Institutional churches resort to a manageable god—one who stays in his place. A manageable god patiently overlooks the elevation of man’s tradition over the commandments of God. He never overwhelms with a sense of frightening holiness. Such a docile deity is just as much a fabrication of man’s imagination as Dagon was the fabrication of a man’s hands.
True leaders don’t seek power. True leaders seek to empower others. True leaders are not remembered by the etching on their headstones. They are remembered for the impression they left on human hearts.
I am stunned and amazed. Recently, a Christian man said to me that God’s will is always done—ALWAYS. Further he stated that without exception, everything that occurs on earth is the will of God. Hmmmm? Really?
Discipline is out of vogue. The entitlement mentality has stripped the sense of responsibility from our nation. Anti-legalists (Illegalists) within the church, decry all prohibitions and boundaries as an assault on their liberty. The net result is an explosion of slacking, slouching, slipping, and sliding.
Lately I have spent time preaching to and praying with Christian young people. Ministering to young people and conversing with pastors, parents, and youth leaders has brought a sense of alarm to me.
“There are only two safe places for a Christian—in the dust and in heaven. And of the two the dust is safer, for Satan fell from heaven,” said a wise man. Pride was the first sin to destroy the calm of eternity. It was pride that cast Lucifer from heaven and it was pride that cost our first parents their place in Paradise. Pride is the first sin to enter a man’s heart and the last to leave. No sin is more offensive to God than the sin of pride.