otherwise let go of all you plans god will do what he sees best for you fenelon s words hit me between the eyes like a louisville slugger i knew immediately what i needed to do even if it was going to be difficult like the old testament story about abraham and sarah i had grown impatient waiting on god s timing and gave birth to an ishmael i needed to return to god wait in silence and trust his promise of an isaac basically in my own anxiety and uncertainty of potential outcomes i took charge...