Paul said I preach Christ and Him crucified.
I am always wary when people focus on doctrine rather than the person and work of Christ. Doctrines are supposed to clarify what we teach and believe not obfuscate it. If you look up Christianity on the Internet you are soon ankle deep in a miasma of doctrinal positions – amillennialism, pre-post-mid tribulation, etc. When I saw this chart on the internet I was relieved that I had already been through seminary and did not need to repeat it.
This is not readable which is fine with me
Leave this for the scholars because the meat and potatoes of Christian life is in applying what we know about God to daily life and continuing in our study of His Word, not necessarily man’s word. Each of us has a Call and a life Plan, written out in heaven and waiting for our application and focus. Thankfully, more and more pastors are preaching this.
Ministry has moved into the wider world
Gone are the days – one could hope – when the spiritually minded young man was told by well meaning church members, you should be a minister. The ministry is now out in the world – the entire world – in offices, banks, insurance agencies, manufacturing warehouses, construction sites, beauty parlors, shoe stores and IT centers. God got tired of being confined to buildings which were inhabited once or twice a week.
We walk by faith not justification of our faith.
We do not need to have all the answers to various questions and doctrines which the unbeliever throws at us, although it would be nice if we knew them. And some do. When the scripture says you should be able to give an answer for your faith, you can simply point to an incident in your life when God broke through the natural world and made His presence real to you.
Your testimony is your power point
For me it was the divine healing of my feet. All four arches were flat as a pancake and painful. I wore leather arches in all my shoes. At a Christian retreat I asked God to fix my feet. But I did make one condition for myself;
I promised not to question or examine the issue again.
If I was to have real faith I needed not to obsess over the answer but just wait and then one day find that my feet no longer demanded inserts. I did this because I had seen so many people disappointed about their healing.
“Well God didn’t heal me. I guess He never does.”
The Bible says that someone who thinks this way never gets anything from God; they’ve slammed that door shut with their un-faith. That sort of thing. That washes away every scrap of faith you have as a new believer which makes no sense. If you are going to have faith in God you need to allow Him to do things on His schedule.
Don’t give God deadlines
About six months later I noticed that the leather inserts were not comfortable. My feet were totally healed. Many decades have gone by and I have had many things go wrong in my body but I can honestly say my feet have never given me another bad day. Once God does something He does not un-do it.
No one is saved by doctrine
But we were talking about doctrine. For some reason males especially think they must have a doctrine to back up their beliefs. That sounds sexist but not so. People approach the issues of life and death differently. I wonder if the male mind is not overly concerned with making stuff logical. But that isn’t our goal anyway. Women are more likely to accept what God has done and be thankful and not overthink things. if people question you about your faith – and poopoo it, you have your testimony to fall back on.
Remember this. No one with an experience is at the mercy of a someone with theory.
The purpose of doctrine is to explain what has happened to you in the context of the rest of the believers and reflect what is taught in the Bible.
And conversely false doctrines are there to cheat you out of a full Christian life experience. You will not pray for God to do something if you’ve been told He won’t do it. I prefer to think God listens to everything I say and that frees me to ask whatever I will. That does not mean He always answers, and certainly not right away. But the option is there.
Use the autumn season to make a new mission statement for your life
This is Labor Day weekend. it is a good time to take stock of your life and make a plan for this coming year. Change is essential to a healthy lifestyle. Get yourself back into reading the bible, not just the parts you like, such as the Psalms or the Gospels. It is the whole Bible that belongs to us.
There’s an old gospel song – Every Promise in the Book Is Mine. But only if you know the promise is there.