|
|
| |
 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
|
| |
| The Nashville Statement
|
| |
|
|
| |
Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
|
| |
Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
|
| |
|
email
|
|
| The Dross. |
In order to purify a metal, you typically heat up a chunk of metal enriched "ore" until it starts to melt down. Different impurities have different densities and melting points, and because metal is typically more dense, as you heat it up the metal pools at the bottom, and the impurities form a scum (dross) that floats on top of the refining metal.
The dross is not part of the metal, but has insinuated itself into the ore, and the refining process separates it from the metal. As the temperature increases, different impurities melt, and lacking the density of the metal, they float to the top to form new dross, thus the refining process works like this: The heat comes on - and things start to melt and separate. Dross forms, and is removed, then the temperature is increased. With the increase comes the melting of other impurities that were impervious to the lesser heat - but as these succumb, they too, being less dense, float to the surface and form a dross to be skimmed off. The process continues until no amount of heat will allow for anymore dross to appear. At this point the metal is refined, or as we like to call it - pure.
Certain metals have limited use and value while unrefined. Impurities can make a pliable metal brittle, can make a strong metal weak, can dull what ought to be a mirrored sheen.
Impurities can give a thing properties it shouldn't possess. Consider H20 (water). In it's pure state it isn't an electrical conductor - yet if there are enough electrolytes in the liquid, it will conduct electricity.
I was telling my little ones this morning that there are two types of people who call themselves Christians: The first group hates sin itself, but the other group only hates sins consequences. The first group is at war with sin in their life, while the second group avoids anything that will cause them personal difficulty. The first group weeps over their sin, while the second group is contented enough to put aside only as much sin as they have to. The second group doesn't hate sin, it just hates anything that would be an inconvenience to its own agenda. The first group give evidence of the life of Christ, and the second give evidence that they lack this same life.
In the professing church we are -all- sinners, whether our faith is genuine or counterfeit. We are called to refine and keep pure the professing church, and if we don't the impurities in it will change the nature of it. Though that ought to cause us to shudder, yet I know that many churches would rather tolerate sin than chance offending someone.
I haven't taken a poll, but I imagine that people don't want to confront one another about their sin because if they do, that will leave them open to reciprocal correction - and since we love our sin so much, we would rather keep quiet until we somehow eradicate sin in our own life first. Likewise, we are trained by this world to keep silent about our short comings. God forbid that someone from church should find out that we still haven't had a lasting victory over some pet sin, or that we have lapsed again into some area that we have enjoyed victory in previously.
Look: the church doesn't get any better until it gets serious about discipline, about dealing with sin openly, head on, and seriously. In fact, it only gets worse. Once the church is lukewarm, no one wants to turn the heat up and purge out the dross, for the dross has taken over.
Jesus made a lot of enemies amongst the spiritually dead when He took a whip into the temple - and you will make a lot of people angry if you plan on taking your lukewarm church into the fire. The dross is going to be ugly, and it is going to float to the top the moment the heat comes on. But if it is dealt with properly, you will have a stronger congregation for it.Labels: church |
posted by Daniel @
11:07 AM
 
|
|
| 6 Comments: |
-
So true brother, I think the issue is that as men we are failing to take the proper role of headship in our homes, and thus we shirk this in the Church as well.
I have seen few men who do not shrink back (at least somewhat) when it comes to confronting sin or difficulty.
But left to its own, the rot and decay only gets worse.
-
I think, and this may sound odd to some, but I think television has the greatest influence on society today. Whatever the mainstream media broadcasts today is quickly adopted by the bovine masses as the moral standard. What is introduced in through the main stream media is then reinforced in peer driven educational systems where independant morality and counter-culture thought are considered freakish, and discouraged as anti-social, bigoted, or even hateful. Tolerance is the hightest virtue, and rocking the boat the greatest sin.
When that kind of world influence finds its way into our churches, it is a great victory for our enemy if we sit back and let it happen.
-
I agree as one who decided to leave the tube outside the home when we got married. Many people are nothing more than human zombies who move and act at the direction of their social engineering masters.
-
Excellent article. Too often when the dross comes to the top we quickly try to stir it back in so it doesn't show. Human counseling especially does this, as does our need to 'look good' and sinless before other Christians. Of course only God can skim off the dross of sin - which is why He heats things up so it comes to the surface. Let it lie there until through repentance He removes the dross.
Love your paragraph of 2 kinds of Christians. Unfortunately too true!
I always shudder at the "church discipline" thing - too often it is 'discipline' for denominational societal mores rather than absolute Biblical demands. I’ve seen too many churches torn apart – rather than healed. The concept is right, but can be a terrible weapon in the hands of ‘also sinful’ men.
Eunice
-
Eunice - excellent observations. Church discipline only works when those who are performing it are doing so because they love the Lord and they love His church. When a brother tries to discipline another brother because he sees that brother allows his hair to grow an inch past his collar (too long!!) or perhaps that brother is known to sip a half glass of wine with the occasional meal (the drunkard!!) - and suddenly they start treating their own opinions as though they were God's laws - and disciplining everyone with a differing opinion - well, that is a recipe for destruction and not for building up the church.
-
Daniel,
I think you're right on here:
"What is introduced in through the main stream media is then reinforced in peer driven educational systems where independent morality and counter-culture thought are considered freakish, and discouraged as anti-social...."
A very enjoyable post!
Rick
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
|
|
So true brother, I think the issue is that as men we are failing to take the proper role of headship in our homes, and thus we shirk this in the Church as well.
I have seen few men who do not shrink back (at least somewhat) when it comes to confronting sin or difficulty.
But left to its own, the rot and decay only gets worse.