As fallen people, we like to imagine ourselves as being much more important than we really are.
Don’t get me wrong. As purposefully made image-bearers of God, each and every person is of great value and importance. It’s just that we’re nowhere near as important as we imagine ourselves to be in certain critical contexts.
We like to imagine ourselves as essential, which we are not. Only God is essential.
We like to imagine ourselves as autonomous, which we are not. We are completely dependent upon God.
As we entertain the twin delusions of ourselves as essential and autonomous beings, we in effect imagine ourselves to be God.
And it’s all downhill from there.
One reminder I’d like to share (as much for myself as for any reader) to help combat this inclination is that the Lord of the ends is the Lord of the means.
The same God who ordains and secures very grand and specific ends – such as the ultimate success of the Gospel-fueled Great Commission in every realm and area of life in His creation – that God also just as certainly, perfectly, and purposefully ordains the means by which those ends will be accomplished.
Our God has been pleased to choose the “foolishness” of preaching and applying the everything-touching Gospel as the means by which lives, families, culture and civilization will be saved.
Our God has been pleased to choose those people that He supernaturally saves so that, by His grace and for His glory, they might live in pursuit of holiness and make an impact for His Kingdom in every area of life that they touch.
God is no less purposefully, clearly, or personally accomplishing a thing when He chooses to employ what we see as dramatic demonstrations of the miraculous than He is purposefully, clearly, or personally accomplishing a thing when He chooses to work through a person – saved or unsaved – to accomplish His purposes on His schedule in accordance with His eternal decree.
Everything in His creation is His property, and He will use it all to accomplish His purposes.
The stark raving pagan billionaire atop some high tech, world-shaping business empire is no less a tool of God than a pillar of fire.
The pagan may indeed be a different sort of tool, but he is nonetheless 100% God’s property to use as He sees fit, and we may all rest assured in complete confidence that He will use each and every tool at His disposal perfectly and without reservation.
That’s just how God rolls in His creation.
And we shouldn’t want it any other way.
So don’t buy into the prevailing perversion of American Churchianity that would have you and me believe that doing things – real physical, political, economic, legal, artistic things – here and now is somehow “not spiritual” or not really to be associated with advancing the Kingdom of God.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Stupid Elephant Tricks – The Other Progressive Party’s War on Christianity takes a painful but much needed look at how Christ-less “conservatism” has captivated Christians and co-opted them into helping march the culture ever deeper into darkness:
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The Beginning of Knowledge: Christ as Truth in Apologetics is an approachable, easy to read introduction to Christ-centered apologetics:
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Apathetic Christianity: The Zombie Religion of American Churchianity explores the tragic true horror story of all-American dead religion masquerading as Christianity:
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On Education is a compilation of some of the most provocative and compelling Fire Breathing Christian articles on the subject of children’s education:
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There Is No “God-Given Right” To Worship False Gods is a compilation of some of the most provocative Fire Breathing Christian articles on the subject of America’s embrace of a satanic approach to religious liberty:
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Fire Breathing Christians – The Common Believer’s Call to Reformation, Revival, and Revolution is the book that first presented the FBC mission to apply the Gospel-fueled Great Commission in every realm of God’s creation:
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Finally, here are a few good intro/reminder links for those of you who are new to Fire Breathing Christian and curious about exactly what’s goin’ on ’round here:
What are you, some kind of [insert label here] or something?!
What’s with that shark-fishie graphic thing?
Intro to Fire: The Power and Purpose of the Common Believer
When the Bible gets hairy. (Or: Is it right for men to have long hair?)
And especially this one: Never forget that apart from God’s grace you and I are complete morons.
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Thank you for this important reminder of the certainty of God's purposes being realized against all opposition.
My comment is not critical theologically but simply a grammatical correction. (Mistakes in grammar are certainly not sinful, simply careless in using the language chosen.)
You say "… American Churchianity that would have you and I believe …" Standard English grammar would be "that would have you and me …". A help in deciding whether to use "me" or "I" is to remove the "you and" – do that in this case and it is easy to feel the error in saying "that would have I …" and the rightness in saying "that would have me …". I have noticed that people seem so afraid of using the word "me" incorrectly that they automatically use the word "I" whenever the word "and" is used!
The point you are making is true and important: "don’t buy into the prevailing perversion of American Churchianity that would have you and [me] believe that doing things – real physical, political, economic, legal, artistic things – here and now is somehow “not spiritual” or not really to be associated with advancing the Kingdom of God."
I am a new and very appreciative reader of FireBreathing Christian.