Reminder to Self: Watch Doctrine Closely

Oh friends, this weekend was a reminder that our day is turning clearer, yet our doctrine, more muddied. I wail inward at the deceived, at the reminders that love reigns, but love without truth is poisonous, ugly.

Parents, won’t we teach our children the ways they should go, so when they are older, a toxic culture won’t charm them with their own so-called “revelation”.

We are a culture who leads, flatters and compromises itself, though His heart is unyeilding, His way is perfect.

I hear Him call, “take the narrow path”. Yet, the wide gets wider, the bold speak blasphemous and the crowd starts cheering…

Oh God, make us humble, crush our pride, so the things we think we know might fall aside, while true holiness reigns.

We cannot do anything we think we can, on our own. Yet, we call on education, knowledge, and fallable teachers to lead us.

We turn to worldly ways, when every problem of human nature isn’t just mental, but spiritual.

Behavior modification might change us for a season, but demons strengthen when we seek anything but holy resources, or lean on the fleeting strength of man.

When will God’s people fall on their faces, recognize His love for them, lean on His goodness?

When will we repent for our own deception, for trying to play Jesus, for thinking we can be anything apart from a God who made every atom in our being?

Without His breath, where would we be? Why do we give attention to anything made, when the Maker of the Universe woo’s us with compassion, mercy, forgiveness and grace?

Oh God, have mercy on a people who praise you with wide open arms, who confess their faith, who recognize they have no strength, no power, no greatness apart from you.

And those, that lean on their own ways….

Those who turn their eyes away from a doctrine of holiness, the One who came with pain and self-sacrifice, the One that finds beauty in the cracks of our own utter brokenness…

May we grow to know you more. Would you give us discernment and even more passion for your holy Word? 

When we hear teaching that shifts from truth, that may sound flattering, but takes us away from the One who presented a gospel costing their very lives….

Might we recognize those who comes like wolves in sheeps clothing, those who harbor hate or bitterness against God’s people, the church, or even perfect Scripture….

Poisoned vessels will never pour out holy water. It is the broken who leak, the prodigals who recognize their own ill-sufficiency, running home with open hands.

Oh God, forgive us for wallowing in our own muddied waters, for not just taking what you have given us, then running, but for boasting in our selfishness, egos and self-righteousness.

Help us, to teach our children well….that they might know dark from light, that they might not see evil and be warmed up by the lies that flatter our flesh, or compound on our already deceptive hearts.

Might we know that following you comes with the same sacrificial life you modeled. It comes with broken-ness and humlity. It comes with suffering, but also beauty and unparraleled glory.

Lord, we want you to teach us….

Not some man on a stage, not some bitter, ragging stranger who performs for others to see. We need a Savior, like you, who came with humility. We need The One who climbed willingly from your “tree” to lived sacrificially for us.

The God who left your throne, to come spotless as an infant. You could have had stages and flattered strangers, but instead you were saturated in truth and love and woo’ed us with your mercy.

It is not us who live, but Christ in us.

Oh God, let our flesh not exist, or deception be fueled by our pride….

But, may we lay down our lives, willingly, like you Lord. Give up what we gain, exchanging earthly crowns for an eternal Kingdom where holiness reigns…

Might we run from poisonous teaching, have discernment to recognize you are good and loving. There is NO darkness in you….

Pursue us that we might know you more. You God, are our only hope. You are all we have, all we need, all we know.

There is no God higher, no love wider, no grace deeper than the kind you extend to us every single second.

We want your ways God. All of them, in us. Your truth living through us.

We are tired of lies that twist and deceive, the ones that take the bait and poisons minds willingly, because it tickles our ears, or flatters our flesh.

You are our everything. We need you to pave the way….the narrow way….the pathway that leads to life.

We will never get to you by loving blindness, twisting Scritpure, applauding the pride of any man. You are soley, only, completely, and utterly our only hope.

God, hear us.

Help us to lean on you…even when we are unknowingly blind, too deaf, or don’t want to accept you.

All we have God, is in you, made by you, given to us, and abiding in us. We need you. God, come to your people who love gray more than white, and delight in things passing….

Lord, let us live for heaven. For that was, is, and always will be, our only real home.