Balance as a Christian?

I was having a conversation recently with someone talking about how in our beliefs, we tend to move to the extremes like a pendulum swinging.  For example, because someone was raised in a legalistic environment, then tend to go to the other extreme of "anything goes."  And vice versa. Or the King James Bible is the only Bible that is right and should be read to the extreme of reading a variety of "spiritual books" from other faiths. It seems that many times the best place to land is the middle ground rather than the extremes.  After this conversation, Pastor Brad and I were talking about this same phenomenon.  Today I was reading The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler and he talks about "dangers in a Gospel on the Ground Too Long and dangers in a Gospel in the Air Too Long."  This in my opinion is similar to these other two conversations.  Here are some quotes from the chapters in Chandler's book:
"because it is dangerously easy to take one truth to the exclusion of the whole of what God has revealed."
"discipleship can become about a mere transfer of information that doesn't produce maturity or foster internal growth in the fruit of the Spirit."
"When discipleship is no longer about a a way of living but about information to be learned, a compartmentalization takes place in our spiritual thinking that results in hypocrisy."
"Once guilt is the motivating factor instead of the gospel itself, we've got a salvation based on works instead of on grace."
"So we lop off large swaths of the Bible because it won't appeal to our target demographic."
"our trust in Scripture gets rattled and we start to become our own authority--or worse, we let culture dictate to us what's true. . ."
"Our hope should always be the gospel. Our hope should always be that people would hear, understand, and come to know God in a powerful way."
"But we should not discount truth because of the existence of abuses."

What do you think? Do you see this pendulum swinging in beliefs as well?  Would you agree or disagree that the middle ground is best place to land?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sermon Notes-"Transitional Thoughts"

Introduction: As I was thinking and praying about what to share during my final sermon on staff, I began to think of the transition that I am making as well as the church.   We as pastors have been consistently focused on three priorities over the last several years: prayer, worship and equip.   So, even though I may no longer be on staff in a few weeks at this church, as a member of this church I believe just as strongly that Hesston MB needs to continue to be about these priorities in the days ahead.   However, the more I prayed about it, the more I realized that to get to these priorities, we as a church also had to make some transitions so that is why I am entitling this message “Transitional Thoughts”.   Transition is defined as “the process or an instance of changing from one form, state, activity, or place to another.” Educate to Equip- Ephesians 4:11-16 ·          What is the difference?   o    To e...
Read more

You Are Blameless

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24  The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)
Read more